as i stepped foot in the plenary hall on the first day of the conference, i felt myself being surrounded by the world. while hearing the diplomats speak on their country\u2019s plans for action to combating global hunger, i could witness the power dynamics in the room. i realized what the former president of the general assembly, maria fernanda espinosa, meant when she explained in one of her speeches that i attended on why things don\u2019t always work the way they are supposed to at the united nations. <\/p>\n
it was heartwarming to see a plethora of side events on addressing malnutrition and climate change by leveraging technological innovations. after one of these sessions, i had the amazing honor and opportunity to interact with the keynote speaker, the first lady of colombia, mar\u00eda juliana ruiz sandoval, and interview her about colombia\u2019s plans for enhancing their technical resiliency to engage more youth. it was a pleasure to see dr. jeffrey sachs present live on the sustainable development goals and hear his perspective on solving these issues. <\/p>\n i could not have been more astonished by the humility and the willingness to engage in discussions of all the leaders, diplomats, and presenters i had the chance to interact with. i connected with people that are currently using data science and ai to solve climate change and fight global hunger. to save a life. <\/p>\n most importantly, i had the great pleasure of spending the week with an incredible team of individuals from across the united states. answering frank\u2019s curiosity every evening at dinner made me think about topics that i had never given enough thought to. sharing my love for pop music and taylor swift with marisa was a heartfelt moment. walking the streets of rome with lindsay and matilda made the experience only more memorable. going into a bar and ordering \u201cchocolate-flavored\u201d milk with \u201cmy man\u201d dan was a moment i\u2019m sure both of us will share with our grandchildren. running into my biggest celebrity crush, alexandra daddario, on the streets of rome and talking about her for the rest of the night to kim, ahdi, and edona. <\/p>\n at the end of it all, i finally realized that \u201crome wasn\u2019t built in a day\u201d and \u201call roads [do] lead to rome.\u201d all i know is, if given a chance, i would come back to this place in a heartbeat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" i had impatiently waited to attend the committee on world food security for the past four months. little did i know that i was about to step inside a place that would dramatically change my perspective on global issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9842,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4902,4896],"tags":[4282,374,245,4113,4283,4284,3912,376,4116],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-11744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-colleges-education","category-food","tag-cfs46","tag-fao","tag-nutrition","tag-pfinrome","tag-pfrome2019","tag-sdgs","tag-unfao","tag-united-nations","tag-zerohunger"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n