On a characteristically bustling New York City afternoon, students from Virginia Tech’s Friends of Fulbright Argentina Undergraduate Exchange Program gathered at the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan. There, they met with Jorge Chediek, director of the U.N. Office for South-South Cooperation and envoy of the secretary-general on SSC, and Alejandro Verdier, deputy permanent representative to the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Argentina to the U.N. Both encouraged the students to think about how they can make an international impact.
For Clara Perez Bonin, a civil engineering student from the National Technological University in Buenos Aires province, the experience of attending such meetings was unique. “It gave us a new perspective of global collaboration,” she said. “It made us feel interested to try and do our part in working for a better world.”
Discussions centered on the U.N.’s work of integrating the political, human, social, and economic aspects of making the world more equitable. The students learned specifically about the Sustainable Development Goals, or Agenda 2030 after the deadline for meeting them. Adopted by all 193 member states in 2015, the goals form a global action plan to end extreme poverty, protect the planet, and bring prosperity to all humans.
The students talked about Argentina’s role in addressing Agenda 2030, including confronting the country’s target of eliminating poverty.
“It was interesting to see the problematics that Argentina is involved in, which were a little bit different from what I imagined,” said Lautaro Lorenzen, an electrical engineering student from the National University of La Plata in Buenos Aires province.
As the Sustainable Development Goals are a joint, universal compromise, the meetings animated the students to consider how they could play a role in effecting change in Argentina and the world – how they, as STEM students, could bridge the gap between technologists, entrepreneurs, and nation-states to collaboratively, sustainably innovate.
“The hosts were very generous and showed us what their jobs were like,” Perez Bonin said. “They opened our minds to international networking and its importance – something that may sometimes be strange for technology students.”
Gonzalo German Guendulain, from the National University of Córdoba, agreed. As a biotechnology student, he said, he doesn’t usually find himself in a diplomatic environment. “Visiting the U.N. gave me a completely new sight of the opportunities we – students from different universities – have for contributing our knowledge to a world that’s constantly changing. Beginning to visualize our professions as a link to people from around Earth, and deconstructing the idea of involving ourselves in political surroundings to contribute to this purpose made me realize that every person from this group has capacities necessary to help construct a fairer, more developed, and friendlier world.”
Written by program coordinator Leslie Jernegan
