 UNA-USA Pasadena President Ann Diederich with Madison Peak from the UNA-USA National Office.AWIU Career Opportunities in International Relations Symposium at the Central Library in Washington D.C. (Nov 7). Ann Diederich co-chaired this annual event that provides resources for more than 150 young women aspiring to work in international relations and development. Ann was joined by three other UNA-Pasadena members and Madison Peak, the UNA-USA’s Community Engagement officer who spread the word about the Youth Engagement Opportunities through the UNA-USA.Ann Diederich and Char Bland at at the UNA-USA Leadership Summit in St. Louis.  Ann Diederich with Dr. Soon Young-Joon at the UNA-USA Leadership Summit.  |  Ann Diederich, Ian Eriksson, and Arn Chorn-Pond at the Temple of Understanding.The Temple of Understanding’s 65 Year Anniversary Celebration in NYC (Nov 8) brought together groups of all cultures and belief systems across the globe to discuss how interfaith and cross-cultural education can address the climate crisis and multiple conflicts around the world. UNA Pasadena Fellow Ian Eriksson met up with Ann Diederich and Arn Chorn-Pond, our UN Day ‘25 keynote speaker.  The Temple of Understanding panel  UNA Pasadena Board Member Char Bland with Ann Diederich. |
| UNA-USA Leadership Summit in St. Louis (Nov 14-16) brought to light our need as advocates of the United Nations to “Meet the Moment” during a time when the US has withdrawn from or ending funding for multiple UN bodies, including the WHO, and the UN Human Rights Council. Board Members Char Bland and Ann Diederich, attended sessions and met with fellow UNA-USA leaders and UN advocates, like women’s rights advocate Dr. Soon Young-Yoon, to find ways to bolster support for the UN and the SDGs locally. We look forward to sharing more about the summit on Monday, December 15th at 6pm at the Western Justice Center. (RSVP link: https://forms.gle/YppziLL4H7ebnWgr5) |
| UNA St Andrews: UNA outside the USA across the Pond At its core, the UNA-USA is a mothership for nationwide organizations from UNA-USA Chicago, UNA-USA LA, and UNA-USA Pasadena. These chapters resonate and embody the mission values that the UNA-USA stands for: global peace, justice, freedom, and wellbeing. But what about chapters that are less formal, those that are student-led, and which are made of the world’s next generation of leaders? Outside my work as an intern for UNA-USA Pasadena, I am a second-year MA International Relations student at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, UK. This fall of 2025 I’ve had the privilege of attending some of UNA St Andrews’ events to contextualize how UNA translates within academics, and outside local USA community settings. The first event I attended was a Pub Quiz (highly common in St Andrews) in a collaboration between UNA St Andrews and the Model UN societies. Societies are like university clubs in the U.S., you can join them as a general member and even run to be part of their committees. The location, The Saint hotel and restaurant in St Andrews, provided a cozy and welcoming environment for attendees. Participants could order drinks and then make their way down into “the bunker” in preparation for the quiz. Each question presented offered a new angle and entertaining subject on world politics: who is the current First Minister of Scotland? What global leader was pictured on vacation while shirtless? And when was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) adopted? (How many questions could you readers answer confidently?) Each question you answered correctly on your paper was a “point” for your team, where papers were then exchanged and graded by different teams at the end of each round. St Andrews is an extremely multiethnic, culturally and socially diverse university, and this was certainly manifested in the different undergrads and postgrads who showed face at the quiz. |
 A poster for University of St. Andrews Model UN. |
| A few weeks later following the quiz I attended an event collaboration between UNA St Andrews and Women in Politics (WIP). The event was a career panel featuring four or five women, one or two who are lecturers at St Andrews, one woman who worked at the World Food Program based in Rome, Italy, one who worked for UN House Scotland, and another who worked for the Council of Foreign Relations, a Washington, D.C. ThinkTank who was also an alumni of St Andrews. All the women speakers had prior background as civil servants and had lots of advice to offer those in attendance. From working on conflict prevention, conducting research such as on the war in Ukraine, addressing humanitarian crises, to teaching and more, the biggest takeaway for me was how each woman felt they had executed their role and how for some their current position was not one that they had envisioned themselves in. For example, one woman who is a lecturer in the School of International Relations stated how she’d “always wanted to be a diplomat,” until she began to feel that “diplomats don’t have as much of an impact” as she had thought. The woman from UNA House Scotland, and a previous Chair of UNA Scotland, also shared how she felt about her role, asserting that what UNA House Scotland is committed to doing is “making a difference,” and given her tone and evident passion it was a statement that resonated deeply with myself. Being able to learn about career dedication firsthand from those who truly embody their roles is crucial, especially in international politics. For the young St Andrews alumni working at the D.C. ThinkTank, she shared how her role enabled her to feel as though she “could be one of those people who change things” about the world, something I myself and likely most others in the room felt heavily within our own aspirations. UNA St Andrews embodies the same aspects of diversity, inclusivity, and community-based collaboration as UNA-USA Pasadena, and it’s been a great new UNA space to be a part of in my home-away-from-home in St Andrews, Scotland. |
