Downtown Rotary meeting - 7 May 2019

Rotary Club of Downtown Auckland, Inc.

Weekly meeting – Tuesday 07/05/2019

 

Victoria Brownlee

Alumni development assistant – University of Auckland

“Defying the Smashed Avocado Stereotype: My Journey to the United Nations”

 

In 2018, Victoria Brownlee became the first New Zealand woman to intern with the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs. She pursued a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and Bachelor of Arts majoring in Politics and International Relations at the University of Auckland.

Recently, Victoria co-directed a month-long study tour of the USA for sixteen New Zealand university students and arranged meetings with 55 speakers at 32 organisations ranging from Google to the World Bank. She also took the delegation to the Harvard National Model United Nations conference. She fell in love with New York and set herself a goal of returning within a year.

Four months later, she was offered an internship at the United Nations. With the support of the University and the Peace & Disarmament Education Trust, she was able to accept this offer and worked for the Strategic Planning Unit in the Office for Disarmament Affairs. She advised on issues including nuclear weapons in North Korea and the role of artificial intelligence in security.

Aside from her UN job, Victoria also worked for the University of Auckland as a Special Project Lead for New York. Her role involved interviewing alumni in the US with a view to creating a new global alumni engagement strategy.

Victoria will be discussing her internship experience and sharing her story from New Zealand to New York.

Please note:

Breakfast meeting registrations close at 11 a.m. on the Monday. For a short time after this, it may be possible to request changes via President Lucy.

Failure to register your attendance can cause problems for Northern Club catering

 

Introducer/host: Byran Theunisen

Thanker: Susan Benedek

 

5-minute speaker: Philip Caughey on A.I.

 

Reception: Susanne Loesser, Jim Hainey, Grant Hally

 

Upcoming meetings:

 

14/05/2019

Tanya Hart

Project director – Trees that Count

“How Sir Stephen Tindall’s vision for a native tree campaign became a reality”

 

21/05/2019

Jaime Brown

Co-director of Merge NZ

“The mission to normalise NZ sign language”