The UNAOC-EF Summer School 2014
The UNAOC-EF Summer School organized by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and Education First (EF) hosted 75 young leaders from 70 different countries in Tarrytown, NY, USA between 16-23 August, 2014. The 75 participants were selected from over 15,000 submitted applications. The annual weeklong program is based on the idea that young people are a driving force for positive social change. Lenka Peťková, project officer of GPoT Center, participated in the Summer School as a representative of Turkey.
The UNAOC-EF Summer School provided the participants with a unique learning opportunity, which included knowledge-oriented seminars, hands-on workshops and roundtable discussions with distinguished speakers and guests. During their visit to the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York, the UNAOC-EF students engaged in live discussion with the Deputy Secretary General of the UN, Mr. Jan Eliasson as well as other UN officials.
The Summer School program covered the following topics: responsible global citizenship; identities and narratives for collective well-being; power and leadership; negotiation for cooperation; building alliances; effective advocacy; creative and compelling messaging; and social entrepreneurship.
The aim of the Summer School was to power the efforts of young leaders, give them the opportunity to engage in cross-cultural and inter-faith dialogue with their fellow peers, and help them to develop critical skills needed to create solutions to local and global problems in their home countries.
During the collaborative work group session, Lenka together with other eight fellow participants prepared a campaign calling to end sexual violence in conflict zones. To watch the advocacy campaign video please click here or visit the website of "Under the Tents" here.
To follow along the discussions throughout the course of the Summer School, please check Twitter and Facebook referring to the hashtag: #UNAOCEF.
UNAOC was established in 2005, at the political initiative of Mr. Kofi Anan, former UN Secretary General and co-sponsored by the governments of Spain and Turkey. UNAOC works toward a more peaceful, more socially inclusive world, by building mutual respect among peoples of different cultural and religious identities, highlighting the will of the world’s majority to reject extremism and embrace diversity.
EF was founded in 1965 with the mission to open the world through education. EF operates 500 schools and offices in over 50 countries. To date, EF has helped millions of people to learn a new language, discover the world or earn an academic degree.