Meet a Sandboxer: Nicolò Wojewoda
April 30th, 2011 by Sandbox
Meet Sandboxer Nicolò Wojewoda. Nicolò, 26, is somebody who strives to live an examined and deliberate life, acting according to what Kant calls the “moral imperative”, following Thoreau’s advice to “suck out all the marrow of life” and his mom’s recommendation to “grab a sweater if you’re cold”. What excites him most? Water polo, personal productivity, cooking, scuba diving, philosophy, quiet reflective time and occasional networking. Find Nicolò on Twitter and Facebook.
1. Tell us the story of your latest project / occupation.
Road to Rio+20 is a global youth mobilization campaign I’m leading since November 2010, aimed at getting young people around the world involved in the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, taking place in Rio de Janeiro in May 2012. Ours is a coalition of 15 partners who are engaging youth through regional meetings, media outreach, the development of a 6-part book series on sustainable development, the production of a musical and of a green economy business innovations contest.
2. What are you doing and how did you get there?
I believe that getting young people’s ideas and listening to their needs is a matter of survival and justice for young and future generations. I started small in places such as my university, and on a specific issue such as education, but gradually expanded the scope of my work to other issues such as sustainable development on a worldwide scale.
3. Tell us about the biggest successes and failures in your life. What worked, what didn’t, and what did you learn?
It doesn’t really make sense to me to talk about success and failure. As Albert Einstein said: “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”
4. What do you want to achieve in a) the next year, b) the next 10 years?
Next year: build an effective global youth campaign on sustainable development
Next 10 years: I don’t make long-term plans
5. What was your most inspring moment during the last two weeks?
I met a group of bright and motivated high-schoolers from the United World Colleges’ Atlantic College in their castle in Wales, to talk with them about sustainable development and assisted to an amazing Oxford-style student debate on whether we should support those who seek ways to prosecute governments and corporations for intergenerational murder.
6. How could other Sandboxers and the outside world support you and why would that be exciting for them.
The upcoming UN summit is going to be a generation-defining moment in history, like the original Earth Summit was. Just to give some perspective: the framework convention for international climate change negotiations – the famous COPs of Copenhagen and Cancun – started at that conference. It’s an opportunity to not just come to the table voicing our generation’s concerns and proposals for moving forward, but also to showcase our work and tell governments “this is what I’m doing to achieve a more sustainable world, help me do more!”
Nicolò’s favourite:
-book: Against Method by Paul Feyerabend
-movie: Doubt
-place on earth: its crust
-travel destination during last year: scuba diving in Malta
-food: Wienerschnitzel
-drink: water
-quote: “I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.’” – Kurt Vonnegut
