CSAYN founder and managing director Ntiokam Divine visited Cornell University, in Ithaca, NY, USA, during his first visit to the States last week. Spending three days in Ithaca, a small town surrounded by rural communities in New York state, Mr. Divine met with a team of students from Cornell who will be collaborating with CSAYN this semester on various projects. These projects include the development of an online curriculum on climate smart agriculture and environmental issues for youth and helping to facilitate a CSAYN Talanoa Dialogue. The students–Julie, Tara, Rhea, and Matthew–are all very excited to work with CSAYN and to learn more about international youth engagement and climate smart agriculture.
After flying in from Purdue University in Indiana, USA, Mr. Divine met the students for the first time in person on Sunday, September 30th. Over the next three days, he was a guest of the class “Global Climate Change Science and Policy” that the students are taking and which connected them to CSAYN in the first place. Mr. Divine later presented the governance structure of CSAYN and educated the team on the network’s presence throughout the world.
On Wednesday, October 3rd, Mr. Divine participated in the Ithaca Talanoa Dialogue, which brought together members of the community to discuss the region’s problems and necessary actions in regard to climate change. The goal of the Talanoa Dialogue, instituted by the United Nations this year, “is to humanize local climate change impacts, and increase the pressure on governments and NGOs to increase their commitment to climate change action.”
Mr. Divine left the United States on October 4th, and will be travelling to Kenya for the launch of CSAYN Kenya on October 8th-9th.
