UFV students Abdul Aziz Ghafoor, Katelyn Van Hove and Tara-Lynn Kozma-Perrin have been chosen to attend the Peace Summit of Emerging Leaders conference to be held on February 5-7, 2020. The three winners will represent both UFV and Canada in Bangkok, Thailand.
“I’m very excited to attend the conference and meet all the other young leaders from around the world to help share some of the skills I’ve learned and to learn a bunch of skills as well, which will be very useful for me and the community here,” said Ghafoor, BSc student.
The purpose of the conference is to empower young people who are passionate about positive social change. The opportunity gives students the ability to acquire new skills and tools, and make connections internationally.
“I believe it’s an amazing opportunity to go on the international level and meet other young individuals who are interested, passionate and focused on creating peace for the world in a very viable manner. I’m really thankful for the opportunity. And I’m really looking forward to bringing all those skills and abilities and connections back to our local ground, here, in BC and in Canada. And, just seeing what I can do with that in order to foster peace in our communities here,” said Van Hove, PACS student.
The conference will gather 500 young leaders from different parts of the world, and will include expert-led talks, networking sessions and meaningful workshops centered around the theme of peacebuilding.
“My creative art practice generally focuses on being able to convey expression and different emotions and feelings with other people to connect people and get people to experience situations that they normally wouldn’t get to experience together. And so, when I saw the expression of interest, I felt that this would be an interesting opportunity for me to go and meet other emerging leaders in the world and be able to connect on similar issues,” said Kozma-Perrin, BFA and GDS alumna.
Over 30 applications were received and reviewed by a small committee at UFV. Sponsorship for the conference came from UFV’s President’s Office and the College of Arts.
Watch Abdul Aziz Ghafoor and Katelyn Van Hove’s full video interview here.
Watch Tara-Lynn Kozma-Perrin’s full video interview here.
Interested in an opportunity that applies your academic knowledge to the real-world?
The College of Arts offers various experiential learning opportunities (domestic & international), to learn more visit: https://www.ufv.ca/arts/experiential-…