Programs
WorldLink Youth Town Meeting Highlights
15th Annual Youth Town Meeting
Cover designed by Jesus Villalba, Chula Vista High School |
The 15th Annual YTM was held on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 for over 750 students from San Diego County and Baja Mexico. The student-selected 2011-2012 WorldLink theme was "The Right to be Human" which focused on the recognition of human rights and its correlation to culture and identity, disabilities, displacement, responsible business and international justice.
Online Reader: Access the 2012 Reader today! The Online Reader is produced by high school interns, and provides fellow youth important background knowledge on topics of WorldLink's Youth Town Meeting.
Newspaper: During the 15th Annual YTM, students served as conference journalists and photographers and produced the 2012 WorldLink Newspaper, recounting the event's topics and discussions.
Pictures: Pictures of the 2012 YTM are available on Facebook.
Watch: The Opening Plenary and Closing Plenary are available via stream, along with the YTM briefing sessions featuring speakers, Nina Church, Dominic Bracco and Carlos Mauricio. |
Youth Town Meeting Documentary: Throughout the 2012 summer, Colin Czech (senior at The Bishop's School), interviewed former Youth Town Meeting delegates, moderators and photojournalists. He captured the students' reactions to the day's discussions and activities. Watch the documentary today!
Conference speakers included:
Opening Plenary: The Right to be Human
Carlos Mauricio was a professor at the University of El Salvador in June 1983 when he was kidnapped from his classroom and taken to National Police headquarters, where he was tortured for two weeks. In 2002, Mauricio founded the Stop Impunity Project, which works to bring an end to the impunity granted to human rights abusers in El Salvador. Since moving to Washington, D.C. in 2010, he has been working to build a coalition of Salvadoran torture survivors and human rights activists to continue to press for justice in El Salvador, and to build bridges between Salvadoran NGOs in El Salvador and the Salvadoran community in the United States.
Shannon Jaccard is the executive director of NAMI San Diego. After completing her MBA, she founded Compeer San Diego, a non-profit organization with the goal of providing a safe, nurturing, mentoring program for individuals with a mental health challenge. Today, she is a board member for NAMI California and the Meeting Place, Inc. She sits on the Client/Family Leadership Committee for the Oversight & Accountability Commission, and has taken on the charge to eliminate Seclusion and Restraints. Jaccard is a LEAD San Diego graduate and recipient of the Channel 10 News Leadership Award and San Diego’s Magazine 50 People to Watch.
Dominic Bracco II is a photographer, sound engineer and video journalist based in Mexico City. He specializes in documenting the effects of Mexican and North American policies on the border region where he was raised. Bracco has degrees in journalism and Spanish literature from the University of Texas at Arlington. Past clients include The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The New York Times Sunday Magazine. Bracco is also a founding member of the photographic Prime Collective.
Bianca Morales-Egan currently serves as the desk officer for Botswana, Haiti, South Africa and Malawi at Project Concern International (PCI), a San Diego-based non-profit health and humanitarian aid organization. Prior to joining PCI, she worked in the research department at the Center for Victims of Torture in Minnesota, and has coordinated a girls’ youth mentoring program for the Liberian Women’s Initiatives of Minnesota and served as a medical outreach coordinator for the ComCARE Alliance. In 2008, she served as a Peace Writer for the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Women PeaceMakers Program. Morales-Egan graduated from American University in Washington, D.C. with a master’s degree in international development.
Student Moderator: Josh Clapper (The Bishop’s School)
Where Worlds Change: A Girls School in Kenya – Film Premiere
Alice Nyawira Njonjo is a 15-year-old student from Nanyuki, Kenya, who attends the Daraja Academy, a free secondary school for Kenyan girls with top academic scores and exceptional leadership skills. The academy provides shelter, food, health care and counseling services, which allows students to focus on their academic and personal potential without being hindered by the everyday barriers of poverty. Njonjo has witnessed tribal conflict, but aims to promote the recognition of human rights and the importance of girls’ education in her local community and her country.
