One Young World is the global forum for young leaders. Every year the One Young World Summit brings together the brightest young minds to educate, inspire and enable them to solve some of the most pressing global issues. Delegates from 190+ countries expand their knowledge and are counseled by inspiring role models and influential leaders. The topics represented at the summit are reviewed every year to ensure maximum relevance to the current worldview. Once the delegate attends the summit, they become one of the 13 500+ ambassadors whose work has positively contributed to more than 30 million people around the world and continue to do so every day.
Western Union has participated as a corporate partner in One Young World Summits since 2016. This year the company attended digitally and was represented by four delegates.
Commitments and insights from the Summit
What does One Young World Summit mean for Western Union young leaders? Nicole Gueorguieva shares:
One of them is Nicole Gueorguieva and she shares that by attending the summit Western Union makes two commitments:
“The first one is to invest in the company’s future leaders. Each year the summit brings together thousands of young people who then go back to their companies to contribute to a better culture and initiate impactful projects. Many of them advance to leadership positions where they can have an even bigger influence over the company’s direction. The second commitment that the company makes is to be actively involved in global issues such as education, equality, and promoting sustainability.”
What insights and learning One Young World Summit gave to you and the team? Sebastian Cespedes Chavarria shares:
Participating in the One Young World Summit creates not only an impact for the organization but the individuals, too. According to Sebastian Cespedes Chavarria, the event gave him hope:
“The opportunity to see that there are hundreds of leaders across the globe working hard to save our planet in a sustainable way has to be the best medicine for the heart and soul for all generations.” Furthermore, Sebastian adds that attending One Young World is like a shot of adrenaline: “It drives the attendees to do more because any action is better than inaction when it comes to achieving the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals as a team that is driven by the same purposes: a better world for everyone.”
Each delegate is invited to commit to certain actions as One Young World ambassador. What those commitments can be? Sara Marrannino shares:
Even though listening to and learning from the amazing speakers is a pleasure and an unforgettable experience, it is not the most important ingredient that makes One Young World such a change-generating event – taking action is. At the end of the summit, each delegate is invited to commit to certain actions he or she will carry on in their life moving forward. Sara Marrannino shares hers:
“My commitment is to stay committed and inspired by what I saw and experienced at One Young World. What I mean by that is, it would be so easy to slip back into a normal routine after the summit, return to my bubble. But I can’t ignore the work that needs to be done. I was proud to be a part of the experience and plan on keeping in touch with other ambassadors within Western Union and externally, and on using her privilege for purpose.”
Learning action projects that drive DEI
Another way the new ambassadors commit to taking action is by working on learning action projects. Nicole tells us more about this concept: “Once we return to Western Union after the summit, we come up with learning action projects which aim to make a positive change on a specific topic. This year we have chosen to contribute to the amazing efforts on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) that are being made in the company. We hope that our passion and learnings will help WU become a leader within DEI and an example for other organizations. Our work on the learning action projects is supported by the One Young WU leadership team who take time to guide us, to connect us with the right people, and to cheer us on.”
