BILL GATES spoke at the World Food Prize Symposium in Des Moines two weeks ago. Photo: Ann Schnoebelen
Two Drake students are taking the school’s mission seriously by taking on jobs to become “responsible global citizens.”
Adil Khan (AS4) and Katie Carpenter (AS4) received internships last year from the World Food Prize Foundation and were extensively involved in the World Food Prize Symposium this year. The series of events took place in downtown Des Moines the week of Oct. 5. Both students were George Washington Carver interns, but each played a very different role in the symposium.
Khan spent most of his time working under Director of Communications Justin Cremer and Director of Secretariat Operations Judith Pim tackling projects in social media and graphic design and managing visitors during the symposium.
Carpenter was specifically assigned to Youth Institute Programming and worked mostly with the high school student program, which encourages youth to think critically about world hunger and gives them a chance to win internships with the WFP.
The two students shared some of their experiences:
The Times-Delphic (TD): What sort of work do you do for the WFP?
Adil Khan (AD): Some of my important tasks were creating the Twitter site for the WFP and I also worked extensively on the 2009 Laureate Painting. For Judith (Khan’s supervisor), I was given the task of compiling an 800-page report and then converting that into digital formats so that it could be used by the committee to choose the next Laureate.
TD: What was it like to work during the symposium?
AD: I was assigned to work directly under Washington representative Ed Redfern who is flown in specifically to head the ongoing day-to-day tasks of the symposium. When you are in the events, you have a radio on you at all times and Ed is shouting 200 tasks at you and you only have 30 minutes to do them. This was a stressful environment, especially when dealing with high profile guests, and it was like nothing I have ever been a part of before, but it allowed me to be involved in every aspect of the symposium. It was the most exciting thing to be a part of and also the most exhausting.
TD: Has your experience influenced or changed your future career plans in any way?
AD: This internship has really made me wonder where my place is in the world and where I can make the greatest improvement. Some of the inspirational leaders that I was able to meet during the internship inspired me to take the effort to do my best to improve the lives of those that have the least. I always wanted to get involved with politics and lead policy and initiative change, and now, the WFP gave me contacts and reinforced my willpower to find a way to give back and to never be selfish.
TD: What do you do for the WFP Foundation?
Katie Carpenter (KC): Being part of the Youth Institute meant that I helped organize around 250 high school students and teachers, from 14 states and seven countries, who came to the event. They also gave pretty significant roles to volunteers who consisted of former interns who come back every year to help. I really hope to be one of those people in the future.
TD: Now that this year’s event is over, are you out of a job?
KC: My job continues for at least the remainder of the semester and will most likely consist of reading incoming applications and compiling the papers from the past students.
TD: Are those interesting or boring to go through?
KC: Actually, I’m excited about reading more papers. The ones I have read have had a variety of resourceful and applicable ideas about ending global hunger and I love that high school students are thinking critically about real issues.
TD: What’s something you’ve learned or really started to appreciate while working for WFP?
KC: I think that any organization that places significance on youth programming is guaranteed to have influence in the future. It proves their continuous dedication to the cause of eliminating hunger. And interacting with such passionate students reminded me that I love to see kids learning.
