Jonathon Cummings is a second-year CIPA student who is concentrating his studies on Government, Politics and Policy.
I spent the summer working as a Diplomatic Engagement Associate for the Global Young Leaders Academy (GYLA). GYLA is the youth arm of the Global Peace Foundation (GPF) and is a leadership development organization that empowers young leaders through innovative programming.
The specific program that I worked on was the International Young Leaders Assembly (IYLA), an annual partnership-driven leadership development program
that empowers young leaders to positively impact their communities, nations, and the world. IYLA is broken into two categories: The Global Ambassador portion and the UN and World Bank Global Summits. The Global Ambassador portion is a ten-day program that takes place at the United Nations Headquarters, UN Permanent Missions in New York, the Embassy of the Philippines in DC, the Department of State, the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, the US Capitol, World Bank, Organization of American States, and the Wilson Center. At the end of the Global Ambassador portion, the delegates who participate in the full program attend a Global Ambassador Commissioning Ceremony at the United Nations. Roughly 20 to 35 people attend the full Global Ambassador program. The Global Summits are programs that take place in the UN General Assembly and the World Bank and are open to a larger audience. IYLA hosts young professionals, students and Globally significant leaders such as Members of Parliament and Diplomats. Annually, the Global Summits attract over 1500 young leaders from more than 70 different countries.
As a Diplomatic Engagement Associate, my responsibilities were to conduct research on domestic and international organizations; secure various embassies, UN Missions and UN Agencies as partner organizations; attend conference forums focused on peace, conflict resolution, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals; and serve as a liaison and assist in the development of the overall program of IYLA. In this position, I added three new embassy partners to our current list, recruited delegates to attend the Global Summits from the United Nations, the Manhattan Borough President’s Office, various embassies, and the World Bank. I also organized and led a tour of the Permanent Mission of Jamaica, gave the opening remarks and led an icebreaker at the World Bank Summit, spoke at the US Senate, and secured the American Red Cross as a partner organization. In this role, the Red Cross provided a free interactive session on International Humanitarian Law and has agreed to perform this training annually.
The highlight of my summer was giving the closing speech at the United Nations Global Summit. Working with GYLA was a truly transformative opportunity and I’m looking forward to continuing my involvement with this organization in the future.