Aneesha Bhogal and Shelley Boniwell are master of arts graduates of the University of San Diego's School of Leadership and Education Sciences (SOLES). In 2011, Bhogal and Boniwell received the opportunity to travel to Kenya with the SOLES Global Studies Program and work on the WorldLink documentary, featuring the girls of Daraja Academy. Along with fellow USD staff, Bhogal and Boniwell facilitated interviews with students, who discussed their challenges as women in a society with vast gender inequalities, poverty, opposing views on education & politics and their hope for the future of their country.
Student Moderator: Savannah Jo Dowling (La Jolla Country Day School)
Young Peacemakers: Refugee Stories from Around the World
Armand Binombe was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1995. Due to war and insecurity in the eastern part of the Congo, he and his family fled to Uganda in 2008, where he lived as a refugee for two years. In 2010, Binombe and his family were resettled in San Diego by the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Binombe is currently the student body president of the Law Academy at Crawford High School. He also serves as a member of the City of San Diego Youth Commission.
April Moo is a Karen refugee who was born and raised in the Mae La refugee camp in Thailand. The Karen people are a minority ethnic group in Burma. Moo’s parents fled Burma to escape ethnic persecution by the Burmese government. Moo and her family were resettled in San Diego in 2007, when she was 15 years old. She is currently a student at City College and is very active in the Karen community. Moo is the co-founder of the Karen Youth Organization, and is also a member of the AjA Project’s Youth Advisory Council.
Myo Ti was born in Kachin state in northern Burma in 1995. The Kachin people are a minority ethnic group in Burma. In order to escape the repressive military government, Ti moved to India in 2006, where he lived as a refugee with his sister and brother-in-law for more than four years. In 2010, he was resettled in San Diego. Ti is currently a sophomore at Crawford-MVAS, and he is the only Kachin high school student in San Diego. He serves on the planning committee for Project Concern International’s Walk for Water and is a member of the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) Peacemakers.
Student Moderator: Hayley Palmer (Academy of Our Lady of Peace)
Rebuilding Communities: A Refugee Network
Ayan Mohamed is a refugee from Somalia and arrived in the United States in 1993. Since 2002, she has volunteered with various refugee organizations in San Diego, including the East African Mothers Group. Mohamed currently works with Somali Family Service as a business counselor and program manager, helping refugees start businesses in the community. She also manages Project Refuge, a transitional housing program for asylees that provides a network of supportive community services. Mohamed holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from San Diego State University.
Timothy Slade is the vice chair for the San Diego Refugee Forum and currently serves as the acculturation team supervisor for the refugee services section of Catholic Charities. He holds a master’s degree in international studies from North Carolina State University. His prior professional experience includes public health work in Nicaragua and Benin; educational program design in Egypt; French and Spanish instruction in secondary schools; and tutoring elementary schoolchildren through AmeriCorps-St. Louis.
Student Moderator: Marija Bosnjak (Academy of Our Lady of Peace)
Beyond Borders: Peacebuilding Among Refugees
Abdi Mohamoud is a refugee from Ethiopia and arrived in San Diego in 1982. Mohamoud has more than 15 years of experience in leadership in the East African community through his work as one of the founders and executive director of Horn of Africa, a refugee assistance organization that combines cultural and linguistic know-how with vast professional experience in social service delivery. He obtained his M.A. in management from the University of Redlands. He also completed an advanced executive management program at Stanford University and a graduate certificate program on preventing violent conflicts at the United States Institute of Peace.
Student Moderator: Tomer Mate-Solomon (The Bishop’s School)
New Americans, New Lives
Walter Lam, born and raised in northern Uganda, is the founder of the Alliance for African Assistance. After graduating high school, he fled to Kenya because of political persecution and attended Egerton University, where he graduated with a degree in agricultural engineering. He then returned to Uganda, but was persecuted again and fled to Kenya and eventually San Diego in 1986. In 1989, Lam founded the Alliance for African Assistance with the purpose of helping fellow refugees from Africa. Over the past 20 years, the alliance has greatly expanded to serve thousands of refugees from all over the world.
