YPS Leadership Program Launch Event

In conjunction with the School of Professional Studies, we formally launched the Youth, Peace and Security Leadership Program on Wednesday, April 3rd in the Columbia Journalism School’s Pulitzer Hall.

The evening included a keynote address by Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth, who emphasized the importance of programs such as ours in advancing the agency and abilities of local, regional and global youth leaders and transforming policy into action. The panel included examples of such leaders, including Errol Olton, a local youth leader of a community education program in the Bronx; Gulika Reddy, a human rights lawyer and the founder of Schools of Equality in India; Diego Cimino, a young Italian diplomat currently serving in the permanent mission of Italy to the United Nations; Graeme Simpson, the lead author of the Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security and the Director of Interpeace, USA; and Beth Fisher-Yoshida, our Co-Executive Director and YPS Program Director.

Among over a hundred attendees were local youth leaders, academics, practitioners, diplomats and representatives from the UN, as well as members of our Columbia community. The event marked the official opening of the new YPS Leadership Program, which will host 10 young leaders from around the world, sponsoring them as they learn and hone their skills here at Columbia before returning to their home countries to enact projects they have designed, all with six months of continued support from Columbia faculty. The program will begin this June.

Video of the keynote address from the program launch event is available here.

Also, check out this photo album of the event!