A Brief History

In 2001, STF was completely revamped into a two-year leadership-training program through the Unification Church, striving to meet the same standards as the STF programs in Europe, Japan, Korea, and Latin America. A week-long International STF Assembly was hosted yearly, where participants worldwide engaged in competitions, shared their best practices to strengthen faith, and collaborated on projects together. STF Europe, Japan, Korea, and Latin America are no longer in existence.

STF later diversified its experiential-education plan to include pursuits such as outdoor adventure training—a week-long backpacking event—and overseas service projects in developing countries. To date, the program has carried out service projects in Argentina, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Suriname, St Lucia, Uruguay, and Thailand. In 2010, the name “Special Task Force” changed to “Generation Peace Academy,” with the emphasis shifting to prepare young people for all spheres of life, whether it be spiritual, academic or marital preparation. In its process, students learn the benefits of fostering healthy relationships, an adventurous and challenging lifestyle, and adopting an altruistic outlook on life.

Generation Peace Academy has continued to evolve since, branching out to provide a wider range of training opportunities. In 2014, the Cheon Il Guk (meaning “One Heavenly Nation”) Missionary program was created to prepare missionaries to serve in foreign countries. Missionary teams have been sent to Costa Rica, Peru, Czech Republic, Philippines, Israel, Albania, Scotland, and the Dominican Republic.

To date about 1800 participants have graduated from STF and GPA.

“As someone living on this earth, what do you consider to be most precious? If somebody were to ask you this question, I am sure your answers would vary. Some might say, ‘Power.’ Some would undoubtedly say money: ‘Money is everything.’ And others would suggest, ‘Wisdom or knowledge.’ Then are those elements—power, money, knowledge—the most important things in life? But, if we take time to reflect on this question, what we can conclude is that there is ultimately no one who will claim these as most precious. What, then, do we hold as most precious? When we look into this question deeply, other thoughts emerge. We soon come to the conclusion that the most precious thing is love; love is the most precious thing in life. And second to love, life itself is the most precious. If we have love and life, we need one more thing— an ideal. These three elements, love, life, and an ideal are not just precious and profound in value, they are the very things that make our lives worth living.” (Moon, Sun Myung. “God’s Hope for Humanity.” Twenty-one city speaking tour in the United States, 20 Oct. 1973, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.)

First STF overseas experience in Peru 2009.