Excited for Millennium Campus Conference 2015 by Bryce Conley

Before I begin, I’d like to let everyone know that I am excited for the Millennium Campus Conference. Also, I would like to thank Kuda Biza, Ruth Gyau, and Mr. Alexander Star for guiding me over the past few years. I would not be the person I am today without you #ThisIsMyEra.

 

Background on me:

My name is Bryce Conley and I’m a 17 year old high school student in Delray Beach, Florida. When I was 15 years old, I decided that my worldview was too limited, and with the help of a neighbor of mine, set up a trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. While in Addis, I lived with a local family and traveled each day to the PEFAN Center, an orphanage, where I taught English to the children there. To put it bluntly, this experience was life changing. As I had hoped, my established worldview was shattered and replaced with a mindset that was not only more knowledgeable, but more caring and appreciative of the life I lead in America. I returned to Ethiopia the following summer to do the same work, and I hope to have the opportunity to teach there in the near future.

After this experience, I’ve been looking for even more ways to fulfill my new love for international relations. Last year, with the help of AFR Clothing and the Amani Hope Foundation, I was giving the opportunity to speak at MCC14 at Lynn University. This was the first time I had been able to share my story with others doing similar things, albeit on a much larger scale. The conference allowed me to really understand just how capable people are of making true change and talking to representatives of established organizations such as Nourish International gave me great feedback on how to better teach my classes and interact with my students to give them as much knowledge as possible. It was an amazing experience and one that I’m excited to have again. I think the biggest thing that struck me about MCC14 was not the amount of incredible organizations present, or even the speeches given by young activists on social change, it was how I was treated. At the time, I was a 16 year old kid, and my whole life I had been seen and treated as exactly that: a kid. MCC14 was one of the very first times in which every person I spoke to treated me as a peer and showed genuine interest in my work. This may not seem like a big deal, but in the context of my life to that point, this was huge. Being treated as a peer of these amazing people inspired me to try and rise to their level, and I’ve been aiming at that ever since. Everything these people said was informative and enriching, but the way they said it had a lasting effect on me that will hopefully show at MCC15.

 

Thoughts about MCC15:

When I heard that I would be returning to the conference in 2015 I was already extremely excited, as I had an amazing experience there last year, but looking at the list of speakers and attendees only pushed that excitement to a whole other level. People like Federico González, the Paraguayan ambassador to the United Nations, are who I want to be when I grow up. Because of my interest in international relations instilled in me by my experiences in Ethiopia, becoming an ambassador is a dream of mine. As someone interested in that line of work, who better to talk to then an actual ambassador to the United Nations? Ambassador González is only one example of the many accomplished and knowledge speakers attending this event, and my goal is to talk to and learn from as many of these amazing people as I can.

 

I’m also very interested in attending as many workshops and seminars as I can. I won’t have a huge amount of free time, but the fact that I’m able to learn from those in the positions I want to be in when I’m older is very intriguing. At the moment I have no idea what seminars will be held at the conference, and I can’t wait to find out.

Another thing that I find interesting is one of my tasks as intern for AFR Clothing, selling merchandise and promoting the movement. Now I have absolutely no experience as a salesman so I’m hoping I’ll pick it up quickly, but aside from that I’m hoping that this will allow me to talk to even more people at the conference and, even if I’m not able to sell them any merchandise, I’ll learn about why they are attending, and in my free time I could check out their booth.

Along with this, I really am looking forward to seeing the city. I don’t get to go to New York very often, especially not for this long, and the fact that I’ll have time to get to know the area and possibly do some photography is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I’ve always loved the energy of urban environments and there is none better than NYC. I’m hoping that after the conference ends each day I’ll be able to just walk around and sightsee, and also get the chance to try authentic New York pizza.

Above all, I’m just very excited to go. I think this will be a great experience and I hope to meet as many people as a can and learn from each of them.