Young Diplomat
Accepted while still in Year 10, Emily (Year 11) joined an elite group of young Australians on a month-long diplomatic tour of Europe.
When Year 11 student Emily applied for UN Youth Australia’s Young Diplomats Tour, she had a long-term plan. “I applied with the idea that if I kept trying over a couple of years, by Year 12 they would realise how much I wanted it,” she laughed. She need not have worried. Accepted while still in Year 10, Emily was one of just 16 students chosen from across Australia for the month-long program, including Wenona graduate Chloe (2025).
The tour, which ran from late December 2025 through January 2026, took Emily and her fellow delegates across Europe: Istanbul, Athens, Rome, Berlin, Amsterdam (with a day trip to The Hague), Paris, London, and Dublin. Its theme was the Rise and Fall of Empires, tracing how historic empires have shaped modern geopolitics and diplomacy. At each stop, they explored historical sites, attended expert-led workshops and met with diplomats and international organisations.
A highlight of the London leg was attending the 80th anniversary commemoration of the first United Nations General Assembly at Methodist Central Hall – the very venue where the inaugural Assembly took place in 1946. Emily was among more than 1,000 people who heard UN Secretary-General António Guterres deliver an address on the importance of multilateralism.
The London program also included a meeting with Australian DFAT officers posted to Australia House, where Emily took the opportunity to ask one representative about potential discrimination faced by women in diplomatic careers. “She said she had not experienced it herself but discussed how that can be an issue,” Emily reflected.
The educational program was woven through each city, with workshops, briefings, and a comprehensive delegate booklet guiding the learning. Emily was particularly struck by the calibre of her fellow delegates. “All of them were so smart and so knowledgeable, and they also had their special interest areas,” she said. “Just in casual conversations, I think I learned something from every single one of them.”
Rome held a special warmth for Emily, who studies Italian at Wenona and participated in the School’s Italian immersion tour in 2024. “Italy felt very welcoming, and I was able to practise my Italian,” she said.
Berlin also left a deep impression. “I could feel the history. All the books I had read, historical pictures; I just felt like I was living through what I had learnt about.” A visit to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was a particularly affecting. The group also toured the Reichstag, where wartime inscriptions preserved on the walls brought another layer of history vividly to life.
The experience has only strengthened Emily’s commitment to international affairs. She is already preparing to attend a UN Youth Australia state conference in New South Wales – another step on a remarkable journey in global citizenship.