 Ladies and gentlemen, good morning, good afternoon and good evening. Welcome to today's interactive web chat featuring the current and former U.S. youth observers to the United Nations, Nicole Perez, Dona Nasser and Jackson Dugan. We also are joined by a viewing group at the Benjamin Franklin Library in Mexico City. So welcome to them as well. My name is Andy Rabins and I'm the Special Advisor for Global Youth Issues at the U.S. Department of State and the Office of the Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. And I'm excited to be the moderator for this morning's important interactive discussion. Now today's program titled Youth and the Global Agenda couldn't come at a more important time because we just concluded the UN General Assembly High-Level Week in New York and believe that young leaders from around the globe have a unique role to play in shaping the global political conversation, both on account of large youth numbers and the new technological tools at our fingertips. Your passionate and informed voices are already being heard in meaningful ways. And we want to ensure that your powerful voices continue to be heard and continue to help set the global agenda going forward. We want to thank the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, a place near and dear to my heart for anchoring today's discussion. And we look forward to hearing the thoughts and priorities from online viewers wherever you may be in the world today. I'd also like to mention that if you have a question or comment for our guests, please join the conversation in the chat space next to the video player. You can also submit questions on Twitter using the hashtag Gen UN Chat. Now Nicole and I just returned from the UN General Assembly in New York, where youth were at the center of efforts to address many of today's big challenges, from refugees to preventing and countering violent extremism to developing and implementing new strategies for achieving lasting peace. So first, I'd like to turn things over to Nicole Perez, our newest U.S. youth observer to the UN, to tell us a little bit about herself, about what she'll be doing in the coming year, and to also give a little perspective on the past week in New York. So over to you, Nicole. Yeah, thank you, Andy. And thanks to everybody that's tuning in. I'm so excited to be here alongside Donia and Jackson, two people that I admire a lot and that I followed their journeys before I got to where I am now. Let me start by telling you guys a little bit about myself. I was born in Bolivia and I moved to the U.S. when I was seven. And I didn't know what the U.S. was, what the U.N. was until I got to high school and I was a junior in high school and I joined the model U.N. team at my school. And at the time, I would have never imagined that I could, that I would be in this position or that I would have a role at the U.N. And when I went to college, I did a project in Guatemala City. I know some of you are tuning in from there. And I was able to, with a couple of friends, partner with an organization in Guatemala, and do a super cool project where we worked with single mothers that were living in extreme poverty. And we helped them start businesses. And since then, as a freshman in college, doing that project, I've known that my passions really lie in international development and specifically in economic growth and providing people with decent jobs. And so as youth observer, that's really one of the things that I'm most excited to work on and to sort of spark conversation with young people about. I recently released a survey to capture three main things. One was awareness of the global goals. Two was the issues that young people are most passionate about. And three, the barriers that they're facing to getting involved with those issues. And the top two issues that sort of rose to the top that were ranked in the top by young people that took the survey were poverty, including access to decent jobs and economic growth. And then the second one was social justice, including the refugee crisis and LGBT rights, LGBTI rights, and as well as women's rights. So I'm excited to focus on the issues that young people that took the survey have voiced their interests, and I'm excited to work on those things. Now to general assembly, to paint a picture for you guys, it was literally the craziest week of my life. The minute you walk into the UN, you see all kinds of leaders, heads of states, foreign ministers, head CEOs, any kind of leader in every industry you can think of is there. You walk in and there's the SDG media zone where bloggers and digital influencers and journalists are extending conversations online that are happening at the UN. It's almost like if you missed any talk, you could just Google, I mean you could just search on Twitter for the hashtag of that event and you can find one-liners on everything that went on in the event. So everything was being documented real time. I think the thing that most impressed me and that I was in awe of was a lot of the events that we went to with regards to countering violent extremism and young people's roles in them. I learned about Resolution 2250, which is a culmination of youth efforts and it was a resolution passed by the Security Council that is legally binding and talks about youth's role in being peace builders and peacekeepers in their own communities and helping counter violent extremism and it was a perfect example of how young people are at the decision table and are partnering with the UN, with their governments and with civil society and they're being actively engaged and collaborating to help make the world a better place and to help make their communities more peaceful. So that to me was absolutely incredible. The whole week was packed with events but the events that stood out the most were the ones where we were talking about countering violent extremism and how young people are key to building peace in their societies. Terrific. Thanks Nicole for the insights. We also have Donia Nasser and Jackson Dugan with us, our previous two US youth observers to the United Nations and we are excited to hear a little bit from Donia, who just recently concluded her year long stint as our US youth observer to give a sense of her perceptions and efforts over the past year previously to Nicole and also to give a sense for young people who are watching as to some ideas for how you can take action on issues that you care about. Sure. I mean my year was nothing short of amazing and thanks to Andy for making my year so amazing and you know I actually met Nicole at last year's General Assembly which was so exciting because now we have a photo from last year now this year you know. My year was incredible as you know like you're meeting heads of state, you're meeting ambassadors, you're meeting these like you know celebrities but I think the most memorable experiences were meeting young people that were so passionate about making a change and were so dedicated to doing so even if they didn't have you know half the resources that we have as Americans and you know just having the freedom to be able to do these kinds of things to come up here and to speak about you know why you're passionate about your work and why you're doing the work that you do and so it was very eye-opening and for me like it was it was very exciting not to only learn from these young people but also to kind of develop a new image of what people thought when they thought you know the US youth observer to the UN. People were you know incredibly surprised like here I am like a Middle Eastern American a Muslim American like representing American youth at the UN and they were so surprised they're like wait you're here at the UN like as the youth observer and I'm like yeah because America's like incredibly diverse and that's what's so beautiful we're here like from two completely different backgrounds and yet what we share is this common like American identity and wanting to really support American youth here and then youth all over the world and so you know that was incredibly exciting and I think if there's something that I can say to youth who really want to