Ashley's Intro
Hello everyone and Happy New Year! My name is Ashley Njoroge and I will be serving as the Head Chair of the African Union at BMUN LXVI. Before I delve into a discussion of the inspiration for our committee this year I want to share a little bit about myself. I am a Junior at UC Berkeley studying Cognitive Science with a minor in Computer Science. I am originally from Nairobi, Kenya (I am actually writing this blog post from there). I love going to concerts and music festivals, visiting museums, traveling (I actually spent the last 4 months in studying abroad in Madrid), eating and eating while traveling (not traveling while eating though I get motion sick :P ). I did MUN throughout high school and loved every minute of it! I think that MUN is extremely powerful in that it challenges enterprising students (such as yourselves) to think about global issues from a practical standpoint and gain valuable perspective. These are lessons that, hopefully, you will carry throughout life. I joined BMUN because I cannot think of a better way to spend my time than helping you all learn those lessons!
I chose to do the African Union because Africa is an extremely interesting and diverse region that faces unique and thought-provoking issues. I chose our first topic (Improving and Applying Developmental Tech Infrastructure) because I wanted to challenge you all to think about non-traditional approaches to the traditional problems facing the African continent. My hope is that through discussion of this topic you will be able to identify which of Africa's developmental issues have technical solutions, gain an appreciation for the importance of strong infrastructure in tackling global issues and see the massive potential surrounding technology within the African context. I chose our second topic (Combating Public Sector Corruption) because corruption is one of the biggest problems facing Africa and is closely linked with other issues such as poor infrastructure, economic inequality, lack of social services etc. As such, mitigating corruption could be massively beneficial for the African community. For this topic, my hope is that you will gain an understanding of the similarities and differences between public sector corruption in Africa and other parts of the world. I also hope you will learn how to develop nuanced and inclusive solutions to complex problems.
I am super duper excited to meet you all in March. Good luck completing your position papers! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the topic synopsis or your position papers. Also, tell me a little bit about yourselves in the comments! Be sure to look out for future blog posts as they will be useful in preparation for the committee.
See you soon,
Ashley
Just for fun, here's a picture of me attempting to do a legstand in front of Lake Bled in Slovenia (not quite as impressive as Emma's handstand)
I chose to do the African Union because Africa is an extremely interesting and diverse region that faces unique and thought-provoking issues. I chose our first topic (Improving and Applying Developmental Tech Infrastructure) because I wanted to challenge you all to think about non-traditional approaches to the traditional problems facing the African continent. My hope is that through discussion of this topic you will be able to identify which of Africa's developmental issues have technical solutions, gain an appreciation for the importance of strong infrastructure in tackling global issues and see the massive potential surrounding technology within the African context. I chose our second topic (Combating Public Sector Corruption) because corruption is one of the biggest problems facing Africa and is closely linked with other issues such as poor infrastructure, economic inequality, lack of social services etc. As such, mitigating corruption could be massively beneficial for the African community. For this topic, my hope is that you will gain an understanding of the similarities and differences between public sector corruption in Africa and other parts of the world. I also hope you will learn how to develop nuanced and inclusive solutions to complex problems.
I am super duper excited to meet you all in March. Good luck completing your position papers! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the topic synopsis or your position papers. Also, tell me a little bit about yourselves in the comments! Be sure to look out for future blog posts as they will be useful in preparation for the committee.
See you soon,
Ashley
Comments
Post a Comment