A New View
A New View
by Alexandra Courtis
The Interdependent (UNA-USA Student Alliance Newsletter)
August 3, 2006
I am the honored recipient of the UNA-USA Student Alliance full scholarship to the Global Scholar program organized by Americans for Informed Democracy. Global Scholar has had a significant impact on me. Not only has it broadened my perspective of the world, but it has also taught me that by working together young people of good heart and conviction can shape and change the world significantly.
Global Scholar is a two-week program in international relations for juniors and seniors in high school held in early July at Washington and Lee University in historic Lexington, Virginia. The program is an intensive exploration of international affairs with an emphasis on the study of globalization. During the program, the students hear from over 35 guest lecturers, visit the Capitol to hear from ambassadors and foreign affairs policy makers, and even hold a videoconference with students in Africa and the Middle East.
With only forty-five students from around the world selected to attend, the program further provides students, eager to discuss and grapple with the issues that face their generation, a forum for advancing their ideas. The organizers, Allynn Lodge and Seth Green, are extraordinary individuals. They not only made the students readily feel at home, but they uniquely inspired all of them to look carefully for the truth, seek the highest counsel, listen to all arguments and points of view, and then stand by the truth they had learned.
One of my favorite supplements to the academic program was the final simulation. Each of the 45 students was assigned a role in an international body, such as the International Monetary Fund. They then prepared mock press conferences and meetings in which the attendees addressed various world crises. I assumed the role of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and headed the UN General Assembly. The experience opened my eyes to the challenges the Secretary General faces both within the UN and in interacting with the media, and the public.
Another exceptional event was the videoconference we held at the nearby Virginia Military Institute. Our subject of debate with university students, academics, and high school youth from the countries of Jordan, Ghana, Uganda, and Morocco was United Nations Reform. Selected to give the opening presentation and closing remarks, I tried to consolidate the views of our program and narrow the discussion to structural and ideological reforms. Within minutes of the official presentations, issues of international concern were brought to the forefront. In an emotionally laden discussion, disparate points of view came forth in an often heated debate. However, little by little, we began to understand and feel what was common among us, not what separated and differentiated us. Students, who moments before were trapped in their own ideology, began to understand each other over the simple act of sharing. Global Scholar has helped me to realize the complex challenges that face our world and my shared responsibility to pass the world on, a better place, to the generation that follows.
During our visit to the Capitol, Ambassador of the Arab League to the United States, Hussein Hassouna, spoke to my heart when he remarked: “As young people you need to be more open. Education is truly key because we need to focus on our common interests and values”. As a young person who wants to dedicate her life to a community of humanity that trusts and shares and dares to reveal a wise and kind heart, I believe the United Nations is more important now than ever. Global Scholar and the dedicated staff and organizers from Americans for Informed Democracy showed me we all have the power to create change.
Alexandra Courtis is a high school senior at Davis Senior High School in Davis California. She serves as Chair of Education for the UNA-USA Northern California Division of UNA-USA and is the proud captain of her school’s Model United Nations Team and Student Alliance Group.