get involved is that you're going to face so many obstacles just because you are a young person wanting to get involved and because people are going to tell you to wait your turn people are going to tell you that your turn will come but age shouldn't define you know when your turn comes age shouldn't define when you have a seat at the table and so don't let them stop you and remember that you know you're paving your own path and so no matter what anyone has done in the past you know you being youth observers amazing but there are hundreds of other roles that are just as amazing and doing just as amazing work and so you do your own work and when you're passionate and you're and you're doing that like you know it shows the results show for themselves that's great advice and folks actually last week we're asking where Donia was and how she was doing a lot of the youth delegates who had met her the year before so I want to turn things over to Jackson Dugan who was the youth observer the year before Donia and who focused a lot of his time on the efforts to combat climate change and a host of other issues and over the Jackson to give a sense of his experience as the US youth observer to the UN and also if he's got any insights and advice for young people who are watching about how you take action on issues that you care about over the Jackson. Yeah thanks Andy. So I was the US youth observer 2014 to 2015 and I focused a lot on climate change. My background is in biology and biochemistry and chemistry. I studied biochemistry at university and I was working abroad in Dublin Ireland for a climate change research laboratory when I applied to the US youth observer position. So it kind of came really naturally to me to focus on this area and then I was also focusing on LGBTQ rights as a member of the gay community and an issue near and dear to my heart very much so for obvious reasons and I'm joining you today from Portland Oregon so unfortunately I couldn't be in Washington D.C. but I do have some additional insights to offer hopefully and one thing that I think is important to recognize as youth trying to address global issues or issues on the global stage is everything is really interconnected once you get to the UN. One subject really touches all thematic areas and so if you're passionate about solving change or if you're passionate about one particular issue go with it because you need the passion to sustain the fight and it'll naturally touch on a lot of different spheres that are being addressed the United Nations and another halls. My year as the US youth observer as the two current well Nicole the current youth observer and Donia the past youth observer have mentioned was also incredible. I went to Baku Azerbaijan. I went to Geneva. I really had an incredible experience grew as an individual was able to meet with heads of state as has been mentioned formed lasting ties with individuals across the world. I just got back from a vacation in London and Brussels where I met up with some friends that I had met as the youth observer. So you're really forming international ties that lead you through and carry you through your professional career. Thanks Andy. Terrific. Thank you Jackson. Now before we're really looking forward to getting some questions from the folks out of Mexico City before we jump to Mexico City. I just want to turn things back to Nicole and let her give some advice that she might have for young people to really take action on issues that you care about. Yeah definitely. So I think one of the biggest pieces of advice that I've heard that I heard all last week when I was at the General Assembly was don't wait for somebody to invite you to the table or don't wait for somebody to hand you the opportunity to get involved in something. If you're seeing something and you think you something needs to change you need to take it upon yourself to say this is not somebody else's problem. It's also my problem and I need to pull up a deterrent to the table. So I think the biggest advice is just that it's don't wait for the opportunities to come go out there and seek them. And if they're not there demand them demand them from your governments demand them from the companies you work for from the organizations that you're a part of because no one's no one's going to go out of their way to offer you these opportunities. You got to go out there and seek them yourselves and there's no set process to getting involved in the issues that you're passionate about. You got to come think of ways that creative ways to get involved think of creative ways to solve problems and that's not hard because you know young people come at problems from so many different angles. And so and even being at the General Assembly listening to the projects and the complexity of the work that young people were doing was just impressive. And so I have no doubt that young people play a massive role if they are willing to step up to the plate and pull it pull up a chair in the table. Great. That's great advice from Nicole from Delania from Jackson. So now we're going to go to our viewing group joining us from the Benjamin Franklin Library in Mexico City. Hi everyone. Good morning. I'm Marcia outlaw and I'm here with a great group. We have with us members of our youth leaders of the America's initiative community also members of our youth council here in Mexico City some high school students from Queen Mary School and the CCH system as well as university students from Anahuac University and Tec de Monterey. So we're going to kick it off with our first question. Hi my name is Paulina and my question is regarding education for peace. During the current state of affairs a violence war refugees all around the world. My question is how can we teach youth in order to pursue peace. How can we teach them that peace is beneficial for our world that is beneficial for our states. And how can we make this youth empowered for doing actions to pursue peace in their context. Terrific. Great. Great question Paulina. And I think we'll open things up to the panel on this topic of how do we get young people to really be educated that peace is possible and to take actions that can support our efforts to achieve some lasting peace around around the globe. I think in terms of education and making sure that young people know that they have a role in this. It's not just you know having governments or your schools apply curriculums that teach you about hey like young people have a role to play in building peace in their communities but it's also like you guys there you know that young people play an important role in peace building and peacekeeping. So it's a matter of young people educating other young people as well. It's peer to peer communication to say hey you know there's something going on in our community. We feel like peace is being threatened here and educating other young people on what you guys can do to collaborate together to help to help build peace in your communities. And I think one of the biggest things I mentioned before was resolution twenty two fifty that the Security Council passed that talks specifically about how youth are affected in places that are going through conflict and that where peace is being obstructed. And it talks about the important role that they play. And it was really a culmination of the efforts that youth organizations have made towards building peace. So it. So the resolution there is in place and it's legally binding to say like young people need to be at the table when it comes to peace talks and when it comes to keeping security in your communities. So it's a matter of educating your peers making sure you're plugging into youth organizations that deal with peacekeeping or peacebuilding. Don't you want to jump in at all on that. You know Paulina I would say to you that in my opinion it doesn't seem like educating people about peace is the issue because you know you're asking about peace and like hundreds and thousands of young people around the world are asking about peace in a time where we don't know where the peace is. There are so many crises around the world especially for our generation. Our generation