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STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: Harry Wu

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  It’s the last day. The fridge in the kitchen hums quietly; if I close my eyes and concentrate, I can just hear the soft thump of my own heartbeat. My face is illuminated by my desk lights and the warm yellow glow of my laptop screen; night mode is turned on so later I could get a modicum of sleep. At my local time, the Knovva Academy mG20 Virtual Summit runs from 11pm until two-thirty in the morning, but it’s time well spent. It’s here that I meet fellow students and friends from all corners of the world; an ambitious uni student in Mexico; a passionate educator in Pakistan; fellow classmates in China who I might be with if I didn’t immigrate to Australia many years ago. We’re here with a mission: to determine the national budget of Mexico and to learn new things in the process. It’s what we do for two weeks. We hold meetings and hammer out the outlines of our spending plan, debating priorities and making tough trade-offs; in a time of crisis, who and what do we most support? We res
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Model G20 Exceptional Delegate Series: Nadia M. (Cohort C, Russia, Minister of Energy)

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  Nadia’s a lot of things: philosophy nut (her favorite subject in school); vice president of her local Rotary Interact chapter (an international organization that, among other heavenly music-generating operations, promotes world peace, fights disease, and grows local economies); and helping hand at her town’s food pantry. She now adds to her All-Around Great Kid Résumé her recent acknowledgment as one of only a handful of Summiters to walk away with an Exceptional Delegate letter pinned to her chest. She’s never read Harry Potter (phew, thought I was the only one…), and her favorite color is orange because “it’s happy!” (You know, Frank Sinatra loved orange for exactly that reason? You two must be onto something…) Give Nadia a round of applause, and your eyes to this post-Summit interview! Justine Hudock:  GIVE US THE RUNDOWN! What’s your name, where are you from, what year are you in school… and what’s a silly, fun fact about you?  Nadia M.:  I’m Nadia Makuc from Monterey, Massachuse
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Interview with Dr. Samuel S. Myers of Harvard University

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  Samuel S. Myers is no veteran of the field of Planetary Health: He’s one of its founders. The broad study of human health impacts on Earth’s natural systems is such a (perhaps dishearteningly) novel concentration that Dr. Myers’s unsown terrain has only very recently been folded into that more compact header. The multi-certificated doctor — carrying with him a bachelor’s from Harvard College, an MD from Yale University School of Medicine, and an MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health — the scope of Dr. Myers’s areas of interests seems reassuring as grand as those problems facing our world’s climate and the welfare of its people.  We were honored to engage Dr. Myers as one of our keynote speakers at Knovva Academy ’s most recent Model G20 Summit, Climate Change and the Future of Humanity, where he spoke with sense, reason, and pride about humankind’s adaptability, breathing new motivation into our international constituency of over 400 students.  MG20 Program Director
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Model G20 Exceptional Delegate Series: Noah B. (Cohort A, Russia, Minister of Transportation)

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Noah B. is a veteran of the Summit community: Climate Change and the Future of Humanity makes lucky number three in this California sophomore’s satchel of Knovva Academy -filled weekends. His eloquence belies his age: How can this kid only be in his early teens? And already honored by our Summit Committee as nothing less than one in a handful of Exceptional Delegates in our past roster of over 400 kids?  After our conversation — peppered and salted with reiterations of his love for food, consumption, and creation — the only conclusion that seemed possible is that this kid is bursting with the healthy fats and creative gray cells of a lifetime gourmet that can, à la  Ratatouille , turn even a rodent into a remarkably cogent young mind. Noah, if you’re reading this: That parallel was meant to be a compliment. Noah is a traveler, a seeker, a writer, (though not a  SpongeBob SquarePants  watcher), and a credit to his generation in more ways than just his dedication to learning as much abou
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Interview with Cary Krosinsky of Yale University

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  Financial management in small and grand scopes is the undersung VIP of every Knovva Academy summit: when the cash changing hands scales up from individual transactions to that of entire nations’ budget sheets, the game scales — particularly in sweat-inducing consequentiality.  Cary Krosinsky of Yale University was a beacon of modern monetary policy knowledge to our 400 students at the recently concluded Model G20 Summit : Climate Change and the Future of Humanity.  During the day, Cary Krosinsky has nearly as many titles as his last name has consonants: lecturer in the Practice of Management at the Yale School of Management, and Faculty Adviser at the Yale College on Energy Studies, Climate, and Investing. He also teaches the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Investing at Brown University, helping support the Sustainable Investment Fund within the Brown Endowment, and has been an MBA Lecturer at Concordia and Maryland. He also helped lead and design the RFK Sustainable Investing pro
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STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: Is the Pandemic Really An Obstacle? – Victoria Buendía

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Hello! I’m Victoria, and I am from Spain, but I am currently living in Mexico. As a Bachelor in Global Business student at the ITESM, I am constantly looking for opportunities to grow as a student, as a leader, and future valuable graduate of the world, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic, which is going to determine not only our short-term future but tendencies, society’s long-term future and the way we see the world. Knovva Academy and this special Summit have brought me the opportunity to not only be an international leader but an analyst and strategist that can seek opportunities for national growth and global collaboration during this present crisis and most importantly, the post-pandemic reality, which no other event nor academy would have given me.  My life, like everyone else’s, has totally transformed since the beginning of the year. I stay in my home, I take online classes, I graduated from high school and I started my career at the best university in my country. My rou
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STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: Amira Anjani

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       “Amira” is a name with an odd duality: It derives from an old Arabic word that can, at the same time, connote “commander” or “princess” — a name that reflected Amira’s personality the very first time she spoke to me. Practical and imaginative at once, Amira wants to invent “a software or tech that types out or projects your thoughts, emotions or imaginations. “This would make communication so much easier, especially as it eliminates language barriers and allows people who have difficulties articulating their ideas or communicating in general converse or present their ideas.” The ethos of her name followed throughout our conversation. She wants to study economics and finance in college, but most look forward to the freedom and independence of higher education. She thinks people would define her as outgoing and extroverted but knows herself to be quite timid and quiet when they aren’t looking. “Someone once told me ‘You should fear nothing. The worst thing that could happen to you
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