For five Iowa State students, traveling 1,132.6 miles and being introduced to delegates from more than 100 nations at the United Nations’ Headquarters in New York City wasn’t just a headline or a dream.

It was something they lived.

For the 22nd session of the Youth Assembly, a biannual conference organized by Friendship Ambassadors Foundation (FAF), Iowa State’s IAAS (International Association of Students in Agricultural and Related Sciences) chapter members Lauren Suhi, Natalie Bidner, Izzy Shehab, Brandon Beall and Kaleb Baber traveled to New York City from Feb. 14 to 16 to participate in global sustainability discussions.

“[Attending were] more than 1,000 delegates from around the world. [The conference and its sessions had] a focus on Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations [like] clean water and energy, reducing poverty, good health and well-being, quality education…” said Baber, a junior in agronomy.

Baber and his colleagues were introduced to the conference opportunity through their involvement in the IAAS chapter at Iowa State.

To make the guest list, the five completed individual and group applications which had to be approved by the FAF and Iowa State’s IAAS chapter executive team. The application process on the U.N.’s website for the event included a fee of $15 per application. 

Considered in the approval processes were applicants’ interests in sustainable development, motivation to be change-makers in the community and involvement in the community, according to the Youth Assembly’s website and IAAS chapter president Theresa Brehm.

Additionally, those accepted were required to meet the age requirement of 16-28.

Along with students, conference attendees consisted of assembly observers (interested applicants older than 28), members of the private sector, international representatives and U.N. members.

Each day of the Assembly was designed to provide attending youths opportunities and information that could help them establish a platform for dialogue and the generation of ideas and partnerships with international delegates, Baber said.

“The first day, we met in the U.N. General Assembly Hall [for the opening ceremony]. We heard a lot of speeches [and they] set the tone of the conference [sustainability goals and issues],” said Suhi, a senior in environmental science. 

The keynote address by the president of the United Nations General Assembly, Miroslav Lajčák, illustrated various issues facing the sustainability goals the U.N. has, Suhi said.

“He talked about [some] main problems happening in the world: climate change, clean water, biodiversity. He also talked about how peace and security were important [as well as] technology and youth engagement,” Suhi said.

That same day, the five students visited several different Permanent Missions (representatives) to the U.N., namely representatives from Zambia, Austria and Denmark.

These visits provided an overview of the country and its progress towards the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals.

In exchanges with international representatives, the students said they valued the serious and diverse perspectives they were hearing.

“I was talking to a guy from India and a guy from Canada about water issues—like the Des Moines water issues…[Instead] of people [telling] a long story, they shut people down and asked for the facts, which was really refreshing,” Suhi said.

The second and third days of the Youth Assembly consisted of sessions meant to further conversations and idea development on solutions for the different global issues involving social, environmental and economic sustainability, Suhi said.

Some topics during the session involved education, fundraising skills, how to validate and win support for ideas, ending poverty, nature conservancy, advocacy, renewable energy, human trafficking, U.N. careers and food security.

The third day’s sessions included discussions on social inclusion in cities and projects, conservation, wildlife and biodiversity, climate and engaging the private sector. Day three also had sessions addressing the global health crisis and building resilience to natural hazards—particularly water related hazards. The day ended with the closing ceremony.

In attending the sessions, the students often split up to hear the greatest variety of topics.

One session that Shehab, a junior in animal science, attended was on food security, where she said she found the potential for saving waste to be exciting.

“[The session] mainly focused on how we can reduce food waste. If we were to convert [food waste] into non-waste, or energy, we could save [on a lot of waste],” Shehab said.

One session that remains prominent in Beall’s mind was day three’s global health crisis session.

“There was a lot of passion from the audience. There was a person from Liberia who talked about how people were slow to react [to issues]. People [were] talking from a tough place… [What some don’t realize] is that the U.N. needs local support before they can really push anything,” said Beall, a junior in agronomy. “[People] need to do a bottom up restructuring of [their] values and priorities before the U.N. can go in to do macro-managing.”

One suggestion students had about the sessions involved how they felt that more small group interaction would have been beneficial.

“The whole conference was really educational…But the part about youth engagement was confusing [because] at the end of the sessions, there wasn’t any breakout sessions. It was [often] people just talking at us,” said Bidner, a senior in global resource systems.

They also felt that there was a need in some instances for more globally-oriented conversations on issues.

“I felt like conversation [often] was centered around the U.S. or New York instead of international countries [at some points]. When the ‘what can I do [in my culture]?’ question came up, there was a kind of disconnect,” Suhi said.

As for the students’ favorite parts in attending the Youth Assembly (alongside trying foods and sight seeing after the assembly), a common joy was shared by the students in visiting the U.N.’s New York Headquarters.

“My favorite part was probably going into the U.N. building itself. I think it can hold 1,800 people, which is really amazing,” Bidner said.

A common takeaway involved seeing the value in obtaining diverse perspectives.

“The biggest thing I took away was that there is not a silver bullet to solve [our world’s] issues. We are going to need a lot of different solutions for different parts of the world,” Baber said.

In being able to find solutions to these similar problems with different variables, the greatest asset people can use is communication to understand the variables, Baber said.

“[Meeting] the people affected by these issues. [Like] the people who have family affected by the Ebola outbreak [is important],” Baber said. “To really understand [an issue] you need to hear it from the people it impacts.”