Student Determination – Pathways to Gyeongju
By Dr. Bill Hunter, Lehigh University Representative to the United Nations
The thirteen time zones, an ocean and 6,922 miles that separate Gyeongju, South Korea and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, aren’t enough to keep a group of entrepreneurial students from attending the 66th UN DPI/NGO Conference there this spring. Since 2000, global citizenship has emerged as a major new theme in higher education; as part of this trend, millennials are pursuing study abroad and other global education programs in record numbers.
Today’s students recognize that the world has a cascade of impacts on our individual lives but national and global policies can redirect future practices to ensure economic prosperity, environmental sustainability, and human rights for all people on the planet.
Danielle Hanes, a graduating senior majoring in Global Studies and Lehigh University’s Youth Representative to the United Nations, was at the UN when the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were unveiled last fall in New York City. She set her sights on attending the “Education for Global Citizenship: Achieving the SDGs” conference in Gyeongju as soon as it was announced. “After graduation I hope to work in the area of food security,” she said. “So this is an incredible opportunity to engage directly with real-world decision makers and global leaders and form invaluable connections.”
Much of the focus of the conference will be on linking the SDGs to global citizenship education. But what does it mean to be a “global citizen?” Through activities and research, the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) is an international connector for universities and the United Nations, and one of the world’s largest higher education associations. The UNAI defines global citizenship as “an umbrella term for the social, political, environmental, or economic actions of globally-minded individuals and communities on a worldwide scale… an interdisciplinary lens through which to analyze the history and development of our changing world.” UNAI included global citizenship as one of its 10 principles and named Lehigh as the first curator of the global citizenship hub.
Hanes didn’t let travel cost derail her plans to participate in Gyeongju. To raise funds, she wrote a series of grant applications, met with scores of faculty and administrators, and spent hours searching the Web. After months of perseverance, she received word this month that funds were on the way; she was off to South Korea!
Classmate, Erin Sowell, an Earth and Environmental Studies major, spent last year as the UN Youth Representative for the World Corrosion Organization (WCO). Sowell aspires to have a career that supports SDG #11 (Make Cities Inclusive, Safe, Resilient and Sustainable). Her NGO decided to pay Sowell’s expenses to Korea so she could participate in a workshop and host a WCO exhibit booth. To trim housing costs, Lehigh students are also likely to do some “couch surfing” with current students and alumni living in Korea.
These students are among the more than 400 UN NGO Youth Representatives from around the world encouraged to attend Gyeongju. In a truly open door fashion, the UN has laid out the welcome mat to students from colleges and universities around the world. The UNAI has taken the lead on encouraging students (ages 18 and older) to attend. Those who choose to participate will find themselves sitting in the same room with change makers and thought leaders – and most importantly, having their voices heard on the global stage.
“We need youth representation at this conference,” Hanes said. “We are the future generation of leaders, and this is our chance to get engaged on issues that will impact us greatly.”
Lehigh University, one of the forerunners of global citizenship programming and education in North America, focuses on social justice and intercultural awareness as aspects related to global citizenship. The program intentionally challenges students to define the term through their own lens. Graduates of the Global Citizenship Certificate Program have described “global citizenship as “Ubuntu” – Swahili for human kindness, while others describe it as a moral awareness that informs actions. The SDGs are intertwined with many of Lehigh’s classes to link theories to practice and action.
While the SGDs provide an important new framework for sustaining our planet, it will be the confluence of young people who define themselves as global citizens, who will provide the continuing momentum to achieve the SDGs by the year 2030.
The voice of world’s youth – our future leaders – matters. Please encourage students to attend what will surely be a lively, inspiring, and hopefully transforming discussion in Gyeongju.
The conference website has additional information on registration
including information for universities who do not have UN accreditation.
[Photo credit: Dr. Bill Hunter, Lehigh University]
