Globalization, Youth and Innovation: How International Conferences Shaped My View of the World.
By Carlos Eduardo Vargas
Carlos Eduardo is Chief Executive Officer of 1001 Ideas, Ambassador from Venezuela of One Young World, Resolution Fellow of the Resolution Project (Class 10) and Global Shaper of the Caracas Hub.
Over the last part of 2014 and the beginning of 2015, I was at a difficult moment in my life. Things weren’t going so well at law school. I had finished being representative of the Venezuelan Student Movement with a bittersweet taste in my mouth, and, frankly, I didn’t know for sure what I was going to do with my life. I spent hours and hours thinking about what my role was in the political/social landscape of Venezuela and the world. Over that period of time, I even questioned my public calling, which had seemed so sure to me in the first years of my career. That was the moment in which I decided to stand up and take action to create new rules to match my beliefs; that sense of purpose, combined with hard work and international opportunities, showed me the path I walk today.
In March, 2015 I received a diploma in Governability, Public and Political Management, and I also applied to be a part of the IV Youth Forum of the Americas under the scope of the VII Summit of the Americas that was going to be held in Panama. That international experience was different from the ones in which I had participated before (Model United Nations and representation of the Venezuelan Student Movement in international forums) because I was with open eyes and ears looking for potential opportunities for my professional development.
I remember two moments of the Youth Forum that, I believe, changed my life. First, a young Venezuelan man was invited to be speaker in one of the panels, and the way he represented our country upon that stage inspired me. He said he was a part of something called the Global Shaper Community (GSC), so I wrote it down on the agenda of the event (those little blue books you see in the first picture). Today, Juan José Pocaterra has helped 1001 Ideas in several activities as a mentor, and we now share participation in the Shapers Caracas Hub. The GSC wasn’t the only thing I wrote on the agenda of the event: I also remember hearing a speech from a young Canadian panelist who talked about her experience being ambassador of One Young World, and her words about it inspired me as well. There was also a lot of talking about something called “entrepreneurship” that I really didn’t understand at that time.
When I came back to Caracas I started researching both of those opportunities, and in just a couple of weeks I was filling out my proposed profile for the OYW website. When I was drafting my profile, I didn’t know for sure if I was going to be able to participate in the upcoming OYW Summit in Bangkok, but somehow it felt like it was the right thing to do. I also ended up finding Juan José’s phone number and writing him to see how I could be a part of the Shapers Community. Juan told me I needed to wait until July to be able to participate in the selection process of the Hub.
The Youth Forum of the Americas had re-awakened in me that sense of purpose, and the research that began with the GSC and OYW now took shape into new opportunities for my next role. I was working as Adviser of the Human Rights Centre in my university, but between my classes and my work I was meeting with teachers and friends to talk about a project that we had developed in the diploma mentioned earlier. This project was about engaging young people that were unaffiliated with or uninterested in the political landscape of Venezuela. We were sure on the target but had doubts on the methodology of intervention.
In June 2015 my application to attend the OYW Summit was approved, but the fee to attend was £2,750 (without plane tickets), so obviously that was out of the question for me. I continued working really hard in both my classes and my work, but especially on that project (which didn’t have a name yet). That’s when something magical happened: on October 8th, I received an email from Ed Bentsi-Enchill, Content & Communications Executive of One Young World, in which he offered me a full scholarship to attend the One Young World Summit. I have to make a pause here to say how surreal it was for me to receive that email. I remember that moment like yesterday but it wasn’t until today that I realized that if I had not filled the profile after hearing about One Young World in the Summit of the Americas, then I would have never received that email from Ed.
Long story short, I went to Bangkok a month later, where I was Guest Speaker on the Plenary Session of Leadership & Government and also a Speaker for the #CallOnCOP movement. I also participated for the first time in the Social Venture Challenge (SVC) of the Resolution Project with that same initiative, which now had a name: 1001 Ideas For My Country.
I didn’t make it to the finals of the SVC but it didn’t matter; I remember One Young World as one of the most enriching experiences I have ever had. I came back to Caracas with three clear ideas on where to lead 1001 Ideas: social entrepreneurship, sustainable development, and social businesses. Today 1001 Ideas has its own methodology of engagement called youth ecosystems for innovative societies, and I’m 1001% sure that a lot of it is because of what I learned in the OYW Summit.
Since that moment, things have gone great for us. Our organization has also participated in other international forums such as:
- International Encounter of Youth Policies and Inequities on Latin America — Mexico City, Mexico — December, 2016.
- 47º Period of Session of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States — Cancun, Mexico — June, 2017.
- Youth Assembly at the United Nations — New York, United States — August, 2017.
- Latin American Impact Investment Forum — Merida, Mexico — February, 2018.
- Civil Society Forum & Youth Forum of the Americas — VIII Summit of the Americas — Lima, Peru — April, 2018.
Each and every one of these events has given us invaluable insights that have helped us in our work. One example was our first international experience as an organization, where we met with a Venezuelan who was working on the International Organism of Youth for Ibero-America who talked to us about his dream to see a project for young women in his hometown (Barquisimeto). We came back to Caracas and started developing a project alongside young social entrepreneurs, which became a program called Fempower. Fempower was the same project that we presented in the Resolution SVC at the Youth Assembly, where I received my Resolution Fellowship. We’re now working alongside The Resolution Project to support the program and make it grow.
I almost forgot to mention that over that period, I applied also to be a Global Shaper and didn’t make it. It wasn’t until October of last year when I applied again and went through a 5-month selection process before being selected just a couple of weeks ago. For me, that outcome and my participation in the recent Summit of the Americas was the closure of a period of my life that I can summarize as: globalization, youth, and innovation.
If any young leader is reading these words, I encourage him or her to never give up. Dreams do come true, but we need to work with heart, honor, and hard work to transform them into reality. Start researching about what you feel is your purpose, find international opportunities to shape your view of the world, too. There are a million of opportunities to live new experiences (sponsorships, scholarships, and other forms of support). The future will be made from what we build today.
Looking forward to seeing what the future holds for me!
