In 2004, Lehigh became the sixth university in the world to formally partner with the United Nations. This past fall, the collaboration reached a new milestone.<\/p>\n
For more than two decades, Lehigh has served as an accredited non-governmental organization <\/a>at the United Nations. The partnership has allowed the university to send student representatives to conferences, offer internships, conduct research and participate in youth-focused programs.<\/p>\n This fall, Lehigh received Economic and Social Council Special Consultative Status,<\/a> placing it on equal standing with well-known non-governmental organizations such as the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bill Hunter, the director of fellowship advising and United Nations programs and the founder of the partnership, said the designation gives Lehigh the potential to place items on the United Nations agenda and help shape global policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n When the partnership began, Hunter said it offered 10 to 15 programs each academic year and engaged roughly 1,000 students, faculty and staff annually. Today, that same number participates each semester.<\/p>\n \u201cWe offer about 35 or 40 (United Nations) programs every academic year, so we\u2019re open to every major, every minor, every college, undergraduate and first-year students, all the way to doctoral students, faculty and staff,\u201d Hunter said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The partnership engages the Lehigh community through speakers, trips to headquarters, internships and the Youth Representative Program.\u00a0<\/p>\n Events have featured speakers from the federal government, United Nations programs \u2014 including the director of the Environment Programme<\/a> \u2014 and ambassadors from countries such as Denmark and Ukraine.<\/p>\n Ibtihal Gassem, \u201827, is in her second semester as a programming intern for the partnership.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Gassem works with five other interns to plan, attend and promote events both on and off campus. Her responsibilities include coordinating with the individuals or organizations at the center of each event \u2014 whether a diplomat, ambassador or United Nations agency \u2014 and ensuring logistics are in place.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s nice to have these kinds of conversations and know the behind-the-scenes of how you send a diplomatic email (and) have conversations that aren\u2019t just a Q&A,\u201d Gassem said.\u00a0<\/p>\n She said the role has been meaningful because it allowed her to move beyond a student-participant perspective and work behind the scenes to plan and approach events.\u00a0<\/p>\n