Meet the World Leaders for The Better Young Global Leader
Global Youth Leadership Academy (GYLA) is a collaboration program with M3TRIX Academy, UN agencies, and leading universities. GYLA is a youth platform that provides young people with the chance to learn and exchange knowledge and experiences with global leaders. GYLA brings young people together to discuss the role of youth in addressing the challenges of the pandemic and commitment to the SDGs with global leaders. Youth as global leaders and engagement in SDGs was the theme and the program took two weeks scheduled.
I am Laras Nauna Izzati Daminiyart, one of youth representatives from Indonesia, especially Universitas Syiah Kuala, that attended the GYLA program. GYLA is a program that was held virtually, 16-27 August 2021. It seems like my background of study, Marine Science, is not related to this program, but during the program, I found new perspectives that I could not get at the campus.
This online academy used Zoom as the learning and training platform. As usual, the time diversity made me a little bit wary but keep on be discipline. The program was settled in the CET time zone, so the program was started from 09.00 CET (Central European Time) or 14.00 WIB (Indonesia time) to 13.45 CET. Particularly, guest speaker lectures were held from 09.00 CET to 12.30 CET, while from 12.45 CET to 13.45 CET, it was a presentation activity by the participant. Overall, all participants were supposed to obtain two or three materials per day.
The lecture material was divided into two sessions, and there would be a 15-minute break between the first and second sessions, then another 15-minute break before the participant’s presentation. During the lecture, participants could share and express opinions directly by raising hands, while questions were also welcomed along the time. Each speaker was unique. Some invited us to interact directly by asking questions that attract and inspire us to answer. Some encouraged us to be a volunteer to tell a certain experiment or give correspondent links and explain the results.
After that, a short 15-30 minutes workshop was held for each session, it divided all participants into breakout rooms. The speaker would give some problems and questions that all participants should discuss together. Participants were randomly assigned to make them find different backgrounds and countries as well, so they could get and share a broader view on its solution. This diversity is an outstanding thing and it upholds the theme of global equality and diversity. I was impressed by the way how the program managed the activity.
Besides, the program also invited other speakers, for the first week, such as the founder of GYLA, Dr. Liangrong Zu, the former UN Senior Official, Dr. Aung Tun Thet, from Myanmar, Dr. Nayan Mitra from India, Prof. Dr. Renen Schmidpeter, the M3TRIX Co-Founder and so on. The first week was filled with materials and presentations.
For the second week, there were Dr. Natt Clegg and Ms. Lenni George. They presented some topics like Cross-cultural Communications, Global Partnerships and Negations, and Conflict Resolution Strategies. Then on the second Wednesday, the Outstanding Participants Contest was held. This contest was a 3-minute presentation, presented by the registered participants. They were assigned to discuss and give an opinion about GYLA or the 17 SDGs points. The winner would get a scholarship to join the UN Business Academy. Then on the closing day, it was celebrated by holding a talent show, performed by the participants. The interesting thing for me is when the Chinese participants invited all of us to watch their talent show videos, such as the composed songs and videographies.
To conclude, this program is new but remarkable for me, both in terms of learning and participation. What impressed me the most is the activeness of the participants and their confidence to express their ideas on something. Different backgrounds and countries opened my horizons and gave me hope for a better world. This event made me believe that young people can lead a better future for themselves and the world.
Laras Nauna Izzati Daminiyart
1911101010073
Marine science
Website: www.oia.usk.ac.id
#YouthLeadership #GlobalLeader #SelfDevelopment
