Last night the YES team met at the Southern New Hampshire University to honour Dr. Ismail Serageldin. Serageldin is receiving an Honorary Doctorate from NHU and the Center for Economic Development. He was the first Vice-President at the World Bank in charge of Environmental and Socially Sustainable Development from 1994-2000, now he is the Director of the Library of Alexandria, where YES will be held this September.
Okay, that was the background info. :P I had such a great time! Dr. Seragledin gave us a wonderfully entertaining history lesson of Egypt. He began with Aristotle and finished with....well, today. It felt short, as his speech was sweet, funny and interesting....definitely not your average academic speech, with tendencies for boredom. It also happened to be his birthday, so everyone surprised him with cake and flowers and of course "Happy Birthday".
The dinner party was a challenge, no less. There were so many people from the Center for Economic Development who were interested in learning about YES. Being in the office so much, I hardly get the chance to communicate what I know. It was good practice, especially given that these people have good knowledge if the International Development Community. I also found myself to be very bashful regarding my responsibility to develop our Knowledge Resource web site.
There was also a new reason to be grateful that day. In New York, just hours earlier, Poonam Ahluwalia, the Summit Director, and Suzanne Mubarak, the Summit Co-Chair, met with Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations. It resulted in a press conference with about 50 different press personal attending. Kofi Annan had announced that he will attend the Summit! Poonam said that the room was full of energy and the sense of commitment to creating youth employment was vibrant.
I love my "job" and the energy I get from it. The most valuable thing I have learned so far, is that any individual can accomplish anything when there mind and heart is put into it. PASSION!