By Nicole Findlay
Jeff Beyer has spent the past few years playing a virtual game of international hopscotch. He began his travels in Ghana, then toured through Southern Ontario, alighted in New York and Washington, and finally moved on to Egypt.
Last Wednesday, he embarked on a trip to Indonesia, and this September he will land in Armenia. His reasons for traveling are as disparate as the countries themselves although he is not a diplomat or businessman. Beyer, is a full-time student majoring in both psychology and economics.
Throughout his travels, Beyer has been participating in and advocating on behalf of initiatives pertaining to international development, global peace, and environmental conservation.
“I suppose the common thread that runs through these different experiences is people and our intimate connections with them,” Beyer said.
Beyer began his journey in 2006 when as a volunteer for Engineers Without Borders in rural Ghana. It was during his time there that he developed an interest in the complexities of international development.
In June, he attended the ATHGO International United Nations Youth Forum in New York. There, he was selected from hundreds of youth delegates representing 70 countries to receive the presidential scholarship, an award which includes a trip next year to Armenia to present a position paper on climate change he and his peers developed during their time at the forum. By August, Beyer was in Egypt attending the International Youth for Peace conference, which exposed him to delegates from around the world
“It was international development overseas in Ghana that put a human face on climate change. It was my interaction with a delegate at the climate change conference in New York that crystallized my determination to promote peace,” said Beyer. “It was through talking with somebody at the Peace Conference in Egypt that I better understood the need for female empowerment and non-discrimination.”
In his final year of studies, Beyer anticipates a long career in activism ahead of him.
“Youth represent more than half of the world’s population, yet their voice is officially absent from the very talks that will directly affect youth the most,” said Beyer. “Climate Change is a lot less personally salient to a 65 year old diplomat who’s not going to be around in 20 years to see the outcome of her decision than it is for the 20 year old youth who’s got another 65 years to deal with the ramifications of the decisions that are made at this conference.”
In the interim, Beyer has embarked on the latest leg of his journey – Bali, Indonesia, as part of Canada’s youth delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He hopes his participation will influence those very diplomats whose decisions will impact his own generation.