United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) has launched its new Digital Discussion Series, an online series of podcasts and social media conversations with innovators, researchers, activists and educators talking about a range of diverse issues that matter to the UNAI audience!
Our inaugural podcast looks at the #NotTooYoungToRun campaign, a movement spearheaded by a coalition of partners which includes UNDP, OHCHR, the European Youth Forum, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Youth Initiative for Advocacy Growth & Advancement. The Office of the Secretary General's Envoy on Youth's office has played a key role in initiating and launching the global campaign to promote the rights of young people running for public office, with a special focus on combating age discrimination. Despite the fact that people under 30 years of age make up 51 per cent of the global population, they represent only 2 per cent of elected officials and 73 per cent of countries place restrictions on young people running for office, even if they are old enough to vote. The Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, Ahmad Alhendawi, believes Young people have every right to be active participants in civic and public life and it is time to ensure they no longer face arbitrary barriers to run for public office – whether at the local, regional or national level.?
UNAI intern Maria Gershuni talked with two remarkable young people, 20 year old Mary Rutigliano and 21 year old Matthew Cook, students at the State University of New York College at Geneseo in the USA, who ran for public office in the Village of Geneseo and were elected to the 5 person Board of Trustees. Mary and Matt discuss the challenges they faced running for office at the local level, their accomplishments, and their advice for young people who want to run for office.
Mary Rutigliano was born in Geneseo, New York. She was the recipient of a grant from the Clinton Global Initiative University, documenting and mapping indigenous artisans and musicians in rural Nicaragua. Currently a sophomore at SUNY Geneseo, she studies English Literature and Spanish with hopes of becoming a medical interpreter. Matthew Cook is a Rochester native who decided to attend SUNY Geneseo as a member of the Access Opportunity Program where he majors in History and Political-Science with a pre-Law concentration. Cook has always been interested in the civic engagement of young citizens and hopes to make a career for himself encouraging the involvement of young people in the decisions and laws that determine their everyday lives.
The Village of Geneseo is a small town with a big university population, and Rutigliano and Cook decided to run for seats on the Village Board of Trustees because they saw their community split between the students of the university and the residents of the village, and they wanted to bring the two sectors of the community together for better collaboration and cooperation.? After a long campaign that involved trekking through the harsh upstate New York winters to canvas for votes, the two students were elected and now serve as Trustees in the village, making important legislative decisions and improving the lives of their peers and constituents.
You can listen to the entire conversation with Rutigliano and Cook and you can learn more about the #NotTooYoungToRun campaign .?