is plagued with crises because of the lack of peace in my opinion that led to many of these issues. And so it's not I don't think you know trying to advocate for peace but rather how do we uplift those voices who are advocating for peace because I think the majority of the voices are advocating for peace and do want peaceful solutions because we've learned you know through our past mistakes just as you know a global society as a whole that violence is not the answer and that through peace and tolerance like that's how we can you know solve the issues of our generation of today. And so how do we uplift those voices like yours. How do you get a seat at the table in order to demand your voice to be heard. Because I think that your voice is in the majority but how do we pull power in that voice. I think that's where we should be looking. Great thanks Donia. Jackson do you want to weigh in at all. Yeah I do. I might be having a little bit of technical difficulty so just bear with me. I think a corollary to promoting peace is combating youth disenfranchisement. So when you're talking about the importance of peace. That's you know incredibly incredibly valid and incredibly intrinsic into what is going on at the United Nations promoting peace across the world. And I think right now one thing that's really inhibiting that is youth disenfranchisement worldwide. And so as Nicole touched on peer to peer communication is key. I also think in addition to that we need to create a social fabric in which youth don't feel so disenfranchised. And that's really difficult to do. And a lot of leaders are really struggling with that. And a lot of youth are really struggling with that unemployment rates are still high throughout the world. If you disaggregate unemployment data you see that different racial groups have twice the level of youth unemployment as others. And in general when you hear an unemployment statistic you can double it. And that's your youth unemployment statistic. So in Spain if you have an unemployment rate of 25 percent for youth that's going to be about 50 percent. And if you don't have a purpose it's much easier to progress in the social malaise. And so I think combating youth disenfranchisement giving youth a purpose will allow peace to follow and allow individuals to really promote peace in the social fabric. Great. Thanks Jackson. And we know there are many voices in Mexico city and elsewhere across Mexico who are really advocating for peace in meaningful ways as well. So I want to turn things back to Mexico City and see if you all have any other questions for the panel. Hi. My name is Gail. I am part of I am one of the youth council that today are here. And one of our question is how can you get funds for your projects and talking about the environment and violence against women. Any any idea that you have. How can you get funds for that kind of projects. Great. Gail. Thank you. The question for the panel on and how can you get funds for a project or initiative that you're pushing in the youth space. Yeah. So one of the survey questions that I asked in the survey that went out so that I could capture sort of these youth voices was what are the biggest barriers that you're facing to getting involved in the issues you're passionate about and actually access to to funds and access to resources was the top barrier that came up. And just last week at the General Assembly Week we saw partnerships between the State Department Facebook and Adventures Capital when talking about how we can empower youth to build peace in their communities. And I think the biggest way and something that I saw last week was partnerships with the private sector and most of the jobs that are being created now 90 percent of those jobs are being created by the private sector. The private sector has has a lot of money to give to young people that are that have great ideas. And if you're tying it to the missions of your companies there are ways that you can pitch ideas to your to your employers to say hey you know youth young people really care about these issues. How can we partner and tie it to the mission of our company to get funds so that we can scale our initiatives. And so I think it's a matter of collaboration more than anything. It's not just you know applying to different grants or applying to different programs but it's a matter of looking at different sectors specifically the private sector to be able to sort of get the funds that you need but make making sure that you're positioning positioning it in a way that ties it to the mission of the company that you want to partner with or the group that you want to partner with. So it's a matter of pitching the right idea to the right people. Good advice. Don't need anything. Yeah. You know just to add to what Nicole said I agree with her 100 percent and you know funding is a huge issue not only for you know people like us or you know as you asked but also you know the UN deals with funding issues every single year and the UN's you know own funding is threatened every single year. So I completely understand and you know just adding to what Nicole said there are so many grants and funding opportunities available out there and you might think to yourself you know I'm not going to apply for this because there are 50 other people who are applying and so we don't really have a chance. But there are 49 other people that you think are applying are probably thinking the same thing and don't end up putting the effort to apply. And so there are two people who apply for the grants so instead of one of 50 then you would have really been one in two. And so I would say you know take the risk and be courageous and apply for anything and everything that really applies to the work that you're doing and the funding opportunity whether it's the private sector where it's the public sector and I guarantee you you'll find something. Great. Good advice. Jackson you want to weigh in. Yeah. Just really briefly. I know as has been mentioned funds are difficult right when you're you have an idea and you really want to get it off the ground. But I think one opportunity is crowdsourcing or looking at your social media groups to see if anyone is sympathetic to what you're trying to accomplish. And there have been some successful projects in that public private partnerships if you can get your foot in the door somehow with an individual who is already engaged in one of those partnerships it can often lead to some loose funds sometimes. If you cultivate what I think of as a board of directors in your own life and someone a group of individuals that can really offer professional and then personal mentorship to you as you progress personally and professionally they often suggest avenues for funding for projects that has been my experience. And I think another way to go about it is community lending and micro loans. It's that option exists within your community. And that's an incredibly powerful way to go about it. Individuals are held accountable by their community. There's capital within the community to go about community projects and everyone really benefits. So those are some ideas for me. Great. And I'll just add one tiny thing is you know show your successes from the start. If have some small wins show that there's a proof of concept there and then figure out exactly how much funding do you need to scale up if that's the avenue that you want to go at the particular time. So we're going to now take some questions from our online audience from the chat space. Are those asking questions on the Twitter Twitter handle using the hashtag genuine chat. So we've got our first question from Guatemala City and someone asks we would like to know what are the strategies that the UN is taking to involve more young people to take action specifically in the environmental arena. Anyone want to take that. Well I can take a stab on it. I mean the the UN itself has a section that's dedicated to young people and this secretary general is the first to appoint what we have as the youth envoy to the UN which is an incredible position because it shows how important youth voices around the world are to the work of the