CURRICULUM
Global Young Leaders Conference United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
Loreto Toorak’s participation in the Global Young Leaders Conference was made possible by the extraordinarily generous support of alumna Mrs Rita André (O’Sullevan, 1941), in honour of her sister Miss Dora O’Sullevan. Mrs André’s belief in the capacity of Loreto women to do great things, encouraged her commitment to support strong leadership both at school and later in life. Enabling Loreto Toorak students to attend this conference is indeed an outstanding measure of her commitment.
In July 2019, a group of five Year 11 students from Loreto Toorak took part in the Global Young Leaders Conference (GYLC); a leadership and politics program involving student delegates from around the world with a focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The conference administered by Envision Education, took place in Washington DC and New York City, USA. Our experience began with a cultural immersion in Washington. From the minute we stepped foot into the GYLC with 300 other scholars from all over the world, we were divided into working assemblies or country groups of 20 scholars. Although it was in our country groups that we spent most of our time debating, 22
discussing and listening to others, we were grateful to have the companionship of the other Loreto Toorak girls for an excitable chat about the daily stories and experiences we encountered. As we began discussions on international diplomacy and relations, leadership, cross cultural communication and progress for all nations with people from all over the world in our country groups, we shifted our focus to a task that became our main activity at the conference. Within our country groups we discussed the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals which address the global challenges the world faces, and a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all, including clean water and sanitation, zero hunger, no
