Students gathered to celebrate peace and promote its message at the Peace Festival in the Marsee Auditorium Tuesday.

Songs and speeches were presented to the students in order to promote peace and encourage student involvement toward peace

Guest speaker David Smith of the Institute of Peace encouraged the importance of youth in advocating peace throughout the world.

“Young people lead peace because they see what their parents don’t,” Smith said. “Youth are more idealistic and from that comes a lot of creative ideas.”

Smith emphasized EC’s diverse population as a crucial aspect in achieving peace.

“Diversity such as that at El Camino can be the seed that spreads peace to others,” Smith said.

The festival was also designed to encourage students to peacefully resolve issues and to take on their youthful idealism into adulthood.

“It’s important to instill in (students) the desire to be peace-makers,” Johanna Nachef, coordinator or EC’s choral, said. “Specifically, it is to teach others to resolve conflicts through harmony.”

Nachef said she hopes to make the Peace Festival an annual event and to spread the word into the community.

“I hope to make this an annual event,” Nachef said. “I hope to reach out to the community, because peace begins in our homes.”

Among the students who attended the event were high school students from around the South Bay.

Students were brought not only to learn about peace, but to become familiarized and encouraged to consider higher education, as organizers believe peace begins with education.

“We wanted to allow students themselves to raise their voice and I believe peace begins with education,” Smith said. “We want them to consider El Camino is a place they can come to, and that emphasizes the importance of education,” Smith said. “Education allows people to deal with conflict in a peaceful manner.”