UN and how I think how significant they are to ensuring the success of things like the sustainable development goals. We know through involving youth in the development of the SDGs that we need youth involved as you found out you know last week. And so having this office dedicated the youth Envoy's office and they have a website and the youth envoy's name is Ahmed Al-Hendawi dedicated to youth voices. They have so many opportunities including how to start up you know your own youth delegate program and many countries don't have a youth delegate to the UN and I think that it's important for youth around the world to kind of petition their governments to start this position you know kind of like the youth observer there are new youth delegates that attend every single year because more countries are adding youth delegates to the mix because they understand how important youth voices are to their delegations. And so if you you know want to start a youth delegate program then you know tweet to the US youth observer to me or to Jackson and I'm sure that we would love to help you kind of strategize on how you can do so. Yeah agreed. Just to add to that I mean just yesterday I was at Georgetown talking to the UN association chapter in that college campus and the founder of the campus was there and that was like one of the first few chapters that was started UN association chapters that was started in a university and I asked and I asked the founder was like hey how did you do this and he was like you know I was just researching online and I felt like young people had a voice to had a voice and had a role to play in the work that the UN did does and he reached out to somebody and said hey we should start like a college or university club to support and advocate for the work that the UN does and that university campus has grown now not to not just at Georgetown but in a bunch of different universities here in the States and that's something that maybe can grow in other countries so if you feel like you know I think I can start an organization at my university to engage other people in the work that the UN is doing do that that somebody did that here and it has grown so much so it's a matter of saying you know maybe you're not finding the opportunities where you are or in your country but there are ways that you can connect to people where you can start something and you can start it at the college level at the high school level on so many different levels so there is a huge role in the UN and the UN association is super supportive of young people that want to start those kinds of programs and organizations. Great Jackson do you have any thoughts from Portland. Yeah hopefully you can hear me I'm dropping in and out here over on the West Coast so the UN environment program has a special youth division from my recollection as youth observer and when I was youth observer Christina Figuez of Costa Rica was ahead of UNEP and she had a huge emphasis on youth engagement with environmental issues and bringing that into the work in general of the United Nations as Donia mentioned Ahmed Al-Handawi was appointed by Ban Ki-moon as special advisor for youth issues or special envoy for youth and there is a lot of engagement some of the tools that I think are really being leveraged to increase youth involvement with environmental issues at the United Nations is a lot of outreach and a lot of grassroots initiatives and I think if you're interested in promoting that there are avenues to get involved with the work of the UN and taking that further I think that you really have to promote it within your local community and I know that's really can be an issue for some the UN I'm from rural Oregon you know the UN is is way off it's not on anyone's minds in rural Oregon you know people live agriculturally I have one stoplight in my hometown we didn't even have a high school a secondary yeah so the UN is way off so promoting that in your local community can be difficult especially dealing with environmental issues so I think finding like-minded individuals online if you have internet connection is key in promoting promoting the work of the UN AP and finding like-minded compatriots that you can really share in the the passion the experience of the environment great advice thank you thank you Jackson so we've got another question from our online audience in Singapore and someone asks we know that young people are concerned with social policies by their elected government but often governments do not consult young people on issues that matter to them like climate change and other other challenges how can young people engage their elected leaders other than being elected as a member of parliament how else can young people take the lead that's a great question yeah good question I think one of the biggest things that I've seen in my talks with other young people has has been a matter of contacting them in every way possible sending them letters tweeting at them calling their offices because and asking your friends to do the same if you're concerned about policies that your elected officials are implementing or voting on you you need as many people as possible to be contacting your elected officials because once they get enough calls they'll know okay this is an issue young people care about people in general not just young people this is an issue that people care about and they're going to have to listen because they're going to be bombarded with all of these messages for people saying we want to talk to you about this or we want to be involved in this process or here's my opinion on this issue so I think it's a matter of finding ways to connect with with your elected officials and it's so much easier now than it was before now that we have Twitter we have Facebook and a bunch of our elected officials are on those platforms and and they're on those platforms so that they can connect to you to people so it's a matter of reaching out and just to add to that you know elected officials might seem really far off from you if you're you know not really involved in politics at all and so you might feel intimidated to contact them but I would say just keep in mind your elected officials are there for you they're elected because of you and they're and they're there to represent you as in your community and so don't be intimidated because you're reaching out to them because that's what their job is to take care of you and to be advocating for your interest and for the best interest of your community and so I would say if you feel like your elected officials are not doing that or or not proving to be accessible or accountable to you then you know you do what you kind of do which includes I know someone said besides running for office which includes running for office I would say like you know that is one of the most important ways that I think young people should get involved and you know just based off this question saying like other ways besides running for office and you know I think we shouldn't think like that because it's so important to run for office to have a voice at the table we have young people have so many voices at different tables which include you know like grassroots organizations and the pride and now the private sector but I would say that the one way the one area where our voices are really lacking is elected office we need more young people in elected office because you know our voices belong at every single table which also include the table you know the lawmaking table because those are laws that go in into effect that you know are affecting us directly so why shouldn't we have a voice at that table so yeah run for office great great cool action from Donia for folks to run for office Jackson you want to add anything before we move on to the next question yeah I'll be brief you know besides running from office which I completely am in Donia's corner you know run for office run for political position I have to say that you know democracies are designed to create sustainable change and you know that's the essence of a democracy you want sustainable progress and that sustainable change can be frustrating because