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Call for Women Entrepreneurs!
PGS Talks is inviting Women Entrepreneurs to act as Speakers on our next Panel!
PRME Global Students (PGS) Talks is inviting speakers for an upcoming panel discussion that focuses on women entrepreneurs, the impact of their work on women empowerment and gender equality as a whole on our society!
What we are looking for?
- Seasoned entrepreneurs
- Professors adept in the conversation surrounding the topics of women in the workforce and gender equality
- Student entrepreneurs (women who are still studying yet are currently running their own businesses)
Know someone who is perfect for the role? Apply now clicking the link below and our team will reach out to you:
Regional Leader Spotlight:
John Lee
(University of Melbourne, Australia)
The PGS Regional Leader Oceania, John Lee is a Finance and Economics undergraduate at the University of Melbourne. He is very passionate about contributing to the community. He is currently volunteering with the Global Consulting Group (GCG), a charity that provides pro-bono consulting services to other charities and not-for-profits.
Sustainability means taking responsibility for our actions and recognizing the impact they have on future generations. We must find ways to balance economic, social, and environmental factors to promote long-term well-being by using our knowledge to advocate for sustainable practices within our communities and contribute to larger movements for change
Are you interested in John Lee's sustainability vision and global students' role in this intergenerational mission?
Read the entire interview with John Lee here!
Internship Opportunities:
Here is a list of opportunities you can apply for!
- Collected by PGS Careers
1. UNDP - Communications and Knowledge Management Intern (Remote)
2. UNDP (UNCDF) - Local Development Finance Intern (Remote)
3. UNICEF - INTERNSHIP: Digital Governance and Brand Protection - DSS, GCA - NYHQ (Remote)
4. UNOPS - Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Intern (Geneva, Switzerland)
5. UNDP -Internship Data and Information Management Support UN SDG Action Campaign (Bonn, Germany)
Student Spotlight:
Prarthana Khurana
Conestoga College, Canada
Prarthana Khurana is a Sustainable Business Management program student at Conestoga College, Canada. She is a sustainability enthusiast, a foodie wanting to try new cuisines, a dog lover, and also loves travelling! Prarthana holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in sciences from the University of Delhi and TERI University, New Delhi. Currently, she leads the Sustainability Club of Conestoga College as Treasurer and also works as a Campus Student Ambassador.
“The Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need but not every man’s greed.” I stumbled across this famous quote by Mahatma Gandhi some years back, and it left a lasting impression on me. This thought drives my understanding of sustainability; it’s about prioritizing needs over desires when making decisions.
Are you interested in Prarthana Khurana’s journey towards Sustainability and know more about her experiences?
Read the complete interview with Prarthana Khurana here!
Reach out to us at 'pgs_newsletter@unprme.org' if you want to be featured in our student spotlight.
Take a Reading Break:
Sustainable education and youth confidence as pillars of future civil society
Article’s author: Alberto Biancardi, Annarita Colasante & Idiano D’Adamo
While sustainability is at the center of many government agendas, there is a great risk of entrusting strategic decisions to those lacking in sustainability expertise. It is therefore necessary to ensure that universities are the green engines of sustainable communities.
The results of this study showed that students held more sustainable attitudes at the end of term, and perceived sustainable education and youth confidence as the building blocks of future society. In addition, they recognised subsidies for green production, energy communities, differentiated waste collection and professional skills training as crucial.
The sustainable university should support younger generations by encouraging student engagement in real-world projects and the development of long-term, structured teacher–student relationships. Read the article here.
Learning for the green transition and sustainable development
Learning for the green transition and sustainable development
Climate change and biodiversity loss require decisive and ambitious action in a range of policy areas. This includes education and training, which must support Europe’s transition towards a fairer, more inclusive and sustainable way of living and working.
To equip learners with the competences needed to shape a more sustainable economy and society, learning for the green transition needs to be transformative and interdisciplinary.
It needs to focus on cognitive, practical and socio-emotional skills and go beyond mere awareness of the climate crisis, helping learners to develop a sense of agency. Education should equip learners of all ages with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to take action for more sustainability and to understand and participate in the decision-making processes necessary to enact lasting, structural change.
Read the article here.
From United Nation's Desk:
Regional Dialogue on Youth Empowerment in Climate Action!
The Road to 10th APFSD: Regional Dialogue on Youth Empowerment in Climate Action is happening on 23-24 March 2023!!!
Co-organized by UNDP in partnership with UNFCCC RCC for Asia-Pacific, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific, UNICEF South Asia, UNESCAP, UNEP, Arrow, British Council, YOUNGO, Movers Programme and 2030 Youth Force, with support from Sweden, the Regional Dialogue will serve as one of the pre-events to the 10th Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD).
Open to young people, professionals and climate enthusiasts in Asia and the Pacific! Register using the link below:
What’s your say on Innovative Learning? - by UNESCO!
As part of UNESCO’s Young People on Transforming Education Project, we hope to understand how different generations of students have been involved in their own learning with the adoption of digital tools and broader forms of innovation. On this International Day of Education 2023, we want to send a clear message that “we want to hear stories from you”!
This UNESCO survey on innovative learning comes in five languages: Chinese, English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. For the next two months, you can click on the link below with any of the language you prefer to fill in the survey. As a follow up of the survey, UNESCO will create a global mapping of good practices on innovative learning, with which we will provide policy recommendations on how students can potentially use technology and techniques to improve efficiency of their own learning process.
Enroll in Free Courses by the UN Global Compact!
5 FREE courses on business and sustainability from the United Nations Global Compact Academy and partners to help you solve today’s most pressing challenges:
1) How to set science-based targets, developed with the Science Based Targets initiative
2) How to understand and take action on the Global Goals
3) Advancing decent work, in partnership with the International Labour Organization (ILO)
4) Taking financial action for the SDGs
5) Biodiversity fundamentals: The business case for action developed with UNEP-WCMC
Taking corporate action on sustainability cannot wait! Tag and share with anyone in your network who may benefit from these. Learn more here!
