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Press Release: July 31st, 2004
First International Student World Assembly Conference
Teaches Lessons, Forms Friendships
Student
delegates debate issues during a session in Cal Poly's Kennedy
Library July 23. |
SAN
LUIS OBISPO -- For Huseng Vefali of Turkey, the first international
Student World Assembly convention at Cal Poly July 16-23 was
an eye-opener.
As chair of a convention subcommittee, he watched as student
delegates from around the world debated and tackled their
differences in the university's Kennedy Library, eventually
coming to a solution.
"I've learned that if you have an opinion, you should
let people know -- and that your opinion really does matter,"
he said at the close of the weeklong convention July 23.
Vefali was among some 20 international students and 20 U.S.
students who participated in the convention, part of the newly
created Student World Assembly, an Internet project sponsored
by the nonprofit Raynault Foundation. The foundation aims
to create a nongovernmental student organization with ties
to universities from around the world.
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“The goal,” said Raynault Foundation President and Canadian
entrepreneur Paul Raynault, “is to build a nongovernmental
representative world assembly to represent people in much the same
manner as the United Nations represents governments.”
Student World Assembly was launched at Cal Poly in September
2003 and is now jointly headquartered at Cal Poly and La Guardia
College in New York.
SWA currently includes more than 1,000 students at 142 universities
and colleges in 68 countries who communicate via the Internet.
Cal Poly students in political Science Professor Bud Evans’
Global Political Issues have been coordinating events and
publicity for the organization and summer convention.
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Cal
Poly Political Science Professor Bud Evans listens as student
delegates debate an issue during a final committee session
during the Student World Assembly convention. |
The
event brought to Cal Poly students across the United States as well
as from Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, China, Ecuador, Guyana, India,
Iran, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Pakistan, Romania, Senegal, St.
Vincent, Turkey, and Venezuela.
Raynault also attended and watched students grapple with topics
including global environmental sustainability and war, after briefings
on those issues from Cal Poly professors and other experts.
"It's really fascinating to watch the students and what they're
doing," Raynault said on the closing day of the conference
July 23. Noting that many students came from countries without a
strong tradition of national democracy, Raynault observed that "they've
learned the process here. They've learned that on some things, there
is merit to all sides, and they didn't all agree on a course of
action. So they have learned about writing a majority report and
a minority report.
"They've learned about getting votes. When they didn't have
enough votes to do something, they broke down into caucuses, and
talked to each other, managed to change a few minds, and took a
second vote. It was a natural process. And it's something that they
will all take home with them."
SWA
student delegates (l-r) Anthony Navatto of Palermo, Italy,
a student at LaGuardia College in New York City, and Joel
Simpson, Luann DeCosta, and Kadri Parris of the University
of Guyana in Georgetown, Guyana. |
For
Joel Simpson, Luann DeCosta and Kadri Parris of the University
of Guyana, joining SWA and attending the convention were important.
"It was a fruitful convention," said Simpson, a
law major at the South American university. "The fact
that this organization is in its infancy gives us a great
opportunity to influence what it becomes."
"It was important to us to be here, because we represent
the views of students in Third World nations," said DeCosta,
also a law major.
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"It is also important we are here to make a representation
(for Third World countries) in these global issues, as we seem to
bear the brunt of the side effects" of environmental and military
decisions made by "First World" nations, she stressed.
Though the convention had social activities during evenings and
lighter moments, "I wouldn't call it just fun," said Parris,
a civil engineering major. "It was very business-oriented.
Not all of us agreed on issues. But at the end of the day we tried
to observe the principals of democracy. Some feel that democracy
is an ideal that humanity is chasing after, and I have to say I
may have to agree, but the convention was directed toward that (democratic)
process."
Anthony Navatto, a student at LaGuardia College in New York City
who holds dual U.S. and Italian citizenship, agreed. The convention,
he said, "shows you how hard it is for 30 people to agree on
one idea. It shows you how hard it really must be to run a country,
or a government." |
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