sustainability takes a long time to get to you know split decisions in our own lives are not often sustainable neither are they in a democracy so when you're talking about having youth be heard and and really taken into account at the upper echelons of government you know it can take a while and it's frustrating so I think one thing that I've personally benefited from is going into the private sector and you know working for a non-profit that you find is doing the work that you really care about or working on a campaign for a political official that you really identify with and so making your voice heard in those back rooms in those back hallways because people take it they take it and they go with it even though if you're not meeting with the elected official or the person running on a daily basis the staff members that listen to you that then report to her or him are heeding your advice and are heeding your concerns so you know without a mind democracy functions slowly going to the private sphere is what it's what's worked for me join a political campaign for someone that you identify with those are some avenues that I found successful great advice great advice so we have another question from our friends in Guatemala city and someone asks one of the biggest challenges young people often face is the lack of interest from NGOs when proposing ideas in your experience what strategies can we take to approach these organizations and obtain better results both in partnerships and in collaboration yeah so I think if you're having trouble you know getting your voice heard at NGOs that you'd like to get involved with or you'd like to advance their missions come at it from a data standpoint like if you are part of a community and you say you know I think there are so many issues that this NGO isn't focusing on that should they should be focusing on or that they should be doing a better job at do your research go out interview people talk to your communities and get some concrete data and come to them with numbers because I think numbers speak so much and they speak sometimes way louder than words do and so when you say hey you know you're for example affecting just a small population of people here but look at the massive numbers of people that you're like maybe ignoring or that you're maybe not focusing on or your approaches aren't working in our communities you know how can we better collaborate together but I think showing them the numbers and that goes by doing research and a lot of it is on the ground work and I'd also like to say you know you maybe go to one NGO and you know they say I don't care about you know the topics you're bringing to the table or I don't want to listen to this and I just want to remind young people that behind every success or behind every big partnership collaboration there are hundreds of failures and hundreds of times that you get told no so continue to either reach out to the organizations that you care about but don't stop there you know if they say no to you and they're not willing to collaborate and even after you bring in the numbers even after you bring in the research then go to other organizations don't stop at just one great advice Donya? Yeah, just to briefly add Nicole you mentioned earlier about kind of making sure that you're showing that what the work that you're doing is in the interest of you know the corporation or whoever that you're you know trying to get funding from when we were answering that question and I think it applies here too because if you're showing the NGO that what you're working on there's a reason that you want to work with a certain NGO and it's because their mission or their work aligns with the mission and the work that you're doing and so if you really frame that if you really show that this idea that you have really aligns with what they're doing and you add data on top of that there's no way that they can say no and I think it's just a matter of how you're framing your idea and how you're framing your work and taking it to them it's all about the packaging it's all about you know how you're explaining what you're doing and proving to them that this is a worthwhile effort for them as well Great, Jackson you want to add? Yeah, in addition to those you know data, data, data I'm an analyst I work with data all day long I love data it's so great you can do so much with it and you can really influence policymakers who maybe come at it for more of a qualitative background and they say I have no idea what a conference and a rule is I don't know what an alpha statistic is or a beta statistic or a beta value or an alpha value so if you come at it with data all of a sudden you're speaking a language that they don't speak and you've created a space for you and I think that one thing to really take away from this conversation is that you need to create the spaces for you where you want to affect change with 1.8 billion young people worldwide there's not a lot of space you know you have to make some for you to be able to ensure that your voice is heard and so following up on Dona's concerns you know taking a package to the NGO you know take it and make sure that you've outlined everything financially what are your goals what are the assets who can you partnership can you bring partnerships into the NGO that they don't have you know if you're from Guatemala or if you're from Manawa or if you're from Mexico City can you bring contacts in those locations to an NGO in Venezuela and Brazil and the United States can you can you bring something that the NGO doesn't currently have and can't find elsewhere once again create a space for you so your voice can be heard great and just to add one small little thing one of the sports heroes of mine Michael Jordan used to have this famous quote where he says you miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take and I think the coal Dona and Jackson's point keep pitching those NGOs with your ideas and your projects and chances are very high that you're going to eventually start making those shots and getting some partnerships going so we've got a question now from Argentina someone asks how can we help the sustainable development of our communities are you aware of any plans the UN has for an educational program focused on sustainability or on the 17 sustained the sustainable development goals yeah so I think a course just launched in China that universities will now start having a course or a workshop on the sustainable development goals and as I was reading the surveys survey responses that were coming in from the survey that released here in the US I was looking at a lot of young people that were saying you know hey I've gone to my universities and the the leaders of my universities and I've said this should be a part of our curriculum and young people have been the catalysts and driving that the changes in curriculums to include the sustainable development goals and I think it's a matter of focusing on people that focusing on not just people that are interested in international relations but you know students and young people in all different sectors because we need every single sector to contribute to the sustainable development goals and so I think it's a matter of if you want you know more curriculum focused in your universities on the sustainable development goals ask for it because other people have done it and they've had success just to briefly add to that the success of the SEGs is dependent on young people and the work that you're doing in your community so you know I am totally like a cheerleader for that because they're only going to be successful if we're implementing them in our local communities and that's what we need to be doing and it starts with you know advocating for curriculum and education about the SEGs and sustainability Great, Jackson anything to add? Yeah, I think in terms of an actual plan for education for the SEGs I'm not aware of any plans at country levels for disseminating that in a curricula or curricula across nations but as has been mentioned I think that peer-to-peer communication is key when you're instituting change when you're talking about the SEGs I'll take