A Peaceful Spot
From the Agnes Scott Alumnae Magazine - Winter 2001

Gardens for Peace, an international non-profit organization dedicated to promoting gardens as a place of meditation and peace selected Agnes Scott in 1992 as the location for its first garden on a college campus. A scenic path through the Alumnae Gardens serves ad the College's Garden for Peace.

Laura Dorsey '66, co-founder of the gardens, became interested in the universal healing power of gardens after her husband was wounded in the Vietnam War. She went to Japan to care for him, and the beauty and solace she experience in the Japanese gardens allowed her to feel peace despite the conflict around her. Dorsey attributes her love of gardens to her mother, Laura Dorsey '35, with whom she founded the Gardens of Peace program in 1984.

To be considered for membership in this international network, the garden must satisfy some basic standards, such as offering feelings of peace, tranquility, safety an, safety and refuge. A sense of enclosure, multiple types of stimuli, complexity and mystery are also considered. The firs and foremost requirement is that the garden be open to the public.

Agnes Scott's Alumnae Garden met these criteria. "The meaning of the garden at Agnes Scott and the quality of the education there meant a great deal to Gardens for Peace from the beginning," says Dorsey. "The support and enthusiasm of the College greatly contributed to the project."

- Victoria F. Stopp '01