Pepperdine senior Matthew Miller will be taking a 16-hour flight to Dubai this weekend as part of the World Student Organizing Committee for the sixth biennial Education Without Borders 2011 Conference taking place March 28 to 31. As a student organizer Miller met with other students in Abu Dhabi last June to pick the conference theme “Innovative Solutions to Global Challenges: Diverse Perspectives Unified Action and will arrive early this weekend to approve all the aspects of the week’s events.
An international studies and political science double major, Miller was initially recommended for the conference while interning in Washington, D.C., in the spring of 2009, after a trip to the United Arab Emirates.
Upon arrival of the 4,000 student participants from almost 130 countries, an opening ceremony will be hosted in Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. The following two days of the conference will include presentations and roundtable discussions of selected student-written papers on the subthemes of the conference: education, economics, science, new media and policy.
Currently working for the State Department in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Miller looks forward to hearing the presentations from the international students, and engaging in multilateral communication.
It’s really a rare opportunity to have so many students together from so many countries and cultures and you really can’t solve a lot of these global problems with just one country’s perspective Miller said.
Tackling issues like global warming, the financial industry, and the current political tension in the Middle East and North Africa, student presenters at the conference will use their diverse perspectives to seek fresh solutions.
These students are going to be the leaders in the next generation to work together and create ideas that mesh with everyone and have solid obtainable goals to affect change versus just talking about ideas and policies and theories and things that aren’t quite as tangible Miller said. And that’s the whole concept of the conference: to take those policies and theories apply them and give students things to do with them.”
Outside of the presentations Miller and the other student participants will be meeting with mentors such as Stanford University Senior Fellow Dr. Helen Stacy and Tony Blair former prime minister of the United Kingdom. Miller said these global leaders will provide meaningful conversation points as well as take away new ideas from the students.
“There will be dialogue on what [the global leaders are] doing in their fields back in their home countries while the students will give perspective to those individuals Miller said. Maybe there’ll be an idea that’s really important to us students that hasn’t come across their governments’ radars.”
Near the end of the week there will be a cultural exchange that will serve doubly as a philanthropic event. All of the students will bring unique trinkets and souvenirs from their home countries that will be sold to other participants with all of the profits going to Haiti and Japan. Miller looks forward to this particular event and the entire week as a unique breadth of national and intellectual diversity.
“Everyone has such a different background not only in what they’re studying but what they’ve all experienced in life Miller stated. Students from Beijing and Hong Kong who are in the same country may have totally different perspectives.”
Miller hopes to gain a deeper understanding of a firm set of universal values and rights that students around the world generally are passionate about. He also encourages other students to explore different avenues for international study and travel while attending Seaver College.
“Pepperdine offers so many opportunities to its students. My participation in this conference is largely the result of Khalil Jahshan [director of the Washington D.C. program] taking a group of students to the United Arab Emirates last year for a cultural exchange Miller said. I would encourage everyone to work hard and pursue what they are passionate about because there are endless opportunities for growth and new experiences at Seaver.”