The Young Initiative invites foreign policy experts and guest speakers to campus to engage in discussions on international relations and the global political economy with students and faculty.
Annually: United Nations Week
With the William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program, the Young Initiative supports the annual United Nations Week at Occidental College, each spring. We are passionate in maintaining students involvement and engagement in sustainable development. Our students choose topics that link Global Political Economy, Social Justice, and Sustainable Development.
One Day Conference - Data and the Feminist City Conference - September 30, 2025
The Young Initiative will host invited representatives from city governments from around the world for a one-day conference on the Oxy campus. Attendants will share experiences and best practices on reporting mechanisms to gather data, identify gaps in data collection, and help develop strategies for data-driven, actionable solutions.
Ongoing Young Speakers Events
Young Initiative speakers give students and faculty an opportunity to expand their understanding of global issues. The Young Initiative sponsors several speakers each academic year highlighting particular aspects of global affairs and the global political economy. The Young Speakers program is devoted to highlighting the work and success of eminent international affairs experts and Oxy alumni in public service and academia.
On Wednesday February 12, 2020 Alberto Saldamando, a Lawyer Advocate at Indigenous Environmental Network, gave a presentation on “Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations.”
The built environment and climate change converge at Oxy Arts on York with Alison Hirsch and Aroussiak Gabrielian of USC Landscape Design as part of UN Week 2020.
As part of UN Week 2020, Jasmin Vargas of Food and Water Watch discusses locally-based environmental climate activism and its intersections with politics professor Michael Sardo and Aerex Narvasa.
Kahane U.N. Program students report back on their fall 2019 experiences at the U.N., including Task Forces regarding the Green Economy and Digital Jobs.
On February 10th, the first day of Oxy’s 2020 UN week, students studying everything from music to diplomacy to environmental policy gathered in Booth Hall to hear Professor Adam Schoenberg talk about his composition entitled Losing Earth.
Toby Dalton '79 from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace engaged with Oxy students and faculty on modern nuclear proliferation. Dalton is an expert on non-proliferation and nuclear energy.
Andrew Zimbalist is a professor in the Economics Department at Smith College. He has acted as a consultant in Latin America for the United Nations Development Program and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
On October 21, 2019, Alfred Madain joined Occidental students and faculty in Choi Auditorium for a discussion of music and politics in the Arab world.
Yuriko Gamo Romer is an award-winning director based in San Francisco. Her documentary DIAMOND DIPLOMACY, explores the relationship between the United States and Japan through a shared love of baseball.
Hussein Banai is a professor at Indiana University in the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. His work is grounded in the oral history of Iranian and American scholars and journalists who are witnesses of complicated US-Iran diplomacy. Currently, Banai is working on a book about liberal political thought in modern Iran.