Model G20 Youth Leadership Summit - China

I attended the Model G20 Youth Leadership Summit as a Lead Ambassador. I previously participated as a student in the 2018 Boston Model G20 Summit and the 2018 Argentina Task Force. As a Lead Ambassador, I led student workshops, helped students negotiate multilateral agreements, and delivered the closing speech of the conference. While it was a great experience for myself, I noticed that many other students were building the same connections that I built in Boston: lasting friendships that they would maintain even on opposite sides of the globe. The genuine friendships that can be made in a matter of days at a Model G20 Summit continue to amaze me.

Unlike most travel/study abroad programs, Model G20 Summits have a focus. They bring hundreds of international students together to simulate a G20 conference, assigning every student a country and ministerial role that they adopt for 3 or more days. Over these days, they negotiate deals with each other, often in highly informal settings that blend conversations about their daily lives back home with high-stakes negotiations that require extensive research into their assigned countries' economic and social conditions.

As a Lead Ambassador, I was able to see students forming these bonds, and I was happy to see that the quality of the conference had not changed since I previously participated in it. Personally, I grew close with the other Lead Ambassadors and had a great time seeing what it's like to teach/run a classroom. The experiences provided by Knovva, be it as a student-delegate or a Lead Ambassador, are honestly life-changing and build people both personally and professionally.

A 4-hour drive, 19-hours of flying, and 45-minute bus ride later, I was sitting in a room with six other individuals whom were also seasoned delegates from the same Youth Leadership events from Boston and Argentina. This February break, I had the great privilege to be a lead ambassador at this conference and influence the lives of students from over 15 different countries.
The Beijing Summit provided an outlet for highly motivated students to enhance their leadership skills through the study of global politics and international relations. Not only were these students inspired to be leaders in the future, but they were equipped with skills to be leaders now. From figuring out how to survive in freezing winter to negotiating deals to sustain smart cities, the smiles never left the faces of the students as they continued to work as a team and learn about different cultures. This was more than just experiencing Beijing. The diverse setting offered the opportunity to strengthen the cross-cultural lenses that are much needed in our world today.
As a lead ambassador, my role was to act as an advisor to the delegates and assist them with speech writing, negotiations, and persuasive bids. To sum up, that means to make sure the students do not wage war with one another. After long days of meetings, workshops, teaching, and editing what seemed like a thousand speeches, we were able to choose the next winners of the summit.
Being that the nature of the summit was political and educational, I assumed that my greatest source of knowledge would come from the keynote speeches conducted by Harvard professors or the workshops led by renowned lawyers. Instead, it was from interacting with teenagers from across the globe and just speaking tête-à-tête. One conversation can influence your worldview. One conversation can put you closer to figuring out how you can change the world.
It is imperative that at this day and age, individuals learn to refine their global lenses. The new insights and perspectives on different topics is truly eye-opening. The stories and laughs that I shared with the 300 students at the summit will remain with me and guide me as I soon begin my independent path in the world. I am excited to be a lead ambassador at the next summit at Cambridge University this August and cannot wait to see what the future holds.

I can say with full confidence it was one of the best experiences of my life I grew not only as a leader but as a person. I made friendships and connections I’ve never had better I and I truly say this program will change the lives of millions of young people from all around the world. This experience changed the way I look at the world changed my interest for the better and made me grow as a person. Not only are the work shops full of interesting and well arranged work and task but they really help to do a better job in the simulation part of the program. The simulation part of the program is not only interesting and fun but it really makes you feel like a delegate of the G20 it gives you a chance to learn new skills such as public speech but also lets you learn how to fix disagreements and come to a solution. Over all it’s a amazing experience and I recommend it highly I’m very glad I got the opportunity to go.