Schuylerville High School junior Hannah King participated in the 2024 New York Youth Institute hosted by Cornell University. The New York Youth Institute educates high school students on the biggest challenges facing people and the planet in the 21st century. The Institute empowers students to research issues they care about, propose their own innovative ideas to solve global challenges, and explore ways to make a difference in New York and around the world. The New York Youth Institute is a partnership between Cornell University and the World Food Prize.
“While most of the students at the Institute did not come from agricultural backgrounds, Hannah was able to bring real-world, agricultural knowledge to discuss regional, national, and global issues,” said Schuylerville Agricultural Science teacher Mary-Elizabeth Foote, who attended the event with King.
Through her participation in the Institute, King was named a Borlaug Scholar and will qualify for internships and further opportunities to explore global issues.
“The best part of the day was absolutely the discussions,” said King. “Sitting in a room with other kids my age to talk about a serious world issue is something I don’t often get the chance to do. There was so much energy in that room to create actual change that I couldn’t help leaving feeling extremely passionate. While I thought I cared about food security before, I’ve never wanted to contribute to such large issues as much as I do now.”
Following the Institute, King will find out if she was selected to represent New York at the World Food Prize and Global Youth Institute, which will be held in October in Des Moines, Iowa. The Global Youth Institute is a week-long academic conference focused on youth efforts to address global food security issues. The program allows young leaders to interact with Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates and the more than 1,000 global leaders from 65 countries attending the World Food Prize’s annual international symposium.