As a person just beginning to become a social justice activist, I was extremely excited when I got the e-mail informing me that I had been accepted to attend the 2001 Youth Summit on Globalization. What an opportunity! An almost all-expense paid weekend to learn from great minds from around the world! An opportunity to meet students my age from all over the country interested in the same things as I! Needless to say, I looked forward to this event most of my winter vacation, and did my best to educate myself on the issues before I arrived.

Icebreaker at the Youth Summit

The first full day of the Summit was the day for learning about globalization. I attended workshops on globalization in relation to corporations, trade agreements/institutions, and the environment. With only one day allotted for these workshops, they could only break the surface, but they gave me a solid introduction to the issues and a direction in which to go with my own learning.

Saturday evening and Sunday were the most productive parts of the Summit for me. This time was spent mostly in "regional breakout groups" learning about campaign organizing. There were, including myself, eight students at the Summit from Ithaca, NY (Cornell University, Ithaca College, Ithaca High School). Getting to know these people, and having the chance to work together and share our excitement about the issues was a wonderful experience. We have remained in contact and have worked together in different capacities on campaigns in Ithaca.

The most important thing I took from the Summit was the inspiration from all the positive energy the students brought with them. To be with more than 200 students working toward a common goal was a very powerful experience. I took this inspiration and the education about campaign organizing back to Cornell, and put it to work on a campaign with a Cornell environmental group. With all the solid planning and effort we put in the campaign, we were able to get Cornell University to commit to doing everything within its ability to reach Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gas emission levels on campus. The Youth Summit gave me the inspiration and the education to help carry through this campaign.