Since 2019, the China Youth Volunteers Association (CYVA) and the United Nations volunteers organization (UNV) have jointly organized the China youth volunteers overseas service program-serving UN agencies project, which has selected Chinese youth volunteers to carry out international volunteer service in various UN agencies around the world. In 2021, the project selected a total of 24 young Chinese volunteers to serve in 14 UN agencies throughout the world for six months, in partnership with 15 universities.
Wang Zhenchao, a sixth-term student of the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics International Talent Development Program (international business orientation) has been selected as the second group of volunteers for the program, becoming the first volunteer from Shanghai University of Economics and Finance to serve in a UN agency program, and he will go to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Kazakhstan) to start transnational voluntary service in September. With the motto of “Willing to be the tile of a great building, to provide great shelter for the poor to make them happy”, he considers voluntary service as a kind of romantic journey. What kind of experience and outcome does he have in this journey? Let’s go into his heart and listen to his feelings about growth.
#Participate in the selection with a heart of gold#
The selection process for this project began in early June and lasted over two months, including the subsequent training, during which I learnt a lot and strengthened my desire to participate in the project. In high school, I met the Model United Nations Association and have since aspired to work for the United Nations. As an undergraduate, I participated in many volunteer activities and loved the experience of trying to shine to warm others, and I want to contribute to a larger platform.
I enrolled in our international organization talent program as a graduate student, where I learned about the work of United Nations agencies as well as the achievements and challenges of our country in actively promoting the building of a community of shared human destiny. Our young people have strengthened their career paths in international organizations in acknowledgment of our generation's mission and the excellent achievements of Wu Yi and Guo Chen at the United Nations. So, when I saw the school put out an offer for the program, I saw it was a valuable opportunity, and it was an experience I wanted to have, and I wanted to devote myself as a young student to the program on the international stage, and inject more Chinese youth into UN work.
# learning through the selection #
Selection is not only the assessment but also the opportunity to learn. This made quite an impression on me. At the beginning of June, I took part in an interview for the school, and the teachers of the selection group raised a question that impressed me greatly: “The incident of Yunnan wild elephants all the way to the north is exactly a Chinese story. How do you tell this Chinese story well?” To be sure, I have read about this hot current topic and experts’ interesting interpretations, but I have never considered that this may also be a "China story.". The teacher’s questions and suggestions made me feel that my view of events could be broadened.
After the on-campus selection process, two other students and I had an online interview with a UN field office in mid-July. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is our school's dispatch office. In the preparation process, I checked the relevant information of FAO and the projects of the sending country, but after all, it is not professionally related, so it is still nerve-wracking to face six interviewers at a local agency in an online conference room. The experience of supporting teachers in rural Shanxi province as an undergraduate I happened to mention interested the interviewers, so I shared my views on local agriculture and got professional feedback from the interviewers. I am delighted a volunteer experience I had was shared long after, and I remember the local context because I enjoyed the giving season. Volunteering makes you feel more deeply when you open your heart to it. It is also the romance of volunteering to awaken the memory of those days in love one day in the future.
In the process of selection, I learned a new level of thinking and working knowledge from the interviewer’s questions and answers, and feedback. I also felt a passion for volunteer service and an interest in active exploration from the excellent students I interviewed with. Fortunately, I passed the selection, but I am also very honored that I have been in these people to learn and understand.
# growing up in training #
In early August, I attended Shanghai International Studies University for a three-day training session with 23 students from 14 other universities in the program. We discussed our goals and aspirations, listened to a lecture on the history of the Shanghai Communist Party by professor Su Zhiliang, and completed an online workshop with UN staff from across the world. In this series of activities, I realized the original intention and vision of this project, which is to hope that more students in our country can contribute their volunteer power and voice to the United Nations; I also feel that our generation of young people’s personal responsibility and the purpose of the times are in the broader stage to create more fruitful results, gain experience with responsibility, and grow in commitment. Later, 24 students will present their own ideas and beliefs to various United Nations organizations around the world. They will carry out different duties and responsibilities. They will light a volunteer fire in every corner to convey the spirit of Chinese youth.
Many Chinese young people have a desire to contribute to the international community, and many of our institutions are supporting cooperation with international organizations like the United Nations by offering space and chances for Chinese young volunteers to participate. I am honored to be selected to be the first volunteer to serve the United Nations agencies. I want to see more students contribute their outstanding abilities to international organizations. I will actively contribute to the efforts of the Chinese youth in this project. I will be a qualified member of the tens of thousands of Chinese volunteers who have dedicated their voluntary services to international affairs, and I will tell Chinese stories in service, to spread the voice and strength of Chinese youth in our work.