Name: Noah Rosen

Social Justice Group: Gun violence/gun control

Date of Fieldwork: January 12, 2024

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s): United Nations

Type of Fieldwork [69]

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?:

The United Nations is a completely global organization whose work could be described as the most important that is currently being done, which is working towards world peace. It’s headquarters is in New York City, so we were lucky enough to visit it in person.

I noticed that they were very committed to being global and paying attention to the world as a whole, and favoring no country over any other. I thought it was interesting to see the “gifts” (for lack of a better word) from other countries. The reason I put “gifts” in quotation marks is because they were entire rooms that could fit thousands of people in them with complex designs on the ceilings and floors where incredibly important meetings were held, so it feels like more than a gift. It also makes me wonder how the countries gave it to them, because they had to be constructed where they are currently; they couldn’t have been shipped, unless the parts were shipped individually.

I also enjoyed seeing the sustainable development goals which they plan to have accomplished by a certain year. Often when I hear about this sort of thing I sort of notice that mostly people just talk about what they think is right, and never come up with a specific plan to do it. I think this is the second step, but what I really appreciated is that they are taking the third step and actually putting these plans into acton. One example of this is how they helped build a school somewhere in Africa out of only recycled materials, basically using plastic bricks. It ended up being not only safe and durable, but also aesthetically pleasing as well. I thought it was interesting that plastic bricks work so well on many levels, but this is the first time I’ve seen them used.

Overall I thought it was a very interesting trip, and again, I feel lucky to live in New York City because most kids don’t have the opportunity to visit such an important building.