As part of a visit to the United Nations in New York, 70 middle school students and 10 teachers and advisors from the Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland, on Friday met with the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, Ahmad Alhendawi. Prompted by the Envoy to share what they had learned during their visit about the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), it turned out the students were a very knowledgeable group, having prepared thoroughly already prior to their trip to New York.

As part of their preparations, the Bullis School students had been playing freerice.com to learn more about the locations of countries in the world and to donate to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) — 500,000 grains and counting so far. The students also handed over a check of $683.05 that they had collected for the WFP to benefit the survivors of typhoon Haiyan, which the Envoy gratefully accepted on WFP’s behalf and promised to forward to the agency.
Finally, Alhendawi assigned “homework” to the visitors: although the students were initially very reluctant, when they realized the task at hand they seemed much more willing to take it on: to visit www.un.org/youthenvoy and the Envoy’s social media to see “what’s cool and what’s not – and let me know.”