2024 UN Junior Ambassador Program Journey
After a four-year hiatus due to the global pandemic, the 2024 UN Junior Ambassador Program has been successfully relaunched. This year, we shifted our recruitment strategy from an international focus to targeting local high school students. We were thrilled to have an exceptional group from Ayala High School in Chino Hills, CA, along with participants from Fairmont Preparatory Academy, Anaheim, CA, and Rio American High School, Northern California along with students from Pakistan and China Their performance exceeded our highest expectations, demonstrating excellence throughout the program.
As in previous years, we hosted our California sessions at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA, before transitioning to the Chino Valley Unified School District’s Alternative Education Center in Chino Hills, CA.
The daily intensive instruction was delivered by faculties from WOSL and MIT, focusing on Climate Change using C-ROADS and En-ROADS. While MIT faculty led the scientific simulations and system emulations, WOSL faculty guided students through systems thinking and complex problem-solving. This approach allowed students to model climate change scenarios by integrating environmental, societal, and economic factors into policy implications.
Each year, we are proud and honored to invite world-class keynote speakers. They played a crucial role in delivering key insights that broadened the students’ worldviews. They discussed topics such as how power transitions influence voting dynamics within the United Nations, the impact of geopolitical forces as regional hegemons on regional stability, and the importance of individual perspectives on local to global issues, inspiring the students to become active, engaged citizens.
By the end of the two-week program, the students produced highly qualified models with excellent policy recommendations. We are immensely proud of their achievements and believe this program is a powerful tool for training young students to become the sharp leaders of tomorrow.
