Today was NGO Consultation Day for this year's Commission on the Status of Women. We started the day off early with breakfast in the hotel before making our way to Tribeca-Performing Arts Center at the Borough of Manhattan Community College.
It was interesting to first hear from the Chair of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women/NY, Susan O'Malley. She really helped me to appreciate the scale of the Commission. The fact that there will be over 400 parallel events in the next two weeks and over 9,000 participants is mind-blowing. The panel featuring the Under Secretary-General/U.N. Women Executive Director and the Irish Ambassador to the U.N. had some standout moments for me as well. In particular, at one point the Ambassador said: "We're not interested in power of men, we're interested in power over ourselves."; that really stuck with me.I was also stunned and inspired to find that this year's Woman of Distinction was only two years older than me. It was extremely reminiscent of one of my favorite quotes, that I live by:
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." -Anne Frank
We then took a short break for lunch. I was able to enjoy a brief but delightful lunch at the biggest Whole Foods I've ever seen!
After break, we reconvened for another panel entitled: Social Protection: Definition, Context, Vision. featuring several influential leaders.While I felt moved by all the speaker's topics, my favorite was most definitely the last speaker. He comprised a media campaign to combat child marriage in Bangladesh. I found the presentation to be profoundly engaging. As a marketing major, it was extremely inspiring to such impactful issues being conveyed through tactics that I utilize in my own classes. It reaffirmed my belief that my degree would be useful in combating social issues.
The official ceremonies of Consultation Day were concluded with a moving performance by the Angel Band Project. The other performances throughout the day we particularly enjoyable me too; including Paprika (the all-female drummers) and Climbing Poetrees (the spoken word duo).
After being released for free time, Amelia, Amy, and Sara joined me for a tour of NBCUniversal Studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. As media and entertainment is something that interest me profoundly, I thoroughly enjoyed the tour. We were lucky enough to tour the sets of Saturday Night Live, the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers. We also produced our very own mock television segment and ran into Al Sharpton on the elevator! Needless to say, it was a very eventful tour.
Shortly after, we rejoined the rest of our group for dinner at Cop---. It was wonderful to catch up with Beth, Dr. Riemann and my fellow scholars. There was lovely live jazz music and we capped off a long and fulfilling day with gelato, before returning to our hotel!
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Jada, I am glad that you had such a productive and enjoyable day.
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