Prof. Bonanome program co-director, Priya Joshi UNESCO GEM Representative, Farjana Shati CUNY Youth Ambassador and Prof. ElHitti program co-director

It was our pleasure to the launch this exciting educational partnership between CUNY and UNESCO in the presence of City Tech’s Provost August, Associate Provost Brown and several City Tech students and supporters on Friday, Feb 16. The core of this partnership is the collective potential of CUNY’s student body. CUNY faculty, students and alumni have repeatedly shown what can be achieved when given access to quality education. As we took the first steps together into the global arena on sustainable development and quality education, we were full of hope and excitement.

This program is unique as it aims to build an understanding within the CUNY student and faculty population of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In doing so, we hope to seed a movement of informed youth advocates active in local, national and international education spaces.

We were privileged and grateful to have Priya Joshi, a Research Officer at the Global Education Monitoring Report team at UNESCO in Paris present on the progress being made toward the UN Sustainable Development Goal – SDG4 Quality Education for All. Dr. Joshi is from Nepal and has a PhD in Education Policy from the University of Pennsylvania. She initiated and co-designed a global award winning mobile library project in Nepal. Her career trajectory and research have circled around how education and lifelong learning can be mobilized to support the broader ambitious agenda on sustainable development.

Following Dr. Joshi’s presentation was a Q & A with the CUNY Youth Ambassador Farjana Shati. You can find video clips of the three main questions here: 1, 2 and 3.

Priya Joshi UNESCO GEM Representative and Farjana Shati CUNY Youth Ambassador during Q & A

Professor Marianna Bonanome and Professor Samar ElHitti