The UUA's United Nations Office adds a new Youth Envoy Coordinator

By Bruce Knotts

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20110830-091606.jpg
The UUA United Nations Office sadly had to say farewll to Kate Smith who left her position as the UNO's Youth Envoy Coordinator to study in China. Succeeding Kate is Kamila Jacob who comes to the UNO, as Kate did, with talent, ability and enthusiasm. Here, in her own words is Kamila Jacob. Hi! My name is Kamila Jacob and I recently graduated from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA where I majored in Sociology and double minored in Spanish and African American Studies. Born in Manhattan, I was raised Unitarian Universalist spending at least 1 week each summer at UU camps such as SUUSI, Sophia Fahs, and UUMAC. I attended Sunday school at Community Church until just before my 9th grade year when I joined the youth group and participated in the Coming of Age class at All Souls. This was also when I first began attending Metro NY weekend cons. As a youth I always enjoyed participating in UU activities, especially when I got to stand up and take action. In the next few months I look forward to working with the UU-UNO and Youth Envoys. Through my conferences I have met many UU's and those connections will be used as channels through which Youth Envoy's and the UU-UNO can get their message out into the UU world. The UU-UNO can be found on Facebook as well as other social media websites allowing me to engage youth and foster relationships within the Metro NY Youth and Adult Envoys. The UU-UNO also uses social media to express our goals to the greater community engaging youth nation-wide and globally connected. We will work to create and achieve our goals through organized programming allowing us to grow as individuals, challenging ourselves and each other to lean into discomfort. The idea here is to stretch and expand our comfort zones so that we can expand our knowledge, understanding, and acceptance of the multiple cultures we encounter. I believe it is important to embrace multiculturalism in order to progress and see the world from another lens. I hope to guide the Youth Envoy's to work as a collective to come up with ideas for positive change. Furthermore, we will develop tactics and strategies to validate ideas and take action. Through this process I also hope to construct methods for congregations to become more involved in the work of the UU-UNO. By embracing our interdependent web we can make genuine human contacts. Our principles bring us together and our common goal to make positive change in the world unite us. I know the youth will administer their voices to empower others and I am looking forward to aiding them in that process.

About the Author

Bruce Knotts

Bruce Knotts is the Director of the Unitarian Universalist Office at the United Nations. He was born and raised in Southern California. He got his Bachelor’s Degree in History from Pepperdine University and his Master’s Degree in International Education from the Monterey Institute of...

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