Second model G-20 Summit attracts nearly 300 high school students to Alter Hall
For the second year in a row, the Fox School of Business hosted the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia’s model G-20 Summit for high school students.
Two hundred seventy students from across the Philadelphia region gathered March 9 in Alter Hall to discuss global issues with a focus on youth unemployment and food security.
"Temple’s CIBER was proud to sponsor the World Affairs Council event again this year. Part of the CIBER mandate includes support for K-12 education and we believe this summit is a wonderful way to promote the development of international skills, awareness, and expertise for high school students as they prepare to become our next international leaders,” said Rebecca Geffner, director of International Programs, CIBER/IGMS.
Ten Fox School undergraduates and two graduate students volunteered, during Spring Break, to work with the delegations and assist with their breakout sessions.
High school student leaders went through an intensive interview selection process in order to represent a delegation at the summit of leading rich and developing nations. Students were assigned to one of the world’s 20 major economies and asked to seek resolutions for the issues at hand.
After deliberating over which issues were most important from the perspective of their particular nation, each delegation produced a policy proposal, which was later debated by the entire G-20. At the end of the day, one final, integrated communiqué was decided upon in the best interest of the greater global community.
The council’s partnership with Fox contributed immensely to the evolution of the G-20 Summit.
“Fox in fact became a critical and core sponsor by offering the space for free,” said Dana Devon, vice president of education for the World Affairs Council. “Beyond that, the space was state of the art. Students saw the ticker tape and felt like they hit the big time. Everyone had to step up their game coming into Alter Hall. It inspired them.”
Alter Hall’s technology also added to the program. Video conferencing equipment enabled summit leaders to conference in students from Pittsburgh, Slovenia and Pakistan. “We could not do that without Temple,” Devon said.
The council chose to turn its annual model United Nations program into a mock G-20 Summit in 2011 because of its contemporary approach of looking at long-term sustainable global issues and resolutions.
“I cannot overstate how our partnership with the Fox School has immeasurably added to the caliber of program we offer to students,” Devon said.
