By Ashlee Larrison
GCU News Bureau
Who said a school trip can’t be fun as well as educational?
Eleven Grand Canyon University Honors College students traveled to New York City earlier this month to attend a Youth Assembly with students from around the world. They discussed world issues, learned about leadership and took in some of the city's most iconic sights.
“It was a very incredible experience. It was worth it,” Honors student Sara Cordero said. “It was just a really great opportunity to just listen to professionals all over the world and how they all tackle these humanitarian issues.”
Students discussed immigration, poverty and renewable energy and learned how other countries tackle those issues. The assembly consisted of more diversity than just cultural, allowing student and young adults of a variety of ages to share experiences and learn from people of different ages and mindsets.
“The biggest takeaway for me was probably just being more educated on those global issues and topics,” said Morgan Lentz.
With differing backgrounds, it makes sense that everyone would not agree on everything, but Lentz and her fellow students shared a common goal: how to make the world a better place.
For some students, the assembly was the next step to pursuing their own personal aspirations and learning how to further their humanitarian dreams. Rosaura Carrillo Garcia is the perfect example.
“One of my goals is to own a nonprofit eventually in the future that encourages youth minorities to pursue education beyond high school, so when the opportunity presented itself I jumped right on it,” Carrillo Garcia said. “To be able to go to a conference where there was going to be different individuals with the same goals in empowering youth, I thought that would be a great opportunity to gain insight on what things I could be doing now to pursue my goals later on or to just be a part of something bigger.”
In their downtime, the students were able to see Times Square and Central Park and enjoy the touristy side of a New York vacation.
“It was really fun," Lentz said. “It was definitely great to go to the conference during the day, and at night we’d try to cram in as much sightseeing as we possibly could.”
Contact Ashlee Larrison at (602) 639-8488 or [email protected]
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