The Aspen Institute’s Kyiv team joined the Aspen Challenge Program in the USA
Imagine yourself as a teenager. There’s that internal conflict, feeling simultaneously grown-up yet unready to take on responsibility. Or you’re incredibly motivated but lack the mechanisms to influence the troubling situation.
Each year, the Aspen Institute in the USA holds the Aspen Challenge program to engage young people in socially significant activities, research, and community development. This year, the Aspen Challenge program encompassed the Brooklyn district of New York, bringing together over 200 participants aged 14 to 18.
During the forum, teenagers participated in dialogues with influential speakers, exchanged thoughts, and developed skills in collaboration, leadership, creativity, and social responsibility. They interacted with each other, finding support and new ideas.
Teams of participants also had to develop a comprehensive project, including research, a roadmap for implementation, proposals for necessary partnerships and resources, and more. Interestingly, central themes that interested both speakers and young people were mental health preservation, ecology, immigrant rights protection, etc. Despite their young age, participants shared their challenging experiences, reinforcing and motivating each other.
The Aspen Institute in the USA invited institutes that already implement successful programs for teenagers — Aspen Institute Kyiv, Aspen Institute India, Aspen Institute Central Europe — and partners aspiring to create similar programs—such as Aspen Institute UK and Aspen Institute Columbia.
To exchange experiences and gain best practices from partners, the Executive Director at Aspen Institute Kyiv, Yuliya Tychkivska, and Seminar Program Director, Alina Shklyaruk, joined the program.
Working with teenagers is integral to the Aspen Institute’s Kyiv activities. After all, those we work with today will make crucial decisions for our future tomorrow. This endlessly inspires and fulfills us.
Since 2008, the Aspen Institute Kyiv has initiated AspenTeens programs. Together with partners from the Klitschko Foundation, we held seminars for teenagers based on philosophical texts, seeking answers to today’s challenging questions. We constantly strive for new opportunities to engage young people in exchanging ideas. Aspen Challenge is an excellent opportunity to draw inspiration for implementing new formats within AspenTeens.
We are very grateful to our partners at the Aspen Institute in the USA for such an important initiative.
