Schaumburg student participates in international food conference
"Verde!"
"Grün."
"Vert…"
"Green."
I can't believe that just a few weeks ago I was in a room filled with 100 student leaders from 33 different countries. So many different languages, cultures and ideas were brought together at the 2015 Global Youth Ag-Summit held in Canberra, Australia, Aug. 24-28.
Unlike most delegates at the summit, I do not have an agricultural background. I was born in India, moved to the United States at the age of 3 and grew up in Schaumburg. I started volunteering at Feed My Starving Children when I was 12 years old, and soon started learning about the food disparity that exists in our nation and world today.
One in six people in America face hunger problems everyday, and 49 million Americans struggle to put food on the table. I was determined to tackle this issue in any capacity that I could.
After several years of hosting canned food drives and organizing hundreds of volunteers to help out at local food pantries, I was thrilled to learn that I was selected out of almost 2,000 applicants to attend this international event to discuss the challenges and opportunities of feeding a hungry planet.
From hearing motivational speakers such as Todd Sampson, creator of the Earth Hour initiative, to working together to write the Canberra Youth Ag Declaration (that will be presented to the United Nations in October), to engaging in international dialogue and sharing experiences from our own countries and backgrounds with each other, the summit was incredibly inspiring and made a powerful impact on all of the delegates.
The summit finally gave young student leaders from all over the world a chance to voice our opinions and ideas about one of the biggest problems facing the world.
I have no doubt that all the summit attendees will be our agriculture supporters, policy makers and nonprofit organization leaders of tomorrow.
At the end of the summit, each delegate was tasked with coming up with "3 Little Things" that we hope to implement in our home communities after the summit. It is exciting to be back in the U.S. and putting my plans into actions.
A big thank you to the Youth Ag-Summit for giving young leaders like me a seat at the table and letting us take a bite into the issue of world hunger.
Editor's note
Isha Jog from Schaumburg, a junior studying advertising and public relations at Loyola University, was chosen as one of five delegates from the United States at the recent global Youth Ag-Summit, "Feeding a Hungry Planet," held in Canberra, Australia.
When a senior at Hoffman Estates High School, she was a named youth volunteer of the year by the village of Schaumburg for the variety of causes she was active in. Here are her observations from her experience attending the five-day conference.