After a fantastic academic year with SLU Youth Institute, it is now time for three selected high school students to present their theses in Des Moines, USA. Global Youth Institute, founded by World Food Prize Foundation, brings together international experts and high school students from all Youth Institutes every year to raise awareness of sustainable food production and food security.
Three students, one from Uppsala, one from Umeå and one from Skåne, are nominated each year and get to represent SLU Youth Institute at the international conference Global Youth Institute. This year is the first time since the programme started that the students have the opportunity to go to USA and physically participate in the international round table discussions. As a result of the pandemic, the last Global Youth Institutes have been held digitally.
"Since the start of SLU Youth Institute in 2020, with subsequent years of pandemic, we will now finally get to go to the Global Youth Institute in Iowa, USA. Both the project team, the three students and accompanying teachers are very excited!" - Anna-Klara Lindeborg, project manager SLU Youth Institute.
From the round table discussions in Umeå, Zeb, Tannbergsskolan, and his thesis on how to turn cocaine production into arable land for food in Colombia was nominated. Nina, from Spyken in Lund, wrote about the problems surrounding food waste in Nigeria and Alice from Lundellska in Uppsala wrote about how corruption in Guatemala affects children's nutritional intake. During the week in USA, they will be able to present their problems and solutions in round table discussions with international experts within food security as well as high school students from other Youth Institutes.
"I am really looking forward to the trip to Iowa, USA. It will be very interesting to meet so many other people who are all interested in sustainable food production. I have looked at the packed programme and everything we are going to do, it seems very exciting and fun!
I'm a little nervous about the round table discussions, but at the same time I know that I'm very familiar with Guatemala as a country and the area I've written about, so it will probably go smoothly. What I'm most looking forward to is meeting all the other participants from México, Singapore, the Netherlands, USA and more, it's always fun to get to know new people. In addition, I look forward to being part of something as big as this event actually is, which is also so important for the future of the whole world. I feel very grateful to be part of this interesting week and perhaps start and develop ideas and thoughts that can affect the future food supply." - Alice, participant from Lundellska skolan, Uppsala.
For more information please contact one of the coordinators on e-mail: youthinstitute@slu.se
Anna-Klara Lindeborg (Uppsala region):
Telephone: +46-(0)730-88 64 47
Kristina Karlsson Green (Skåne region):
Telephone: +46-(0)40-41 53 02
Elisabeth Nyström (Umeå Region):
Telephone: +46(0)90-786 82 38