The Young Initiative invites foreign policy experts and guest speakers to campus to engage in discussions on international relations and the global political economy with students and faculty.
Annually: United Nations Week
With the William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program, the Young Initiative supports the annual United Nations Week at Â鶹´«Ã½, each spring. We are passionate in maintaining students involvement and engagement in sustainable development. Our students choose topics that link Global Political Economy, Social Justice, and Sustainable Development.
One Day Conference - Data and the Feminist City Conference - September 30, 2025
The Young Initiative will host invited representatives from city governments from around the world for a one-day conference on the Â鶹´«Ã½ campus. Attendants will share experiences and best practices on reporting mechanisms to gather data, identify gaps in data collection, and help develop strategies for data-driven, actionable solutions.
Ongoing Young Speakers Events
Young Initiative speakers give students and faculty an opportunity to expand their understanding of global issues. The Young Initiative sponsors several speakers each academic year highlighting particular aspects of global affairs and the global political economy. The Young Speakers program is devoted to highlighting the work and success of eminent international affairs experts and Â鶹´«Ã½ alumni in public service and academia.
Click the link below to read a new article by the Director of the McKinnon Center for Global Affairs, Ambassador Derek Shearer.
Michel Gabaudan spoke in the McKinnon Center for Global Affairs at Occidental on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017 and was the keynote speaker for Occidental’s 2017 UN Week.
On Tuesday, Dr. Gregory Treverton spoke about the future of global dynamics, citing a paradox in the trajectory of globalization. As globalization continues to evolve, forces fight against it, yearning for situations of the past.
On Thursday, February 2, 2017, the Honorable Jacqueline Nguyen visited Â鶹´«Ã½ to discuss her journey from Â鶹´«Ã½ on graduation day to her current position as a Judge sitting on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She is the second guest in the ongoing Distinguished Alumni Speaker Series, hosted by both the Young Initiative and the Politics Department.
Dr. Abdul Rahim is the founder of Compass Rose Sdn Bhd, which provides strategic advice and solutions towards enhancing performance, learning and impact. CR helps organizations, networks and communities find the key direction to success and value creation through knowledge, technology and innovation. The consultancy collaborates with a worldwide network of experts and field leaders in providing...
This past week, Philip Schönrock Director of CEPEI (Centro de Pensamiento Estratégico Internacional) in Bogotá Colombia visited Occidental to speak for the SDG Speaker Series.
Jay Solomon is an expert in international diplomacy, nuclear weapons proliferation, counterterrorism, and Middle Eastern and Asian affairs. Mr. Solomon was the first American journalist to uncover the secret meetings between the U.S and Iran, leading the official coverage on the nuclear negotiations for the Wall Street Journal from 2012-2015. Mr.
John Marks, the founder and former president of Search for Common Ground, visited Â鶹´«Ã½ on November 21st and led a discussion titled "Can Sports Bring World Peace?" As a world renowned international conflict management programmer, Marks has aided US diplomatic missions in an effort to ease foreign tensions and reduce conflict risk.
Brought here as part of the "Can the United Nations Empower Social Change?" series; Mr. Altman’s talk primarily focused on the threat to life that queer bodies face globally, examining why sexuality and gender identity have become so politically contested.
On Tuesday, Nov. 1, the Young Initiative welcomed co-founder of the Center for Open Data Partnership Laura Manley to campus. Manley’s presentation focused mainly on targeted group work, where students were asked to create teams to analyze some of the challenges facing the use of data to measure progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.