Students from Parkway Northwest High School for Peace and Social Justice Lead the Way at United Nations

On February 6th, 29 students from the Parkway Northwest High School for Peace and Social Justice traveled to New York City with Philadelphia-based organization, Global Education Motivators, to the UN Student Leadership Conference on Development (UNSLCD) at the United Nations. UNSLCD provided a videoconference format for youth to talk and make commitments across cultures to human rights in development. Two of those Parkway Northwest students, Adriona Jenkins and Queen Neal, reflect on what they learned at the event here:

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"The video conference held in the United Nations in NYC on February 6, 2012 was amazing. We loved meeting new people from all over the world and hearing their viewpoints about how to advance the Millennium Development Goals that were established by every country in the United Nations. Organized by Global Education Motivators at Chestnut Hill College, it was thrilling to meet students from Mexico, Canada, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo and the US and to learn how they are going to address problems in their communities. Being a part of this movement was truly a once in a lifetime experience. We are happy that we were a part of an event that will truly create positive change in many places in the world.

"Our focus was sustainable development, and we have decided to educate students and members of the community at large about the need to limit the garbage and waste that we often carelessly disregard. We want others to think about how a lack of care for the earth negatively impacts all people in all parts of the world. As future leaders this experience was very beneficial to us. We understand that as leaders we must first begin with ourselves and become clear on what our values and intentions are. We now understand that we should be the change that we wish to see before we can ask others to get involved. It makes us extremely proud to hear comments from our peers about our work before, after, and during the conference. Destiny Coleman said, 'Adriona and Queen are individuals who motivate and encourage us to put the environment first.'

Sincerely,
Adriona Jenkins & Queen Neal"

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The UN Leadership Conference was co-founded by Global Motivation Educators as a means of bringing together international student leaders to discuss the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and the importance of including human rights in the path to achieving those goals. Students who attended the conference in New York originally met in November (2011) through an international, interactive videoconference to begin their preparations. In January (2012) the students participated internationally in a videoconference with Nouhoum Sangare of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) to learn about how and why the UN includes human rights in development goals.

The final outcome of this preliminary research and the February Conference was a student-written Plan of Action that includes human rights policies in their program to achieve the MDGs. Students will share what progress they've made on these Plans in a follow-up forum tentatively scheduled for May 2012.

Other participating Philadelphia-area high schools in this event included West Catholic and LaSalle.