Student Moderator: Josh Clapper (The Bishop’s School)
Bringing Mental Disabilities to the Forefront
Shannon Jaccard is the executive director of NAMI San Diego. After completing her MBA, she founded Compeer San Diego, a non-profit organization with the goal of providing a safe, nurturing, mentoring program for individuals with a mental health challenge. Today, she is a board member for NAMI California and the Meeting Place, Inc. She sits on the Client/Family Leadership Committee for the Oversight & Accountability Commission, and has taken on the charge to eliminate Seclusion and Restraints. Jaccard is a LEAD San Diego graduate and recipient of the Channel 10 News Leadership Award and San Diego’s Magazine 50 People to Watch.
Student Moderators: Sebastien Akarmann (Cathedral Catholic High School) and
Hayley Clark (Instituto Mexico Americano Noroeste)
Does the Constitution Protect Undocumented Immigrants?
Peter A. Schey, born in Durban, South Africa, has served as president and executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law Foundation since 1980. The foundation’s work includes technical support on constitutional rights for immigrants, refugees and children; class action litigation of issues with broad impact on indigent minority and ethnic communities; technical support and training for advocates and immigrant communities; and international human rights cases and campaigns.
Student Moderators: Alejandra Gavino Espinoza (Instituto Mexico Americano Noroteste) and
Marcela Sotelo Bucardo (Academy of Our Lady Peace)
Youth Journalism: A Global Network of Advocates for Human Rights
Mark Schulte, national education coordinator for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, has taught global issues-based journalism for nearly 10 years and recently founded an international online network of high school reporters, with members in more than 50 countries contributing daily to a web publication. A confirmed tech enthusiast, Schulte is interested in using innovative tools to connect students globally to their world and to each other. Schulte graduated from Oberlin College and holds a master’s degree in interactive journalism from American University.
Student Moderator: Luz Elena Castellanos Aleman (CETYS Universidad, Tijuana)
Social Entrepreneurship: Doing Business for a Cause
Nina Church is a co-founder of NIKA Water, a unique social entrepreneurial model that donates 100 percent of its profits to poverty alleviation through clean water, education and sanitation projects around the world. Church is a senior at La Jolla Country Day School and a former WorldLink intern. She is actively involved in extracurricular clubs, such as Model United Nations, Mock Trial and Free the Children. Church spent the summer of 2011 working as a facilitator for Me to We trips in Kenya. She speaks nationally on behalf of NIKA on the world water crisis, as well as on youth empowerment.
Student Moderator: Ana Ivette Preciado (Instituto Mexico Americano Noroeste)
Excluded: Struggles Against Discrimination
Lisa M. Nunn joined the Department of Sociology at the University of San Diego as an assistant professor in 2009. She teaches courses on inequality and disadvantage in education, social institutions and sexuality. Nunn is the director of a 2010 documentary film that chronicles the struggles of a gay bi-national couple as they face immigration limitations, due to the U.S. federal policy that excludes gay and lesbian citizens from obtaining visas to bring their foreign partners into the states.
Student Moderator: Maria Jose Zepeda Flores (Instituto Mexico Americano Noroeste)
Los Ninis: Mexico’s Lost Generation
Dominic Bracco II is a photographer, sound engineer and video journalist based in Mexico City. He specializes in documenting the effects of Mexican and North American policies on the border region where he was raised. Bracco has degrees in journalism and Spanish literature from the University of Texas at Arlington. Past clients include The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The New York Times Sunday Magazine. Bracco is also a founding member of the photographic Prime Collective.
Student Moderator: Aric Yael Bandera (Instituto Mexico Americano Noroeste)
Realities and Recoveries of Torture Survivors
Sol d’Urso is a licensed marriage and family therapist who works with various populations including survivors of domestic violence, at-risk children and youth, and survivors of torture. As an immigrant Latina herself, d’Urso’s passion has been working with individuals and families from multiple backgrounds, taking into account issues of immigration, acculturation, ethnicity, race and culture to create dialogue and alternatives to violence in the San Diego community.
