Inviting all UNA-NYC Youth Members
THE CHALLENGE 2025 | A Networking Event
Tuesday, 15 July 2025
A timely heads-up to all of our UNA-NYC Youth Members — about an exciting networking opportunity coming up on July 15!
Have you ever been involved professionally or academically in projects related to the Sustainable Development Goals? Would you like to participate in an exchange with Spanish and Portuguese students selected to present their SDG projects at the UN?
UNA-NYC is partnering with “la Caixa” Foundation in promoting a special event at the UN in New York City. THE CHALLENGE is an educational initiative by EduCaixa that empowers students and teachers to design impactful projects aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. (See more information about this project below.)
As part of this year’s UN Youth Skills Day celebrations, this special event at the UN Headquarters in New York will take place on Tuesday, July 15, where Spanish and Portuguese students will present their SDG initiatives to UN experts and officers and engage in dialogue with other young changemakers.
Because we recognize the importance of youth initiatives for the SDGs, we are inviting members of our SDG Youth Leaders program to take part in the afternoon activities, especially the youth networking session. The program includes:
3 PM | Panel of Experts: Young People as Agents of Change
4 PM | Worldshakers Project Presentations
5 PM | Youth Networking Session w/ Peers and SDG Leaders
We invite our own youth leaders with this special opportunity to bring their own valuable insights and energy while meeting their peers from Spain and Portugal. Registration closes on JULY 9 (at 5 pm). Attend this special event using the link below — and be prepared for this inspiring meet-up!
NOTE: General registration is ONLY for the 5 PM Networking Session in the UN Headquarters entrance square. Attendance for the opening Panel and Presentations is nearly full. However, all registrants will be entered into a lottery for a chance to obtain the remaining seats. Winners will be notified by email on July 10. All registrants MUST provide first and last names, date of birth, and must bring a current and valid Government-issued ID, such as a drivers license or passport, to the event location for UN Security clearance. Instructions as to exact time and location for the meetup will be sent to each registrant at a later date.
Register for this event HERE
About “la Caixa” Foundation and
THE CHALLENGE Project
The “la Caixa” Foundation is a not-for-profit bank foundation based in Spain with the mission of developing lasting solutions that meet the basic needs of the most vulnerable people, foster the progress of society by responding to new challenges in research, high quality training and education, and make science and culture available to all segments of society.
EduCaixa, the education area of the “la Caixa” Foundation, promotes high-quality education and social progress, helping to guarantee that education responds to the needs of our society. EduCaixa works across three key dimensions:
Learning opportunities for students in the classroom and beyond.
Professional development for teachers and educational leaders.
The generation and transferral of scientific evidence about education.
EduCaixa's THE CHALLENGE program aims to contribute to a quality education through challenges in which students and teachers can develop significant learning, improve their skills, get closer to real professional contexts, connect with other youth and contribute to social progress.
The students develop SDG-based projects identifying a cause that moves them and developing initiatives that contribute to its achievement. Over 7,000 students participated in THE CHALLENGE during the 2024-2025 school year, with 7 teams being selected for an Educational Trip to New York to present their SDG initiatives at the UN and connect with the most inspirational partners to increase the social impact of the projects.
With the aim of helping young people to realize their full potential, the Educational Trip is an experience that continues the process started in the classroom — with the SDGs as a reference point and New York as an exceptional context — to develop, in an experiential, active and collaborative way, young people’s skills that allow them to empower themselves as worldshakers with positive views, initiatives and impacts.
____
For any questions, please email UNA-NYC executive director Ann Nicol at info@unanyc.org.