Newsroom > Student Winners of the “End of Poverty” Exhibit Begin Their United Nations Experience

Newsroom Archive


   

Student Winners of the “End of Poverty” Exhibit Begin Their United Nations Experience

The "END OF POVERTY" student exhibit in the President's Gallery culminated with a winning prize for the student who had the best art and essay solution to poverty. Co-winners Josephine Chumpitaz and Yalitza Rodriguez received a one-year appointment as International Center for Integrative Studies (ICIS) Youth Representatives to the United Nations under the mentorship of Bruce Cohen, Board Member of the ICIS who serves as its main representative to the United Nations.

ICIS collaborated with the Department of Art & Music for the purpose of developing a multi-media arts and writing competition for CUNY students. The competition was designed to be an impetus for creative thought in response to the question: “The End of Poverty: What Would It Look Like and How Do We Get There?”

“Although young people have extraordinary ideas, they may not always have a forum for the expression of these ideas. This competition has the purpose of giving voice to the voiceless,” said Cohen. “We wished to raise consciousness about ending poverty, one of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, by exploring ideas and possible solutions elicited from students.” ICIS has a nearly fifty year affiliation with the UN and was created to advance interdisciplinary communication and cooperation among the humanities, behavioral, social and life sciences to bring about new ways of approaching societal and world concerns.

“ICIS is offering John Jay students Josephine and Yalitza the opportunity to be exposed to worlds beyond their experience, to walk the halls with diplomats, to view the activities of the UN more closely, to attend briefings and exchange new ideas with UN personnel and other youth representatives, and to explore opportunities to combine their education with a United Nations experience,” Cohen said.

“Josephine Chumpitaz and Yalitza Rodriguez are gifted, dedicated, young women who have the potential to make important contributions to this world. We encourage them to take full value from their appointment as ICIS UN Youth Representatives, to hone their thinking, and take active, noble roles as thoughtful and productive world citizens” he said.