My Summer with the UU-UNO

By UUA International Resources

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[gallery type="rectangular" ids="6766,6769,6767,6764,6765,6768"] Hi everyone, Like my fellow intern Zandy, today marks my last day as an intern with the Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office. Through the last ten weeks with the office I have had such an amazing experience and will thoroughly miss it. The other interns and staff members I met here will be connections and friends for years to come I hope, and the opportunity to work on important causes about which I am passionate has been both affirming and inspiring. My name is Sage Mitch, and I am a junior at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. I came into this internship without any clear expectations for what this internship might look like or what my role with the office would be. While searching for positions this summer, I discovered the UU-UNO, and thought as a life-long UU and budding international relations enthusiast, the position would be a perfect fit. At the end now of a summer here that passed altogether too quickly, I know that I was right. The small, but ambitious nature of the office allowed me to explore many different interests and participate in several projects. Like Zandy, I began my summer making calls to our Envoys in congregations across the US and Canada in order to get feedback on the program and update our database of contact information. It was inspiring to speak with such dedicated volunteers, many of whom have been involved with the office for years and years. It was intimidating at first as a brand new member of the office to be speaking to such expert enthusiasts, but I quickly came to enjoy the task. It was really a great reflection of the care and passion in so many UUs that envoys, young and old, would take the time to speak with me quite extensively about their ideas and experiences. After speaking with so many people about their passions, I was eager to begin working with my own at the office. After doing a little work with the Every Child is Our Child program, I began working chiefly as the climate change intern within the office. As the climate change intern, I prepared to be in contact with Climate Action Teams (CATs), research climate issues and potential projects, and encourage the expansion of the CAT program. In the first week of July though, I heard murmurs about the People’s Climate March. Between inquiries to our office and our own research, it quickly became clear that this March was going to be a big deal, and something we had to get involved in. I made the necessary contacts with UUs involved in the early organizing, and we reached out to our Climate Action Teams. I thought that this would be a good event for the office to participate in in September, but not a major project. Then sometime toward the end of the month, the March exploded into action. I feel as though I’ve spent most of the past month in communications about the March and the activities and workshops scheduled surrounding it, and I have loved every minute of it. The March is scheduled for Sunday, September 21 to correspond to a UN Summit for world leaders on climate change the following week, and is supposed to be the largest climate march in history. Thousands of UUs will be involved among a massive interfaith movement. Witnessing the connection between so many different faiths and climate justice has been truly inspiring. It is very difficult for me to have to leave this project now and miss the March itself. I wholeheartedly encourage anyone who can toparticipate in the myriad of UU and interfaith activities that weekend and to carry the messages of climate justice beyond! In addition to my work with climate change, I did some work with the NGO committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security, specifically with the publication they produce called The Disarmament Times. In this work I was able to research and learn about leading disarmament experts and efforts. Through this work, I also learned more about the interconnected nature of many of the human rights issues our office works to address. For instance, between my two main areas of climate change and disarmament, I was able to see how an increasing climate crisis and dearth of natural resources is leading to more global political conflict; and in reverse, the defense industry is a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions. And the connections extend throughout the realm of human rights; in helping to prepare materials for congregations to celebrate UN Sunday I repeatedly saw the connection between this year’s theme of indigenous rights to my focus of climate justice – among the many other areas it can connect to including women’s rights, SOGI/LGBT rights, and economic justice. Because our office addresses such a broad range of issues, I saw more the universal effects of human rights abuses and the need for action in all areas. I leave my internship impassioned to take these lessons with me in my work in the future. This summer I had the opportunity to shake hands with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and see Mala Yousafzai speak (both of which left me feeling star struck and inspired), but was most impressed by the work I see going on in the UU-UNO every day. I learned this summer how much work goes in to true progress and the role that I can play in working for human rights. I hope to have the opportunity in my work in the future to pursue something I am as passionate about with as talented a group of people as the staff and interns at the UU-UNO this summer. In Peace and Justice, Sage If you are interested in learning more about the UU-UNO internship program, please email Nickie Tiedeman at ntiedeman@uua.org.

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UUA International Resources

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