the rural example again and rural organ you know people not everyone has an internet connection not everyone has television so how can you disseminate that information into the pockets where it needs to be if you don't communicate verbally to those individuals and so you have to have the conviction to go out and actually talk about these issues with individuals who may have disparate views but who otherwise wouldn't be able to gain the information or gain access to the information so a lot of the onus I think in this context falls on the individual depending upon whether they're rural or urban or with their like-minded or dissimilar peers Great, thanks Jackson so we're going to go back to our friends in Mexico City for a couple of questions so the first question I think can we get Mexico City back up there? Great Hello, my name is Martin I'm from Unam and my question is how does the UN combat the corruption in the global scale? And Martin, do you mean corruption in the global scale within different governments around the world or corruption in a particular place? No, I mean in any country in any country OK, so Martin's question is is how is the UN doing work to try to tackle the issue of corruption in pockets around the globe? I think it starts with rallying the international community and that's what the UN is really good at doing because it's the one platform where all of these countries are coming together to fight for peace to fight for what's fair to for people and so the UN plays a key role in terms of when a country is doing when a country is not doing great or is being corrupt or is not it doesn't have the best interests of their people at heart in mind then the UN what it does is it brings together all different countries and sort of either via sanctions or other methods holds these countries accountable and holds these governments accountable now that is extremely difficult it takes a long time and so while we might turn on the TV and constantly see corruption behind the scenes there is a lot of progress and a lot of work that's being done that the UN is doing to rally the international community Great and the UN does a lot of great work with accountability that I think helps tackle this but I also want to kind of add another dimension to this which is people have kind of a false conception of the UN and thinking that it's all powerful and it can do so much and it has so much power in different countries and I think like the UN has only has as much power as the countries kind of allow it to and unfortunately I think if a country is incredibly corrupt then there is only so much that the UN can do and it's not because the UN doesn't want to work with issues on corruption and doesn't want to you know fix these things it's just that just like any other organization it also has you know kind of a cutoff when it comes to how much power it has and so I think we need to keep that in mind when we think about the role of the UN and that it's also like important for our society when we have an issue with corruption in our country to deal with it from a societal standpoint because the UN can't deal with all the range of issues that we want to take it to them Great so corruption starting really with us Jackson you want to add anything? Yes so I think I'll point you in one direction to go for resources Transparency International is an organization that really tries to have financial transparency in governmental sectors across the world across countries you know across national borders and they partner with the United Nations and or rather the United Nations partners with Transparency International and Transparency International has come up with a set of metrics to measure how transparent if you were governments are worldwide and I think it's 12 or 22 it's been three or four years since I've looked at their information but 12 or 22 metrics that they hold up against governments to say okay well you're you know in terms of corruption here's what needs to be done to diffuse some of this financial attention and the UN listens to that bodies in the UN listen to this partnership and what Transparency International has to say in terms of these governments so while not necessarily having the ability to go in directly and influence or affect change in these locales the UN is really taking into account okay Sudan South Sudan hmm we're having some issues let's look at Transparency International wow the metrics are not too great so what can we do here you know can we do sanctions can we do you know political consequences can we do financial consequences in terms of relief aid how can we affect transparency in the governmental sector so I think looking at the partnerships that the UN forms is really key to see where it's tackling this issue of corruption worldwide great thanks Jackson so we're going to turn things back to Mexico City and see if folks there have any other questions hello my name is Carla I'm a high school student at Tecda Monterrey my question is what can we do as young people and young women to increase not only our educational opportunities but our personal and professional opportunities awesome great question Carla Carla's asking a question how can what can we do as young women to increase our educational opportunities our political opportunities and just to be I think more empowered as women in Mexico but women globally yeah so I think the biggest advice I have is find mentors and I know everybody says this and you're like how am I going to do this it's literally a matter of finding somebody that you really admire and reaching out to them like either whether it's tweeting at them or if you're you know part of it if you're working and you're in a company and you find a leader in your company that you really admire that you think is doing good work that you'd like to emulate the work that the work that they do or how they do their job reach out to them and I think a lot of the times we're afraid because you know we're like this is this is somebody that's not going to have the time for me but that's in my experience has been completely false like every time I've reached out to somebody they've been more than willing to help occasionally you'll get a no but people older generations are more than willing to give advice to younger generations whether it's in the political sector your professional life or educational life in your educational career like reach out to people that inspire you and and find the mentors and find the people that will help you that will help guide you in a path that you want to be on so I'm very passionate about gender equality and you know you have the right as a young woman to any other opportunity that a young you know man your age has and unfortunately that's not the case for young women in the states but then young women all over the world and it's so frustrating because you know we should be in these spaces and so that's why you know I said you're gonna receive so much pushback and people telling you that you don't belong at the table whether it's because you're a young person but then especially because you're a woman and because your voice is either not valued or you know they just don't want to hear what you have to say and you have to make sure that you're at these spaces you know there are so many organization with boards and most of these boards like board of directors don't have a young person on their boards and so if there's an organization that you're working with you know that's dealing with an issue you're passionate about like gender equality you know you should I guarantee you one that they don't have a younger person on the board and two that they want to hear this voice they want to have a young person who's like listen I'm here to help you and like no one is gonna say no to free labor like that's why interns are so popular because no one's gonna say like I don't want you to come and help my organization and like really provide your input and through you know providing your work through internship or serving on the board you're providing your voice and you're demanding that your voice is being heard through that and I think the other thing that I