Renowned actor Forest Whitaker had a conversation with students at the Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how individuals can contribute to achieving them. The event was organized as part of Mr. Whitaker\u2019s role as UNESCO Special Envoy and a member of the UN Secretary-General\u2019s SDG Advocacy Group. He was joined at the event by Joined by the UN Assistant Secretary General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, Thomas Gass, and fellow SDG Advocate, Ambassador Dho Young-shim.<\/p>\n
The Bronx Center was chosen for the visit because of its reputation for academic excellence\u2014despite its location in one of the poorest congressional district\u2019s in the nation\u2014and because of its emphasis on service and giving back.<\/p>\n
The students were engaged in the conversation and asked several questions about how they could participate in the SDGs when many of them came from disadvantaged backgrounds. Mr. Whitaker stressed to the youth that they had to realize their individual power and that even seemingly small acts could make a big difference. \u201cAll the SDGs are connected,\u201d Mr. Whitaker said, \u201cand every person can start with small a small act or join a big movement. You have to be aware that you have the power to make a difference and decide how you want to be involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the conversation, Mr. Whitaker spoke candidly to the students about his own childhood, coming of age in Los Angeles during the birth of many gangs and the challenges that posed. He noted similarities he observed between gang members he knew in Los Angeles and former child soldiers he\u2019s worked with in Uganda, and he told the students that this has motivated him to help young people overcome the obstacles they face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Renowned actor Forest Whitaker had a conversation with students at the Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how individuals can contribute to achieving them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5507],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-sdg-advocates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}