'UN conference was a life-changing experience'

Saltus Grammar School student Shaunte Simons had the time of her life at a recent United Nations conference.
She joined 24 students representing Bermuda in New York listening to industry experts and debating  issues around the theme of The Web: Wiring Our World.
They discussed how the Internet has revolutionised our world both for better and for worse. Ms. Simons wrote a diary outlining her experience. Here the Bermuda Sun publishes excerpts from her diary.

Shaute Simon’s diary:

The day is finally here! You know that day that I have been talking you about nonstop? It’s here! It’s my time to shine, my time to learn and my time to spread my wings. I have already told you this but I’m so thrilled that I am going to say it again…”I’m going to the United Nations!”

Tomorrow my life will change; I will be meeting over 1,000 teenagers of high school age from countries all over the world.

Yes, I’m finally here in New York. The city is beautiful and the hotel is remarkable! There are flashing lights everywhere and the sights are consuming all my senses. 

• March 3, 2011:

After breakfast we made a quick Starbucks run and then off to the conference.

We entered the United Nations and went through the necessary security checkpoint. The general assembly room was huge. There was a sea of teenagers from all walks of life filling the conference seats. It appears that there were over 50 countries

represented in the conference. The conference organizers made sure we all did not sit in groups representing our respective countries. They ensured that we got the opportunity to mingle with people from other countries so we can learn about the various cultures. Sarah is smiling! She likes that. Sarah wanted for us to make the most of this trip whilst being good ambassadors for Bermuda.

The conference convened with a speaker from the United Nations International School welcoming us to the conference.

Up next was the student panel speech which consisted of students from India, Morocco, Singapore and Finland. Their speeches were all very good, especially the speech from the Moroccan student who recalled what was going on with the riots and his first hand experience with how Facebook and the Internet had helped organized it.

There were four speakers on this day. The first was a man named Nicholas Negroponte who was the founding chairman of the One Laptop per Child organization. He told us how providing impoverished countries and especially the children of that country with laptops will help raise children with the knowledge that they are entitled to by power of the Internet.

 The next speaker was Mr. Kamran Elahian co-chair of UNDESA-GAID (Global Alliance for IT and Development) his title was The Internet: Digital Gandhi? I must say that personally I would have never thought of the Internet being used as, “peace maker” but this speaker sure opened my mind to the thought.

After a lunch break there were two more speakers. Judith Donath, a Faculty Fellow at the Berkamn Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, talked to us about data portraits and data shadows.

Our last speaker of the day was Mr. Burt Herman who was the CEO and the co-founder of Storify. His presentation was entitled Meaning from Noise: When Everyone’s a Reporter, Who Needs a Journalist?. 

The conference concluded for that day and I was completely drained so it was an early night for us. We had to get our rest for our second and final day of the conference.

• March 4, 2011:

We left the hotel early so that we could get to the conference early and interview students, socialize and meet new people.

The first person I met today was a 16-year-old boy from Senegal, Africa. He is very tall and wore his businesses attire very smartly in respect to his country.

Next I met a friendly guy from Denmark, then two guys from Jamaica who attended Jamaica College (JC). These boys were one of the few people, like myself, who were dressed in uniform. We wore our uniforms with pride.

The last speaker before we broke for lunch was Mr. Lawhead who was a Graduate student of Columbia (Philosophy student of technology) University. Mr. Lawhead speech was entitled Building a Great Community from Terrible People.

After lunch Marc Rotengbergh and Alex Ohanian spoke. Marc Rotengbergh is the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center and he spoke on “Promoting Freedom, Protecting Privacy”.

Alex Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit was by far my favourite speaker. His speech was entitled, The Front Page of the Web We All Curate, Debate and Even Curate. Of all the speakers he was the one that appealed most to our age group. He created the website Reddit after he dropped out of University proving that even as a drop out, you can still be successful.

I spent the afternoon interviewing more students. This is where I told them about my island, Bermuda, the greatest island on earth. I shared with them information from my speech which appeared.

I had another opportunity to speak to the students from Jamaica. I shared with them that I considered myself half Jamaican as my mother is from Jamaica.

They were very enthused with my knowledge about the country and its culture. However I was at the conference as an ambassador of Bermuda and most of my free time was spent getting everybody falling in love with Bermuda. I also gave them trinkets to remind them of the beautiful island of Bermuda.

I have had the time of my life at the conference. I hope I will get another opportunity to attend another conference in the near future. Indeed, it was a great experience which has opened my eyes so much. Truly I can say that it has changed my life for the better.