The Global Citizens Initiative (GCI) is a global social enterprise based in Greenwich. Every year, the GCI holds a Youth Summit program that brings a select group of 24 high school Scholars from around the world to interact and engage in an array of complex global challenges at the Harvard University Faculty Club.
The Summit emphasizes a “Glocal” approach to problem solving, which stands for “think global, act local”. During the 8-day program, student Scholars come up with an idea and framework for a Glocal Service Project, then decide how best to address the needs of their specific community through their project.
Mentors at the program provide resources, support, and guidance towards the implementation of the Scholar’s project idea. These mentors include a variety of successful professional individuals from Boston Consulting Group, Seventh Generation, McKinsey & Co., Kyorin University in Japan, Liner Law, Harvard Business School, and Cook Pine Capital.
“The Global Citizens Initiative (GCI) is most appreciative of our Mentors, located around the world, for their dedication and commitment to support our young, high caliber Scholars as they become GCI Ambassadors, at the completion of the 8 day program,” states GCI founder Yumi Kuwana. “We believe our Scholars will also be able to provide inspiration and insights to Mentors and make their interaction a mutual beneficial experience.”
Undergraduates from the most prestigious universities in the country including Yale, Harvard and Georgetown serve as Teaching Assistants to the high school Scholars. The program also features inspirational speeches from important names such as Dr. Linda A. Hill of the Harvard Business School and Mr. Jack Meyer of the Harvard Management Company.
The GCI Youth Summit provides an invaluable opportunity to connect some of the brightest young minds around the world with access to global thought leaders and other high school students from every corner of the globe. These are interactions that would be nearly impossible under normal circumstances.
One example of a project from the 2014 Summit Program is the work of a Kenyan Scholar who will be attending NYU this year. The Scholar created a low cost water purifier made entirely of natural, local ingredients in his area. Each purifier costs less than $10 dollars, and when properly maintained can last for eighteen months of use. The output time is 5 litres every 30 minutes, which can provide water for a small family living in the villages of Kenya. After coming up with his project and using the resources at GCI to help make his idea a reality, the Scholar was able to produce and donate several purifiers to poor communities in the Mombasa area and is currently working on a patent. The goal of this project was to provide clean drinking water to rural communities throughout Kenya, and with the knowledge, resources and guidance he received at the Youth Summit the Scholar is well on his way to achieving that goal.
The value of this program is summed up in a quote by a 2014 Scholar from Nigeria, who stated “We see problems in our societies and ignore them, we lack courage in such situations. I see the Global Citizens Youth Summit as nothing short of a prestigious opportunity where I can act with courage.”
The photo shows four students from the 2014 program (from left to right): Fabiola from Rwanda, Juhaku from Japan, Asrat from Ethiopia and Heather from Hong Kong.
To find out more about the program, visit globalci.org.
