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This passion led me to join a number of initiatives, both on and off campus while at Wellesley. I have been trying to get more involved in the international sphere, bringing my grassroots knowledge as both inspiration and a mechanism for how to bring about effective policies. Though this past year - my senior year - I was most effective in these efforts by attending conferences and building a network, I still haven‘t fully entered that space. So, when the Global Youth Coalition on Plastic Pollution (GYCPP) sent me a WhatsApp message on attending INC-4 in Ottawa, Canada, I was very excited to say “yes.”

The INC-4 was the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-4). Just two years prior, I had been studying these very negotiations in Professor Beth DeSombre’s International Environmental Law course, before any INCs had started. To have the opportunity to attend, and participate in intersessional meetings was beyond amazing. At the conference, I saw firsthand the hundreds of fossil fuel lobbyists present undermining the negotiations, pushing for a weaker plastics treaty. Though not surprising, the access that these fossil fuel lobbyists had compared to the access of the youth and children, and all of the other social advocacy groups, was incomparable. These types of events are often inaccessible for so many people, for financial and/or geographic barriers, the difficulties of securing visas, and even the knowledge gap on how to be the most effective in the negotiation process. For a treaty to be successful, these barriers must be reduced as much as possible, and accessibility to these negotiations improved. 

It was the first UN event that I have attended. As I used the time to learn and engage with stakeholders, it is now a commitment to myself that I will try to attend many more UN events. I believe that collaboration, and especially international collaboration, is key to creating this better world I have often dreamt about.

And, as an icing on the cake, I was given the opportunity to deliver an intervention on behalf of GYCPP to all the delegates, highlighting the toll that plastic has on the children and youth as our futures are most impacted by the immense amount of plastic pollution found around the world. You can find the link to the intervention here.

This is just the first international event of many that I hope to attend, and I am so excited for what is to come. This summer I will be working on my own organization called SHIRA Foundation which I founded in 2020, but have focused on only sporadically while at Wellesley. Now, I know exactly what space I want it to operate in and I will begin working on the accreditation process so SHIRA can one day also be an official observer of the UN. 

If anyone is passionate about plastics and wants to get involved with GYCPP, you can find more information here.