Tricia Hilliard serves as a senior mental health clinician at Survivors of Torture International. She works with the clinical team to perform, track and document client services. Prior to joining Survivors, Hilliard gained experience training and supervising Native American foster families and children; training, researching and coordinating duties for child welfare programs; managing activities for community service learning programs; and interviewing survivors of human trafficking. She is a co-author of "Globalization and Human Trafficking," an article published in The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare in June 2007.
Student Moderators: Domenica Berman (San Dieguito Academy) and
Alejandro Palacios Chavez (Federal Lazaro Cardenas)
Stop Impunity: Consequences for Human Rights Violators
Carlos Mauricio was a professor at the University of El Salvador in June 1983 when he was kidnapped from his classroom and taken to National Police headquarters, where he was tortured for two weeks. In 2002, Mauricio founded the Stop Impunity Project, which works to bring an end to the impunity granted to human rights abusers in El Salvador. Since moving to Washington, D.C. in 2010, he has been working to build a coalition of Salvadoran torture survivors and human rights activists to continue to press for justice in El Salvador, and to build bridges between Salvadoran NGOs in El Salvador and the Salvadoran community in the United States.
Student Moderators: Alexis Miranda (CETYS Universidad, Tijuana) and
Rebecca Young (Academy of Our Lady of Peace)
Where Futures Begin: Microfinance
Murugi Kenyatta is the vice president of community development and the former executive director of the Foundation for Women in San Diego. She is responsible for overseeing organizational operations and program development. Born and raised in Kenya, Kenyatta knows firsthand the power and effectiveness of microcredit and brings her personal experience and passion to the mission. She has an extensive background in marketing and nonprofit management and 10 years of experience in project management, strategic planning and public relations.
Student Moderators: Pablo Amabile (Federal Lazaro Cardenas) and
Alexander Dey Bueno (CETYS Universidad, Tijuana)
Assuring Rights in the Business of Development
Dorrett Byrd is the director of the Program Quality Support Department at Catholic Relief Services (CRS), where she manages the provision of technical assistance to CRS' country programs. Prior to this position, Byrd was deputy director for Overseas Operations, where she provided support to CRS projects that addressed the prevalence of child labor in India. Byrd began her career as a research associate with the Center for Policy Research before accepting a position with Africare's country office in Niger. In this role, she designed and implemented development and relief projects, including nutrition, fisheries, water and sanitation, and health programs.
Student Moderator: Isaac Hortiales (Instituto Mexico Americano Noroeste)
Closing Plenary: The Protection of Human Rights
Steven Kashkett became consul general for the Department of State Consulate in Tijuana, Mexico in August 2009. Prior to this assignment, he served four years as the elected head of the American Foreign Service Association, the labor union for U.S. diplomats at the Department of State. He served as U.S. consul general in eastern Canada, based in Halifax, in 2001-2003. His previous overseas tours of duty, as a political officer, include the U.S. embassies in Lebanon, France and Haiti, and the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem. From 1998-2001, Kashkett was senior advisor to the State Department's Coordinator for Counterterrorism.
Adam Finck currently serves as the mission director for Uganda and director of programs in Central Africa for the organization Invisible Children (IC). Before joining IC in San Diego, Finck spent a year and a half in Gulu in northern Uganda as the assistant country director. A graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles with a degree in mass communications and a minor in political science, Finck has also spent time writing for National Geographic and working with Africare as a field correspondent.
Nina Church is a co-founder of NIKA Water, a unique social entrepreneurial model that donates 100 percent of its profits to poverty alleviation through clean water, education and sanitation projects around the world. Church is a senior at La Jolla Country Day School and a former WorldLink intern. She is actively involved in extracurricular clubs, such as Model United Nations, Mock Trial and Free the Children. Church spent the summer of 2011 working as a facilitator for Me to We trips in Kenya. She speaks nationally on behalf of NIKA on the world water crisis, as well as on youth empowerment.
Student Moderator: Luz Elena Castellanos Aleman (CETYS Universidad, Tijuana)
