2 from Honors College participating in G20 Youth Forum
April19, 2013
A pair of students from Purdue's Honors College are in St. Petersburg, Russia, at the G20 Youth Forum preceding the G20 meeting of the world's major economic powers.
Lindsay Markle and Hae Sng Clara Suh are participating in the "summit," one of four concurrent portions of the April 17-21 forum. The summit includes 150-200 students from around the world out of the total forum participation of about 1,500. Also set for St. Petersburg, the G20 Leaders' Summit will be Sept. 5-6. Russia has the current one-year G20 presidency from Dec. 1 through Nov. 30.
Markle and Suh were nominated after Purdue received an invitation to make nominations. The Honors College facilitated the nomination process on behalf of Purdue's executive offices.
“With the growth of the new Honors College at Purdue, we intend to promote and support new enrichment opportunities for outstanding students. The G20 Youth Forum is one of those opportunities,” says Dennis Savaiano, interim dean of the Honors College.
Markle, a senior from Fort Wayne in sociology and political science with a focus in international relations, is set to graduate in May. In applying, she wrote that she hopes to become an international diplomat in the U.S. Department of State, so she foresaw the G20 Youth Forum as a beneficial career step. She credited Purdue with sparking her international interest and providing opportunities to help it grow, including a semester studying abroad in Madrid, Spain. She is fluent in Spanish, and she has worked in several internships on campus and elsewhere involving government and public policy.
Suh is a first-year student from Crown Point, Ind., who is majoring in biochemistry and holds a Trustees Scholarship. Suh's application notes her almost inevitable globalism. She is multilingual, is of Korean ethnicity, was born in a Muslim country and is living in the United States. She and her high school newspaper won journalism awards during her leadership, and at Purdue she is working at the Exponent.
At the G20 Youth Forum summit, participants are assigned to one of 11 committees such as Economy or Education, each of which discusses its topic and contributes to the summit's Communique. The Communique is distributed worldwide, particularly to the G20 heads of state and major international organizations. Participants also take part in general events of the forum, such as opening and closing ceremonies, a plenary panel, a dinner, a ball, a classical music concert and business breakfasts.