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UN Chronicle, Summer, 2000

Commemorating United Nations Day (24 October) in 1999, several hundred high school students in Philadelphia received a firsthand look at how their world would be in 40 or so years at Chestnut Hill College (CHC), Pennsylvania, United States. Jean Smith, Director of International Programs AARP/UN, delivered the keynote address, "Human Rights Across the Generations", at the opening of the conference.

In its resolution 47/5 of 16 October 1992, the United Nations General Assembly designated 1999 as the International Year of Older Persons. It did so "... in recognition of humanity's demographic coming of age and the promise it holds for maturing attitudes and capabilities in social, economic, cultural and spiritual undertaking, not least for global peace and development in the next century".

CHC, the Global Education Motivators (GEM, Inc.) and the United Nations all sponsored the conference. As part of its mission statement, CHC promotes "... service to one another and to the global community ... to create local and global connections that enable students to respond to the needs of others through service-oriented enterprises. The College educates students to identify and to address issues of social justice and to work toward systemic change." CHC is also a two-year grantee of the United States Department of Education's Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Programme.

GEM Inc. is a nonprofit educational organization based at CHC and is a non-governmental organization, in association with the UN Department of Public Information. GEM services schools to promote global awareness, understanding and responsibility in an interdependent world, with focus on the United Nations, human rights and the environment. Services include UN programmes, global resources, international links and customized study/travel trips related to understanding life in our interdependent world.

Following Ms. Smith's address, the students from the 11 participating Philadelphia-area high schools joined in various discussion groups, each led by CHC faculty or GEM members. Some of the subjects they focused on included: Impact of Aging on Society; Intergenerational Living at Home; Effects of Leaving Home; Age Discrimination; and International Year of Older Persons. Each school registered and attending the conference sent two students and one teacher on a free trip to the United Nations for Human Rights Day on 10 December.

Chestnut Hill College is a Catholic, liberal, arts college with an undergraduate College for Women and coeducational programmes offering accelerated undergraduate degrees, as well as masters and doctoral degrees. Visit the College's Web site at www.chc.edu.