want really want to mention you with which I think is so important in gender equality and empowering yourself and other young women is you know I always like to say to reach for the stars with one hand but also leave one hand near the ground to uplift your sisters with you because we're only as strong as one another you know Nicole's work is empowering me and my work is empowering her and empowering you and so we have to make sure that we're empowering one another and trying to provide opportunities because that's what leadership is to help one another like kind of go up the ladder of leadership because it's not an individual pursue good stuff Jackson you want to add anything to that yeah I do you know of course I can't speak from the perspective of being female or identifying as a woman but I can speak from the perspective of being gay in a in a straight world where opportunities have been denied me because of my sexuality and that's really you know that's hurtful and it's difficult and how do you create opportunities for yourself when you're faced with this dilemma of okay well I can't you know I there's no gay individuals on any boards in my area there's no gay mentors there's no you know I don't even know a gay person there's no gay person in Oregon it seems like so how do I do this how do I create a space how do I create professional opportunity for me one way is is to find mentors you know as Nicole said and find mentors and be persistent with them don't let them go if they say yes I'll help you follow up you know don't let them just say I'll help you by you know follow up with them and then also I think if you're looking for professional opportunity something that you have to consider is that there's going to be a lot of automation in the global north for jobs and services there's going to be a lot of automation for the jobs that we can do if you have a skill set that can't be automated if you're socially literate if you're culturally literate if you're multi-linguistic if you can connect to individuals on a personal level something that machines can't do and if you can market that skill set to offer to job employers you'll have much more success in finding a career and finding a job another way to go about it and creating professional opportunity is having a quantitative skill set a quantitative skill set has served me incredibly well in creating a space once again creating a space for myself where my voice can be heard so gain skill sets that can't be automated or that will not be automated in our lifetimes gain a quantitative skill set and find those mentors and really go after them and sure if they put up a wall find a different individual that you really want to tailor but otherwise go after them and stick to them like glue great advice and just for the for the men out there as well make sure that help your your female friends and your sisters put their hands up and encourage them to to shoot for the stars when when they're thinking about what to do from a personal or political standpoint okay so we have a few more questions from our online viewers let's see what the next question coming in is from the twitter handle someone asked how can we improve cultural sensitivity about the refugee situation around the world it's a good question yeah it's a great question and one that was brought up at the general assembly this year a lot I think one of the biggest things that young people can do is building empathy in their communities through storytelling so if you if you know of an of an immigrant in your community or someone that's a refugee in your community from another country talk to them find out what their stories are and share their stories and I think a lot of people are using social media and different platforms to share the stories of people that come from different places people that it might be different from the from the people that are majority in certain communities so that you're building these stories because it's hard to hate someone or not like somebody when you know their story and you know education is the key to combating fear which i think is the reason why people are culturally insensitive to the refugee situation and you know there are people in the u.s that i've met that i've never met a muslim american before and are just afraid because you know they'll be like well if we let the refugees in then they're going to implement sharia law and so if you're educating about the refugee crisis if you're educating about the plight of these individuals and you know about Islam and you know just like a variety of the issues that are involved that have kind of led to this insensitivity in this fear then i think that could be a solution great jackson very quick if you want to jump in for a response yeah i think empathy is key you have to build empathy within your community you have to practice empathy yourself view different viewpoints from a different perspective try to put yourself in others individuals shoes and don't be afraid to back away from those tough conversations those tough conversations really need to happen and speaking from personal experience you know in rural organ and i work in portland which has the guys that being very liberal and very open but you still find individuals who are closed-minded having those tough conversations and being willing to get hurt in the process knowing that you're building empathy and building perspective is something that we need to do as a collective great thanks jackson so we have time for one final question and it's coming from the binational center in minagua nicaragua and someone asks what are the skills that a young leader must have to become a leader in this kind of institutions in order to start a process of change so what what are the skill sets that you need to either be a leader in a in your your respective institutions at the united nations and government the private sector as a politician to really create some meaningful change so i i think for me at least i and i'll say this and i might be biased but i studied marketing when i was in college and that has helped incredibly in terms of getting getting me to where i am today and learning how to tell stories in a way that's compelling and in a way that's going to get other people to buy into your vision or what you're trying to work on so one of the main things i think it's communication skills and learning how to tell tell stories or pitch your ideas in a way that's compelling to other people i would okay i would say passion because the number one thing that people say to me um that they kind of really enjoy about my work or my leadership is that they can kind of sense how passionate i am about the issues that i'm advocating for and if you find your the personal reason as to why you're invested in that issue you come across as incredibly genuine and that's where your passion is rooted it's not for power it's not for money it's because you're genuinely like you're you're genuinely personally invested in this issue and passionate about it and people are drawn to that kind of leadership great jackson will weigh in yeah i think passion is definitely key i think you have to have empathy you need to be empathetic and have patience to listen to other people's concerns and listen to other people's stories because each individual's reality is true it may not be true in your reality and in your life but to them their reality is key and it's valid and it's true and it's authentic so you need to have the patience and the empathy and the passion to follow up with these individual individuals and you also need to have just the vitality to carry on through through problems that strike you down uh and also um you know just the ability to network and socialize and be fluid enough to flow in between different groups so all those things wrapped into one i think in my experience is what i see in effective leadership and effective leaders terrific so we're going to squeeze in one or two more questions from our our group in mexico city so let's turn things over that mexico city and if folks have questions to ask hello my name is Eugene and i'm from korea well i've always been interested