The New York Irish Center's America-Ireland Youth Conference will kick off later on Friday, bringing together experts, educators, and students from Ireland and the US to tackle urgent global issues, including climate change, reproductive rights, and the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
Entitled "Creating Waves", the three-day New York Irish Center's America-Ireland Youth Conference features talks from prominent members of esteemed Irish and American universities.
IrishCentral is delighted to be partnering with the New York Irish Center to bring you the "Creating Waves" free live-stream video conference from Friday, June 2 through Sunday, June 4.
Each day will feature a two-hour panel talk moderated by distinguished thought leaders followed by a question and answer session.
On Friday, Ali Ahmad, a Climate Change Specialist with the World Bank, will moderate a panel discussion entitled "Climate Change and Poverty: Who Foots the Bill?"
McGill University professor Jelena Collins will join Eoin Cummings, an M.Sc. student at Queen's University Belfast, Fordham University graduate Amelia Medved, and University of Limerick graduate Jack O'Connor for Friday's panel discussion.
The second day of panel discussions will center on the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement and will be moderated by Northern Irish print and broadcast journalist Lynette Fay.
Entitled "25 Years on from the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement: What’s Next?" the second day will see a conversation between Queen's University Student Union President Emma Murphy, University College Cork graduate student Kevin O'Connor, and Ryan Connor, an M.A at Georgetown University.
Rachel Stromsta, Program Officer at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, will also join Saturday's discussion.
The final panel discussion of the three-day conference will focus on "Reproductive Rights Across the US and the Island of Ireland".
Panelists Ciara O'Flynn from the University of Limerick, Caitlin Holland from UCC, Marcella Labellarte from the University of Baltimore School of Law, and Alexa Mohsenzadeh, a graduate from the University of Galway, will discuss abortion rights in Ireland and the US in a discussion moderated by Aideen Kane, co-director and producer of "The 8th", a documentary telling the story of Ireland's vote to legalize abortion.
The first day of panel discussions will kick off at 1 p.m. EST and is available to watch on YouTube or you can tune in to all the three day's discussions below.
Speaking ahead of the first discussion, George Heslin, executive director of the New York Irish Center, said the conference was an opportunity for Irish and American students to learn from each other.
"It seems axiomatic that American and Irish students can learn from each other because of their different backgrounds. But what is so powerful about the conference is that the circumstances in each of these countries around these specific topics are different and full of nuance… This means the process of coming up with solutions can be approached from many directions," Heslin said in a statement.
For more about the New York Irish Center's America-Ireland Youth Conference click here.
Watch the New York Irish Center's America-Ireland Youth Conference discussion below, as they go live: