IVECA Global Youth Mentorship: Collaboration for a Sustainable Future
“I hope to use my passion for international affairs to help mentor young people, learn a lot myself, and contribute to their academic growth.” This is how one mentor participating in the IVECA Global Youth Mentorship Program (iGYMP) described her hope for participating in this unique opportunity. This fall, iGYMP brings together over a dozen mentors from universities in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States to explore the theme “Youth Innovations for a Sustainable Future”. Through the IVECA Virtual Classroom, mentors will connect with South Korean high school students to foster collaboration, intercultural understanding and creative approaches to global challenges.
Meeting with the IVECA team at the end of September, mentors were introduced to the program’s goals and approach to intercultural communicative competence (ICC), their roles and responsibilities. Through the program, mentors will play a large part in supporting students as they develop their ICC by sharing their diverse perspectives on global challenges, modeling how to communicate ideas across cultural and linguistic differences, and encouraging students to reflect on their experiences as they develop solutions. When asked about their experiences with intercultural communication, one mentor aptly summarized, “[ICC] is the ability to communicate, work, and build real connections across different cultural backgrounds in a respectful way.”
These principles will guide mentors as they work collaboratively in interdisciplinary teams, drawing from their varied educational expertise and lived experiences to develop projects related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Focusing on the the United Nations’s priorities for 2027, including those highlighted at the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) and the UN General Assembly’s SDG Summit, participants will investigate challenges in their communities, developing evidence-based proposals while exploring issues such as education access, inequality, responsible consumption, environmental protection, and climate action.
By sharing their project-building process and exchanging ideas, both mentors and mentees will take part in a rare opportunity to learn from their global peers, consider how challenges present in different communities, and recognize the importance of international partnership in sustainability efforts. Mentees will receive constructive feedback, explore new perspectives on local challenges, and strengthen their ability to research issues, evaluate possible solutions, and communicate their ideas. For mentors, the experience offers an opportunity to share their knowledge, develop their leadership and collaboration skills. Culminating in a virtual Live Class meeting at the end of the year, these participants will present their final projects to one another.
The iGYMP program aims to encourage young people to see themselves as contributors to a more equitable, sustainable future now. The mentors’ and mentees’ efforts to work together across language barriers, geographic borders, and cultural differences remind us that we are all global citizens today, regardless of our age or location. As active members of a global community, we learn that change does not have to wait when we collaborate. Capturing the program’s spirit of innovative collaboration for a sustainable future, one mentor shared, “I hope to contribute my personal experiences to help others and also grow alongside everyone as I learn more about engaging globally through this program.”
