Seaon Shin, an exciting young social entrepreneur and member of the URI Global Youth CC, has been invited to speak at the TEDxYSE conference in Washington D.C. on November 13. Organized by Ashoka’s Youth Venture, the conference will bring together some of the world’s most inspiring young changemakers to share their stories. Seaon, 19, is the founder of the Global Youth Empowering Movement (GYEM), which “links youth together to empower them to channel their passions into service projects, to build a stronger community and a better future.”
A Korean-American living in Dubai, Seaon is also working on a local level, organizing a youth center there to connect youth and mobilize them to learn, investigate and act on social problems. “Youth have so much potential to do amazing things,” she says. “All they need is to be connected together to make a positive impact.”
Seaon became involved with URI at age 14, when she and her mother worked as volunteers for URI’s Global Council meeting in Seoul, Korea. Then in 2009, just as her youth organization was getting off the ground, she visited the URI headquarters in San Francisco to share her ideas. Her work through GYEM brings URI values to life, bridging geographic and cultural divides to build community and create positive social change. This month in Dubai, for example, GYEM organized “Grafiti a Tunnel for Hope,” an event to “celebrate the beauty and diversity of our Dubaian community” by painting the walls of a tunnel leading out of the Dubai Festival Centre. Click here to see photos of the event.