UNAI organizing event for International Women's Day!
Within the framework of International Women’s Day and the annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the United Nations Academic Impact initiative (UNAI) has organized a virtual side event on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Higher Education: A Space for Gender Equality. It will take place on Tuesday, 14 March, from 10am to 12pm New York time.
This event will provide a platform for the discussion around the use of information and communication technologies in universities and colleges to advance, promote, and protect gender equality while addressing related issues of gender-based violence, women’s empowerment, and greater access of women to higher education. The event will also explore how university policies have evolved and how academic and scientific research is connected to these issues.
For more information about this important event, please visit this webpage.
Student Organization Spotlight:
Greenlab Zurich, Switzerland
Greenlab Zurich is a student-led project that promotes sustainable scientific research practices. Its members include researchers from different experience levels at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich. Their main objective is to encourage environmentally-friendly behavior in laboratory activities by developing and implementing sustainable protocols and tools. Greenlab Zurich works together with similar initiatives across Switzerland and Europe, reviewing relevant literature and sharing ideas. They strongly believe sustainable research practices can be achieved without compromising quality and productivity. For example, they suggest lowering the temperature of -80 °C freezers to -70 °C in life sciences and using energy consumption scaling tools in computational sciences to reduce carbon emissions. The project has organized workshops, provided informative handouts, and hosted sustainability experts at events. They are also introducing an application for labs to estimate and minimize their environmental impact and seeking to expand collaborations with other sustainable science organizations within the Swiss Green Lab Network.
For more information about GreenLab activities follows them on Twitter.
PGS on Stage:
PGS hosts the 2nd General Meeting for 2023!
PRME holds a 2nd Global Students General Meeting!
On Friday, the 24th of February, PRME Global Students conducted their 2nd general meeting! The meeting started with a quick recap of the 1st meeting, this was followed by a presentation of strategic directions for this year before reviewing the list of engagement opportunities for PGS beneficiaries.
The team discussed the strategies to enhance PGS internal communications and a co-leadership model! The way we communicate influences the quality of work we deliver, therefore, we looked into our communication channels, sharing platforms, meeting structure and possible improvements. Then we looked into the benefits and drawbacks of implementing a co-leadership model to a certain extent!
UN-PRME India Chapter Southern Hub Meet 2023!
TAPMI conducted the Regional Meet (Southern Hub) of UNPRME India Chapter on February 22, 2023. This online meet was graced by the presence of Dr. Chandrika Parmar, Dr. Kalpana Gopalan IAS, Prof. Madhu Veeraraghavan, esteemed guests from various institutes, and Professors of TAPMI.
The event commenced with building foundations for understanding every entity’s contribution to UNPRME. Various possibilities of involving the young generation to the existing model, to get an exposure to new perspectives into the model was discussed. Further into the meet, an invitation was extended to various institutes like IIM Visakhapatnam, Woxsen University, L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research to present the practices they followed as to getting a step closer to the goals of UNPRME.
After this insightful presentation, the discussion was once again directed towards inviting people to talk about the issues they have been facing, and how we can normalize such practices at school level. The discussion further shifted to academics and talked about integrating elements of sustainability into various courses at TAPMI and how they can be related to each aspect of business studies including TBL from Finance’s perspective, and Supply Chain.
Oxford Economics of Mutuality Virtual Forum 2023!
Ms. Mette Morsing, Head of PRME, UN Global Compact, during a panel discussion in the Oxford Economics Mutuality Virtual Forum 2023 addressed the audience. Regional Leaders from across the globe PGS participated in the event. The ambition of PRME is to advance, progress and inspire 1000+ higher educational institutions around the world and to change what is brought into the classroom. Now, we want to set the mindset - what kind of thinking can help making right decisions?
Ms. Morsing discussed a few possible solutions for skill development among students:
- Bring the students out of the classroom and train students to know the problem and find the solutions
- Help students understand how the disciplines (Accounting, Finance, Marketing, etc.) come together to solve problems that do not have predefined solutions in the business world
- Demand new skills for professors and reflect how to mobilize the students at workplace
To participate in future forums, register using the link below:
More Reading Suggestions:
Climate change, ethics and sustainability: An innovative approach
Article’s authors: Jose Luis Sanchez Garcia, Juan Maria Diez Santiago
The concept of sustainability emerges as a key concept that must guide human action in all areas, a concept from which it is possible to appeal to the responsibility of man within the framework of an ethics of sustainability.
Man is called to do right in all orders. When he does not respect this ethical orientation, so implicitly included in his own conscience, he becomes denatured and suffers the consequences in himself and in the environment in which he lives.
We believe that it is a priority to seek the foundations of the existence of God, analyzing the theistic view, the foundations of sustainability for the good of man himself and the planet.
Find more about the research here.
Global crop waste burning – micro-biochar
Article’s author: Michael Shafer
The world’s 2.5 billion poorest people - small farmers living at the far fringe of the developing world – and their billion or so slightly better off neighbors burn 10.5 billion metric tonnes (tonnes) of crop waste annually. Smoke from their fires reddens the sun, closes airports, shuts schools and governments – and kills millions of people. Their fires release 16.6 billion tonnes of CO2.
No one yet has stopped the burning. Seminars, health warnings, bans, threats, jailings, shootings – nothing has worked, because not one has offered farmers a better alternative. This is the story of how Warm Heart, a small, community development NGO, learned enough about small farmers’ plight to collaborate with them to develop the technology, training and social organization to mobilize villages to form biochar social enterprises.
Read more about their journey here.
