By Mamadou Doucoure (YES 2016-2017, Mali, placed by Aspect in Oakford, IL)

The World Forum for Democracy is an annual event organized by the Council of Europe that welcomes youth, current and former leaders, organizations, journalists, and more to brainstorm solutions on different themes concerning democracy. This year, the theme was “democracy, a new hope?” and I was part of the youth delegation of the European Youth Center of Strasbourg among 50 other delegates from 44 countries.

I applied as a YES alumnus and brought out the unheard voices from citizens suffering from open corruption and impunity in many YES countries. I had a talk with Lieut Col Alex Vindman and discussed the security problem in the Sahel region. I took the chance to tell him about my YES experience. As a YES alumnus, connecting with other youth from over 44 countries was natural for me. It was impressive how the youth are determined to make this world a better place. 

I am currently a Master’s student of Medical Biotechnology student at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Although my major is in biomedicine, I have always been interested in politics and leadership because I believe it is something everyone should take into consideration. Our lives and decisions depend on the decisions politicians make for us and our countries. 

My biggest takeaway from the World Forum was to see how these young people from different political systems listened to each other and started to ask how we can collaborate to change the world to be a better and more equitable one. 

I am planning to  pursue my PhD at the Max Planck Research Institute of Infection Biology in Berlin and at the same time keep working on development projects with my organization “Farafina” (which means Africa in Bambara). I want to focus on changing African lives through education, and create more access to global opportunities. I have this passion due to the experience I gained at the YES alumni Design Thinking workshop in 2020.