The 66th UN DPI/NGO Youth Pre-Conference was held in Sookmyung Women’s University on April 9, 2016. This event is part of the introductory programming leading up to the UN DPI/NGO Conference which is going to be held in Korea in May. Three NSLI-Y Korean students, Tiarra, Lauren W., and Will, had the opportunity to participate in the Pre-Conference event thanks to Better World’s president, who is on the event’s Youth Committee.
After the opening ceremony, NSIL-Y students had an opportunity to meet with the Director of the Outreach Division of UN DPI, Maher Nasser. He told the NSLI-Y students about his career path starting from Palestine and leading to the United Nations’ New York office.
The main event of the day was the group discussion/presentation about the UN’s seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. Participants were divided into seventeen intercultural groups, and each group discussed issues and action plans regarding one assigned SDG. For example, Will’s group was in charge of discussing the SDG 7, which is about affordable and clean energy. Will’s group focused on increasing sustainable energy production such as solar energy and limiting individual energy consumption.
Though English was the main language of the event, many groups used a combination of English and Korean to communicate with each other. Lauren W. said that it was an interesting experience to be involved in a group project using both English and Korean and that it was a good opportunity to practice her Korean language.
After the event, Will said,
"It helped me understand a little bit more about the SDGs, but also the discussion helped me form my own ideas on what people can do to resolve some of these issues."
It was a great opportunity for NSLI-Y students to think about global issues and to come up with solutions together.