Brazil Soccer Sports Visitors with CSPS staff and volunteers at the Knox Kicks World Cup fundraiser at Regal Soccer Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn.

The past two years have been a whirlwind for all of us at the Center for Sport, Peace, and Society. But, after a long absence from this blog we’re looking to get back in action!

Since our last post in February 2012, we’ve welcomed two more classes of the Global Sports Mentoring Program (GSMP) and nine different groups of Sports Visitors from Mongolian sitting volleyballers to Jordan’s U-17 women’s national soccer team. We’ve continued to partner with the amazing people at the U.S. Department of State and espnW to carry out the Empowering Women and Girls Through Sport Initiative (check the website: globalsportswomen.org). And, we continue to provide UT students opportunities to connect with diverse populations right here in Knoxville, Tennessee.

We’ve done our best to keep all of our followers updated through our different social media channels: Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Flickr. And, we’ve recently created an instagram (@sportandpeaceUT) to share the amazing photos taken by our staff, highlighting incredible athletes, coaches, students, and sports professionals from around the world.

Drs. Hillyer and Huffman with Yasmin Helal, founder of Educate-Me Egypt and member of the GSMP class of 2014

So flash forward, Jan. 2015, where are we now? Some members from Team CSPS are in Washington, D.C. leading a Sports Visitors program with the national female taekwondo team from Tajikistan. The others are working hard to launch a new web presence and preparing for an exciting semester teaching the Service-Learning: Sport and Community Development course.

In the coming months, we’ll host even more Sports Visitors from around the world, continue to establish and expand our Knoxville presence through service-learning and volunteer projects, and by September, we will welcome the amazing women that will make up the GSMP class of 2015.

Trust us, we’ll be as busy as ever working hard to support and encourage underserved communities, promote women’s empowerment, foster diplomacy between nations, and encourage development and peace both here and abroad.

So please join us on this exciting journey. Let us know you are with us by sharing, commenting, posting, and tweeting to any of the social media channels above. And look for live updates here on the blog. We look forward to an amazing year of sport, development, and peace!