Helping Tomorrow’s Leaders Today ..sun joins youth leaders at UN Global Youth Summit

November 21, 2006 – Solving the world’s problems doesn’t come easy. But recently, hundreds of young delegates from the United Nations’ member countries got a little help from Sun Microsystems.

The mission of the delegates to the UN Global Youth Leadership Summit in New York was to address the challenges posed by some the world’s most difficult problems – extreme hunger and poverty, environmental sustainability, and maternal and child health care in the developing and developed world.

As the sole corporate sponsor and technology partner for the UN Youth Summit series, Sun offered the delegates a platform for networking during and after the event, and provided training on technology-enabled collaboration, blogging, and communications.

“We are excited to partner again with Sun Microsystems so that youth leaders from around the world can learn how technology can help accelerate progress toward the challenges that face the world,” said Dr. Djibril Diallo, director of the UN New York Office of Sport for Development and Peace and chair of the UN Youth Summit series.

To aid the young men and women in understanding how new technologies could help them improve their work, collaborate with peers, and maintain connections, a group of seasoned professionals, including more than 30 volunteers based in the New York City area, volunteered their time and talents to represent Sun at the Summit.

One Volunteer’s Story

Ann McDermott, a Sun technical specialist based in New York, where she serves customers in the Financial Services sector, was one of them. Ann managed her Wall Street customers during the day and gave up nights and weekends to lead the technical engagement with the UN Global Youth Leadership Summit. She architected the network infrastructure that Sun mobilized for this initiative and oversaw its implementation.

For McDermott, architecting and managing the network access in the Global Village at the Summit was the biggest challenge. The Village was in the middle of a security-cleared UN plaza, creating a host of logistical and other issues. “I’ve spent an entire career developing my technical credentials. It was a great opportunity to be able to make that the focus of my volunteer work,” said McDermott.

Mentoring in the Participation Age

Sun also offered a first-time mentoring program for the youth delegates, matching them up with Sun employees around the world with business, technological, or personal expertise in areas that could benefit the delegates’ home-country projects. Hundreds of volunteers from 15 countries have stepped forward to participate in this volunteer initiative, which anchors the interaction between the mentor and the youth delegate on the network. The online environment will provide a venue for matching mentors and delegates and for managing and conducting the mentor relationship throughout the year.

Supported by a network-based infrastructure delivered by Sun’s collaborator, Triple Creek, the Sun volunteers and the youth delegates were paired off in one-on-one relationships. Over the course of the year-long program, the volunteers will share private sector disciplines and best practices around building community, fueling momentum, creating impact, and measuring results.

At Sun, we understand that the Participation Age is built on a model of networked human beings who share, interact, and solve problems. We’re proud to have our best and brightest engaged in one-on-one mentoring relationships with the distinguished young people brought forward by the UN Global Youth Leadership Summit.
— Ingrid Van Den Hoogen, senior vice president of Brand and Global Communications at Sun

Share the Opportunity

Sun’s support of the UN Global Youth Leadership Summit is part of its “Share the Opportunity” initiative, a global effort to help support participation in social change. Sun believes that sharing and collaboration in the Participation Age will help all participants from across the world grow and prosper.

Sun’s Share the Opportunity initiative has also included work with U2’s Bono and global campaigns to Make Poverty History, including the ONE Campaign, Oxfam, and others.

For more information: http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/share/participate.jsp

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