St. Norbert Collaborative - Connections

Recently thirteen St. Norbert College students, including myself, traveled to New York City for a three day and two night trip from Tuesday September 20^th to Thursday September 22^nd and centered on the opening of the U.N. General Assembly as well as dinner with Dr. Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran. St. Norbert College has had a relationship with the Iranian Mission in New York, having hosted Dr. Kharemi the previous semester; he extended an invitation to us students and Dr. Gratzia Villarroel. We stayed at the Vanderbilt YMCA just blocks from the United Nations. Attending the dinner was the main reason for the trip to New York City, at the dinner our group from St. Norbert College joined groups of other students, most in graduate school, from schools such as Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Connecticut College. All of the groups were allowed to ask a question for Dr. Ahmadinejad, his responses were very interesting. The President’s responses contained a lot of talk about bringing peace to the Middle East with no assistance from Western Allies and in specific the United States. The next day President Ahmadinejad would make headlines in his speech to the U.N. where he blast the United States and its Western Allies, even insinuating a 9/11 conspiracy. The dinner was held at the Warwick Hotel in midtown Manhattan and was a incredible experience for the group as enjoy being present at such a diplomatic event. verrill_image

Attending the dinner was a large portion of the trip, but we were very busy attending other events in our time in New York City. Since we only had a half day on the Tuesday we arrived, we chose to attend a celebration of freedom in a classroom at Columbia University. This was a interesting experience because we were exposed to dance, music and food from African Americans, specifically traditions native to Senegal and Uganda. Another activity our group participated in was a meeting with the author Benjamin Barber. He is an expert in Middle Eastern affairs and our discussion with him involved the evolution of the Arab Spring last spring and its importance as it continues in Libya. We met at Mr. Barber’s think tank in lower Manhattan, one point in the discussion stuck out to me was Barber’s mention on impatience of the public in many of these countries and question of how willing the people of these newly revolutionized nations are to be patience enough for democracy to take hold in their new government. The meeting fit perfectly into the schedule for that day, next we headed to a summit sponsored by the U.N. and NGOs. Titled “I Have a Dream,” four political prisoners told their stories and offered their experiences in Cuba, North Korea, Burma and Tibet. This was another interesting experience for our group as we listed to the stories of torture and suffering for freedoms that we take for granted every day.

The experiences we shared during this trip were most certainly once in a lifetime and will be remembered for a long time to come by all of us. Seeing diplomacy first hand will prepare all of us for future careers and interest in foreign affairs as well as a greater perspective of our role in world politics and advocacy. Being exposed to other cultures and issues pertaining to different group of people in this world will give us needed and specialized skills in communicating with and understanding other ways of life.