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Day 2: Cultural Visits

Today was spent making a couple of stops around the city of Da Nang, beginning with our visit to the Quang Nam Peace Village orphanage. The VOF delegates delivered toys to the children and performed a couple of songs, and the children joined the delegates in singing and dancing to One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful.” After the orphanage, we went to a mural village, which was the product of a joint project of Vietnam and South Korea in 2016. The murals depicted a variety of scenes and people, including individuals who live in the village (and whom we got to see on our tour)! Following a delicious lunch at a restaurant by the sea, we drove to a lantern store, where we tried our hand at lantern making. Although we may not have much natural talent in the art of lantern-making, we had great fun and reasonable success! We returned to the hotel for a dinner at the resort, and called it an early night in anticipation for the beginning of the CEO summit tomorrow. We’re looking forward to what the Summit will hold!

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Today marked the start of APEC CEO Summit 2017, a part of the APEC conference that brings together leading business owners from all member economies to discuss business, politics, and the economic landscape. We began the day by shopping in a traditional market that specialized in marble statues. In the afternoon, we attended the opening ceremony of the CEO Summit, which opened with the President of Vietnam, Tran Dia Quang. Then the first panel comprised of Victoria Kwakwa, a Vice President of the World Bank, Philipp Rosler, a member of the managing board of the World Economic Forum, Robert Moritz, the Global Chairman of PwC, and Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group. The panel, The Future of Globalization, discussed how recent political, economic, and social events have impacted and will impact globalization. The second panel, The Future of Work, comprised of Masamichi Kono, Deputy Secretary General of the Organization for Economic-Cooperation and Development, Aran Maree, Global Chief Medical Officer for Johnson & Johnson, Nicolas Aguzin, the Chairman and CEO of J.P. Morgan Asia-Pacific, and Nguyen Duc Thuan, the Chairman for PBS Group. The panelists discussed how technology is impacting labor. We headed to Montgomerie Links Golf Course for a reception and networking event. It was an incredible day of hearing what private sector and public sector leaders have to say about the advancement of technology and other factors that are changing our world.

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Day 1: APEC 2017 Youth Forum

For our first day of events, we attended the APEC 2017 Youth Forum. During this session, we heard from Vietnamese government officials, the former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, and a founder of a very successful Artificial Intelligence firm. We also engaged in dialogue through policy presentations from each member economy, and breakout sessions where we discussed the goals of the APEC 2017 summit and how each member economy can contribute to the realization of those goals. Furman’s presence was very strong in the Youth Forum today. Liam Simpkins Walker delivered the United State’s policy stance in an eloquent and impassioned speech that garnered support and sparked a lot of discussion throughout the delegation. Additionally, Emma Jackson had the opportunity to moderate a question and answer session with Dr. Noeleen Heyzer, former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. I was also given the privilege of serving as Master of Ceremonies for the 2017 APEC VOF opening ceremony and the Youth Forum. Lastly, Kathleen Marsh represented the US tonight as she worked with student delegates from other APEC member economies to draft the 2017 Youth Declaration, a document where the youth delegation asserted our official position to all 21 APEC member economies. All in all, today was an extremely successful day full of productive dialogue, and I am very excited to see what the rest of the week holds in store!

-Peyton Roth ‘19

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Hi!  My name is Liam Simkins-Walker.  I’m a senior double major in Mathematics and Politics & International Affairs from Atlanta, Georgia.  An avid reader and political junkie, I’m very interested in the big philosophical questions in politics, mathematics and law.  I’ve spent much of the past eight years pursuing my passion for mock trial, where I’ve argued close to 100 cases competing first for my high school and now for Furman’s A team.  When I’m not trying my own cases, I still help coach my high school team on the side, I’ve coached high school students at Furman’s summer mock trial camp, I help run high school tournaments from time to time and this year I helped write the case for the high school World Championships.  Outside of class and mock trial, you can find me giving campus tours as an Admission Ambassador and working with the Riley Institute bringing political speakers to campus.  I’ve also worked with the Georgia Innocence Project helping to exonerate those who have been victims of the legal system and wrongfully convicted of crimes they didn’t commit and I’m a strong advocate of restorative justice initiatives, criminal justice reform and civil rights.  In the academic realm, I spent this past summer on campus researching theoretical problems in graph theory with the Mathematics Department and I’m currently working on writing a theoretical treatment of First Amendment Constitutional law and the American public sphere.  After graduation, I hope to spend a year in Budapest, Hungary on a Fulbright Scholarship studying theoretical mathematics at the Alfréd Rényi Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences before possibly heading to further graduate school and law school.

I love traveling, experiencing new cultures and meeting new people, and I couldn’t be more excited to go to Vietnam and represent the United States at APEC!

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Hi everyone! I'm Kathleen and I am a senior Economics and Spanish major at Furman University from Nashville, TN. I first found my passion for international affairs and development through a summer program in high school called the Governor's School for International Studies, and through a few classes at Furman. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to put this passion into practice by working with students from all over the Asia-Pacific region who care about the same things I do. One of my favorite aspects of my double major is that I get to combine learning about economic theory with learning about Hispanic cultures, which gives me exposure to the human side of development. I am excited to see what "creating a new dynamism and fostering a shared future" means through the lens of economics and the study of Spanish language and cultures. 

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Meet Peyton Roth, one of five Furman students attending APEC in Vietnam this year.  

Hello all! My name is Peyton Roth and I am a Junior, Chemistry and Political Science double major here at Furman.

Over the past couple of years at Furman, I have focused my efforts on gaining experience in scientific, medical, and political communities to prepare myself for a career as both a health care provider and a public policy reformer. I have spent my summers interning at GHS, studying under a psychiatrist in an addiction medicine center, and synthesizing potentially medicinally valuable molecules in a chemistry lab. In addition to this, I have been introduced to the world of policy through my involvement with the American Enterprise Institute and the Riley Institute. I have a deep interest in international trade as well as SME growth-promoting policies, so I’m excited to watch the formulation of these policies in Da Nang this November. I look forward to updating you all on my experiences in Vietnam very soon!

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Meet Noah Zimmermann, one of five Furman students attending APEC in Vietnam this year!  Here’s a little about Noah:

Hi everyone! My name is Noah Zimmermann, and I am a senior Politics and International Affairs and Philosophy double major with a minor in Poverty Studies from Camden, SC. I've studied abroad with Furman to Israel, Jordan, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana, and in my travels I have come to see the importance of fostering a shared future. Throughout my classes at Furman studying ethics, justice, and peace, I have learned about the challenges of implementing and securing ideals within the complicated framework of international society. Creating new dynamism will help us tackle these challenges, and I think our duty as APEC VOF delegates is to explore how we might go about doing so. I'm excited for what this week holds for us!

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Meet Emma Jackson!  She’s one of five students from Furman University attending APEC in Vietnam this year.  Here’s a note from Emma:

My name is Emma Jackson, and I’m a senior Politics and International Affairs major from Birmingham, Alabama.

Over the last three years at Furman, I have loved being involved on campus with everything from the Heller Service Corp to being the Riley Institute’s Intern this school year. I’ve interned in Washington, D.C. at the Academy for Radiology Research in government relations, and for the South Carolina Attorney General’s office in downtown Greenville. Last spring, I studied abroad in South Africa, and I’m currently doing research on American foreign aid policy and how it affects sub-Saharan Africa. I love to rock climb, hike, and get off campus as much as I can in my free time.

I’m so excited to go to Vietnam and learn more about the member economies and meet fellow students from around the Pacific.

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Furman students leave today for Vietnam!  Follow along their journey here.