Student’s World Perspective Grows At Leadership Conference

By Larissa Lytwyn

According to 17-year-old Newtown High School senior Sarah Hemingway, there are far more “commonalties” between American youth and their peers abroad than differences.

Sarah recently returned from a two-week Global Young Leaders Conference (GYLC) in Washington, D.C., and New York City sponsored by educational leadership organization Congressional Youth Leadership Council (CYLC).

The annual conference unites 400 select students from around the globe to explore international politics, finance, culture, and diplomacy.

Guest speakers for the 2004 conference included human rights activist James Mawdsley, who discussed his imprisonment living in the Burmese jungle with exiled freedom fighters during the reign of a militant government in Burma (now Myanmar).

“Even though there were students from 95 different countries, there were a lot of things we had in common,” said Sarah, “like talking to friends and family on the phone, though Americans were far more likely to have cell phones, listening to music, sometimes even the same kinds of music, sending emails and instant messaging, and worrying about college plans, tests and grades.”

She discussed how the group enjoyed sharing stories about their lives “back home.”

“I learned that no matter where we were from, each of us was envious of some aspect of another person’s life,” said Sarah. “I met a girl from Grand Cayman, for example, and we were all envious of her living in this paradise!”

The girl quickly said, however, that she envied other students from not having to constantly live among tourists!

“Another big difference I found was in schooling,” said Sarah. “There were several countries where people have already had to choose what path they want to follow for their lives, and even though they’re not in college they are already taking classes that are specialized in this area.”

Sarah herself says that she is planning to go to college after high school and major in education.

“Right now I think I want to be an upper elementary or middle school teacher,” she said, “but I’m also considering teaching high school English.”

In addition to visiting the US Department of State, the United Nations building in New York City, and embassies representing countries including Hungary, Brazil, Vietnam, and Jordan, the students also debated various political issues in several simulations of United Nations-styled conferences.

“We broke into 16 groups, each representing a different country,” said Sarah. “My group represented the US. One evening we were discussing how our group should respond to another group’s Israel/Palestine peace proposal that a ceasefire should be declared, and all other nations should back out. A girl from the United Kingdom said that the US would never support it because ‘they want to get involved and be the boss of everything!’”

Sarah said that she and several other group members were “shocked” by this response.

However, the “more we talked about it,” said Sarah, “it was easy to see where this viewpoint had come from.”

A lot of students Sarah said she met characterized Americans as doing everything fast — eating, walking, and talking very quickly.

“They said that their perceptions were confirmed just by walking through DC and New York City,” Sarah noted.

In addition to hearing the “heart-wrenching” story of Mr Mawdsley’s struggles under a militant government, Sarah discussed learning about the under-the-radar reality of human trafficking.

“It is an issue that is more serious in the US than many people know,” she said. “People are shipped — in crates — overseas and across borders.”

Many are children trafficked by organized crime rings that trick the children’s families into thinking that they are coming to the US for a paying job.

Once secured within US borders, according to Sarah, these “modern-day slaves” are forced into prostitution, domestic service, and agricultural labor.

All the money they make is funneled directly to the traffickers.

“A US Department of State official told us about the many people that die in their journey just coming to the US,” said Sarah. “Crates have been found in shops with four, five, or six dead people in them! It was awful to listen to the stories, but it opened my eyes to a problem that I didn’t even know existed. I think this issue is an important one, one I was glad to learn more about.”

Sarah described the conference as “one of the most amazing experiences of my life.”

She said she will “never forget” the people she met, noting how her eyes were really opened to the way people live in other parts of the world.

“The days I spent there are ones I will always look back on with good memories,” she said.