With global youths from 26 countries
across five continents gathering together, the 2019 Global Youth Trends Forum
was held in Taiwan from November 5 to 11. This international event has been
held for seven consecutive years so far. This year, the numbers of
participating countries and young people both hit a new high. Several hundreds
of young people from Australia, Bhutan, Brunei, Canada, Germany, Guatemala,
Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, New
Zealand, Paraguay, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Thailand,
the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam came to participate in the
event. Among them, the United States delegation formed by six youths from world Youth Alliance—Julia Kenney, Ethan Mack,
Margaret Snyder, Gabrielle Castello, Ashton Weber, Walker Ray Dornish, all
expressed full satisfaction for this exchange visit to Taiwan and they would
return to the United States with fruitful results.
This year’s forum focused on three
topics: Educational Creativity, Regional Revitalization, and Smart Living. The
United States delegation was led to visit Tainan, Changhua, Hsinchu, Taoyuan
and other places. The first spot was a case of Regional Revitalization—Togo
Rural Village Art Museum, a non-traditional museum that wowed the American
youths in the very beginning. Then, they visited some other brilliant spots,
including Chimei Museum, which was on Parenting Magazine’s Thinking BIG of
Learning Top 100 list in 2018, Youth Travel Spot in Fangyuan Township of
Changhua County to experience the oyster culture and the unique oyster shell
art, Natural Way Experimental Educational Elementary School that combines
oriental humanities and ecology, and Sha Yang Ye Robot Wonderland (Pavilion of
Future), the representative of Smart Living, to DIY a robot with simple
mechanical transmission devices. Through the rich and diversified activity
arrangement, these American young people obtained a further understanding of
the local ecology, cultural heritage, scientific and technological innovation
of Taiwan, and they also sparked ideas and gained cross-border friendships
during the visit.
The highlight of the 2019 Global Youth
Trends Forum was the forum conference on November 9 to 10. Vice President Chen
Chien-jen made the opening ceremony speech, encouraging the young people
present to give full play to their creativity and exert their influence with
the original intention of “what we can contribute to society.” Audrey Tang,
Minister without Portfolio of Executive Yuan, who was selected as one of the
Top 100 Global Thinkers in 2019 by American Foreign Policy Magazine, was
invited to serve as the panel host. In the panel discussion, Ms. Tang and three
other guests, Chebet Lesan, founder of Kenyan smart-energy company Brightgreen
Renewable Energy in, Toshiki Abe, founder, and CEO of Japanese social enterprise
Ridilover, and Justin Yu, co-founder of Taiwanese consulting company Plan b,
shared their rich practical experiences, serving as successful models for the
global youths present on how to integrate the forum’s three topics to practice
the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of SDGs.
For the group discussion, the United
States delegation focused on the topic of Smart Living. They used case studies
to explore the current problems faced by the country from different
perspectives, and proposed an action plan. The US Delegation asked a centered
question, “how can technology improve quality of life by improving the access
quality healthcare?”They combined technology and the idea of health education,
encouraged the idea of volunteering in community engagement, and promoted the
telecommunication solution, including telemedicine.
After two days of brainstorming, these
young people from all over the world had contributed to the sparks of wisdom
and creative exchanges. At the end of the forum, the Cultural Night was held to
enhance the friendship between these global youths. The US Delegation made
every effort to present outstanding American Idol and dance performance, bringing
a World Expo vibe to the audience. With their joyful music and brisk steps, all
the distinguished guests and participating young people could not resist but to
feel excited and tap along.
In today’s globalization trend, global
youths have interacted more frequently in public participation and
international exchange. This year’s forum is not the end but the beginning.
International issues depend on young people’s long-term attention. They can
only be improved and solved by global youths through continuous thinking,
communication, and implementation with a common intention of bringing a
positive change to the world. The Ministry of Education of Taiwan government
also will continue to actively promote the cross-border exchange of young
people. Through diversified channels such as overseas volunteer services,
international experiential learning, international conferences, and exchange
and study, Taiwanese youth are provided with more opportunities to participate
in the international community, sow seeds of international friendship,
cultivate an international vision, and strengthen the knowledge and action in
international affairs.
Feel like to jointly build an ideal
blueprint for our generations with young people from all over the world? If you
want to know the most updated information of the Global Youth Trends Forum and
international exchanges, you must not miss next year’s Global Youth Trends
Forum! For more information regarding the event, please visit the official
website of Youth Development Administration of the Ministry of Education
(http://www.yda.gov.tw) and the Global Youth Trends Forum
(https://iyouth.youthhub.tw/2019ypp/tw/index/index.html).