16-year-old Monica Saili — a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from Wellington, New Zealand — participated in the Global Young Leaders Conference (GYLC) held in New York City, United States recently.
Students from across the United States and over 145 countries throughout the world participated in this event.
According to the GYLC website, “This 10 day leadership journey provides an out-of-classroom learning experience and rigorous curriculum that equips students with the confidence, independence skills, and global competiveness required of the next generation of future leaders.”
Monica was selected to represent her school, Queen Margaret College, at the conference. Monica is involved in Regional United Nations Youth which holds annual simulations of Model Security Council and Model UN. She also plays the piano, the violin, sings and is a competitive swimmer.
Once selected, students were asked to research and become familiar with international issues and events. They were to come prepared to give a five minute presentation about themselves to their assigned group of 24-28 members.
Each group was assigned a specific country. Monica’s group — comprising young people from 15 different countries and six continents — represented the United States of America. According to Monica, there were a large range of cultural and religious views expressed, which occasionally led to disagreements.
Monica said, “It was important to recognize and understand each other’s backgrounds, cultures, perspectives and show respect to one another. I understand you can’t change history and what is left behind, but each generation can make a contribution in mending civil and global disputes and improving foreign relations.”
One of the issues discussed at the conference focused on cross-cultural communication as a way to understand and gain respect for different views, motivations, and actions of people around the world as well as in our own communities.
When asked about the importance of this experience for her daughter, Rachel Sali, Monica’s mother, stated, “It’s so important for all young people to have awareness and knowledge of what is going on in the world today. Our youth are our future and we as parents need to encourage our children to become interested and have a voice in world issues.”
Watch a video about Latter-day Saints and education.