in international issues especially ecological issues but sometimes i think that we as young people are not participating enough and i think that's because of lack of interest or information so i was wondering if i would like to start a project or an organization what does it take and also what does it take to be the kind of leader that inspires people to participate and to be informed Eugene great question question of how do you get young people to really participate in an effort in a campaign in a mobilization uh effort uh how do you break through the sense of apathy for youth so turn things over so i think i've found that a lot of issues or when young people are trying to start something it hasn't been for a lack of completely for a lack of interest it's just been a matter of getting people to understand the why behind things so if you talk about you know any issue that you're passionate about get people to understand why like the why behind it and i think when i was in college i had a lot of trouble with this and getting people to um sort of buy into the projects that i was doing you know i did a project in guatemala city and i would talk to students from my university and say and say hey like i'm working on this cool project it's all the way in guatemala and i'm gonna help communities there and a lot of the times if people were confused because they're like yeah but i'm not i'm not from guatemala i don't live there and it's getting them it's connecting um connecting the why behind it and saying like here's why you should care about this issue um i think that was key in terms of getting other young people involved because a lot of the times and it might it might seem obvious but a lot of times it's young people have trouble making those connections as to like why you should care and and um i think that for me has been huge and just to briefly add um make it accessible for young people and kind of something that they can relate to i think you know things like the ice bucket challenge um were so popular for that cause because it was something that young people could kind of relate to and it was easy it was like oh well i don't know about easy i didn't do it personally but um it was something that people enjoyed to do and so when you have something that young people are um kind of really can rally around like a fun like project on social media i also believe that there's uh you know a limit to social media activism and you should be doing things on the ground but when when there's something fun that you could do like you know starting a twitter chat or um starting a hashtag or a project where people would take photos and i mean young people like that and i think that that's the kind of initiatives that you should be gearing toward like gearing around great jackson yeah um i think making it easy for youth is incredibly key um you know young people in my experience are incredibly strapped incredibly busy you know we're trying to make it professionally make it personally in a difficult situation um and difficult situations worldwide so making it easier easy for youth to get involved is key and like nicole said connecting the why um a lot of people say you know i've dedicated 45 years of my existence to this problem and i think to myself why why have you done this you know like explained to me the reason why it's worth 45 years of my life you know and and be sure that it's an elevator you know pitch be sure that you can say it in a few sentences why is this so important to dedicate years of my life to this cause and also make it easy great what it unfortunately looks like we're out of time although that was a great question i think to end on so i want to thank you all so much for all the fantastic questions and insights from overseas and also our our dynamic panelists we've covered a lot of ground and hopefully some of you watching today have been inspired to take action on issues that you care about whether they be on the local or global levels so don't you do have any uh any final thoughts i'm gonna give each person just a chance to give some final perspective and thoughts to the group so just adding on what i said previously um you know and it's really great when we're talking about like all the cool people that we've met and i took a selfie with bonky moon and and this and that and it's really exciting and you might feel you know that that's the kind of work that you want to be doing because it's very shiny and bright but i would say like the most valuable work that i've seen are the people on the ground in their local communities like helping um even if it's just 10 people to get access to resources or to do this or to do do that and it's not shiny and it's not bright or exciting but it's incredibly valuable and so i just want you to to young people all around the world to know like the work that you're doing is valuable and just because it's not shiny or you know like a cool selfie doesn't mean that that work is not important and that work combined with the work that we're all doing is what is working towards creating a better world for us all and so i just want you to know that you have value in in what you're doing and it's not just the work that looks really cool that should be done or what you should be aspiring to great advice jackson over over to you you want to close out with a few insights or thoughts yeah i have to say leadership does not require a position of authority you know leadership does not require a position of authority you can be a leader in your local community in your peer group and leverage that opportunity to effect change even if it's just one person's perspective in my own experience you know one perspective changing can mean the world in a personal life and so just remember that to be a leader you can do so at any phase of your life and in any position great thanks jackson over to nicole for some final thoughts and yeah insights uh so the my one final thought is stay positive i think it's sometimes hard to do that because every time we open you know our social media accounts or the newspaper we're constantly bombarded by awful news but stay positive because otherwise like what else would we do you need to stay positive and you need to continue to have the fire and the drive to work on issues that might seem extremely complicated or impossible to solve but nothing is impossible so have a positive mindset awesome and i'll just close president obama often says when he's asked that question he says don't think about what you want to be don't think about that title think about what you want to do to have an impact so that's kind of something that stuck with me and i think is a useful piece of advice to think about so in closing i'd like to first thank nicole donia and jackson for their great insights today and for being willing to wrestle and give some thoughts on some challenging topics as the us youth of the observers to the un both current and and past they're not just representing also their own voices but collective american youth voices in their international conversation so if there are americans out there they want to hear from you as well and want to represent your voice at the united nations a big shout out as well for the excellent questions from the group at the ben franklin library in mexico city and to other viewing parties at by national centers all over the globe in minagua nicaragua i think we had some in uh in honduras in median columbia i think in our embassy in havana cuba in guadamala city and in weiwei guadamala as well so thank you guys all so much for getting together and for wrestling with some of these challenging topics and for asking some dynamic tough questions we encourage you all to also continue the conversation with the us embassy in their model un refugee summit taking place in december they'll soon launch an open application and call for mexico mexican high school and university students so watch their facebook page for updates and a big thanks to all of you who watch the program and submitted great questions online we really appreciate it so thanks everyone have a great morning afternoon or evening and we hope to see you again soon