Foreword from Director Cynthia Rothschild

Cynthia Rothschild Director, William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program at Occidental College

The Kahane U.N. Program returned to an in-person format in 2021, and it was lovely to see (half of, given masks) students’ faces throughout the semester. After a flurry of activity – and COVID research – in the late summer, our meeting sites and the 92nd Street Y were cleared for our attendance and Oxy moved back in. Of course, there were obstacles and challenges throughout the semester, not least of which was the return, for all of us, to in-person experiences after having had a year and a half of suspension of regular social engagement and face-to-face contact.

Nevertheless, we persisted – and I believe the seventeen “Group of ’21” students from the 2021 Oxy Kahane U.N. Program had extraordinary experiences. I’m particularly pleased since this was literally the transition from the suspension of what we all knew as “normal life” to a “full-on back-in-the-saddle” Oxy and Kahane U.N. Program experience. Our team, including students, was resilient. And, for the most part, we were fine. And even better than that.

Overall, we had a very stable and good semester. Students were extremely successful in their work. They shouldered immense responsibility, and they did so with grace and good cheer. As is often the case, they did a fair amount of meeting monitoring, including for General Assembly committees and the Security Council. Those students also followed government negotiations on policy resolutions quite closely.

Others contributed to “backbone projects” for U.N. agencies or non-governmental organizations (NGOs, and a new addition to the Program this year). Some of that work included researching and writing for publications, preparing for officials’ visits to New York, and the regular programming for these sites.

As for the academic component of the semester, the students’ coursework was strong, their writing and presentations creative, and their analytical growth through the semester undeniable. All these factors pushed the challenges into the background. So when the hurricane flooding hit the NYC subways and students couldn’t get to their sites, and a few weeks later, an armed man set up in front of the U.N., we took everything in stride and first made sure we all were OK – and then went about our business of the semester. Maybe most important here was the myriad ways the students expressed and showed care for one another, as there were many lovely gestures during the semester.

With an eye to the future, I’m thrilled to continue along this journey with the Oxy team. As I head into my second in-person experience with a NYC semester, I have a deeper sense of the strengths and challenges of the Program but also of its creative potential. I look forward to accessing more of that as this new iteration of the Program evolves. I do have an eye toward exploring the convening and advocacy possibilities for the Kahane U.N. Program, as well as deeper exposure to the U.N.’s presence in Geneva.

I remain so grateful for the steadfast support of the Kahanes and Oxy staff, faculty, and administration members. Jacques Fomerand remains as co-Director extraordinaire. Robin Craggs and Marisa Grover Mofford (and their International Programs Office team), and Laura Hebert and Derek Shearer are all so very supportive in their mentorship (as are the other faculty within Diplomacy and World Affairs). Huge thanks to all of you.