Dylan Sparks

I was born in South Africa and lived there until I was 7, before living in Qatar and Hong Kong. I attended the UWC of South East Asia - East Campus in Singapore where I was a South African National Committee scholar. I graduated from UWCSEA in 2014. While at UWC I was part of planning an Initiative for Peace conference in Sri Lanka where we facilitated a conflict resolution conference for Sri Lankan youth from Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim backgrounds. After undergoing training workshops from regional UN workers, we utilized the skills we had learned in an attempt to create an open space for dialogue between youth. While in High School I was also very involved with fundraising for a network of schools in the Kibera slum in Nairobi. After graduating, I took a Gap year where I lived in Cape Town working for a non-governmental organization which provides students in a community with a free, high-quality primary school education, while providing scholarships for students to attending High School and tertiary education. Since 2015 I have been at Bard College in upstate New York where I am a Global and International Studies major, with a primary focus on International Relations and a secondary focus on Economics. I enjoy learning about and discussing global issues, and look forward to SPP in Monterey over the Summer!