TAKING A STAND

From a classroom question to the United Nations floor: Meet Derin Ege Sezgin, founder of SDG Youth Connect and an advocate for youth engagement in global development.

By Alexandra Escobar

Photo courtesy of Derin Ege Sezgin

Few 14-year-olds ever get the chance to experience, let alone speak at a United Nations event. But in July 2025, Derin Ege Sezgin did just that.

While delegates twice his age flipped through briefing notes, Derin took the podium at the UN High-Level Political Forum and criticized what he called institutional “silos” that have historically excluded young people from decision-making.

Speaking on behalf of the Major Group for Children and Youth, a UN stakeholder mechanism that advocates for youth participation in global decision-making, his message was blunt: Young people are too often relegated to symbolic panels, praised publicly but excluded procedurally. The sentiment echoed broader youth-led movements for systemic change and intergenerational responsibility, similar in spirit to the climate advocacy associated with voices like Greta Thunberg.

“We’re the ones who are going to live with the consequences of whether these goals succeed or fail,” he said. “Excluding us from shaping them just doesn’t make sense.”

Photo courtesy of Derin Ege Sezgin

Two months later, Derin set his sights on the UN General Assembly’s high-level week, the stage where global leaders and officials converge. Because he was under 18, however, age restrictions barred his participation regardless of the organization he represented. 

Derin refused to back down. He argued that because SDG Youth Connect, the organization he founded, was a recognized UN Civil Society Organization, he should be evaluated based on its institutional status, not his age. The process took weeks. Many emails went unanswered. Finally, the organizers granted an exception. Out of roughly 1,500 applicants, about 100 speakers were selected, and Derin was one of them.

The pressure stayed with him as he prepared his remarks. “It wasn’t about being nervous,” he explains. “It was about responsibility. I didn’t want to give anyone an excuse to dismiss youth work.”

He made the most of his time in the spotlight. At a meeting tied to the launch of the Global Dialogue on AI Governance, he warned that artificial intelligence was advancing faster than governments could respond, and that the younger generations could not be left out of decisions shaping the world they will inherit.

His message did not go unnoticed. He earned recognition from Ambassador Philip Thigo, Kenya’s special envoy on technology, and Cherith Norman Chalet, assistant secretary-general of the UN Department for General Assembly and Conference Management.

Photo courtesy of Derin Ege Sezgin

Today, SDG Youth Connect operates in 53 countries with more than 1,000 members, advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the United Nations’ 17 global goals to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all by 2030. These seventeen goals include specific targets like quality education, climate action and elimination of hunger.

Regional, national and global teams meet biweekly to propose, debate and approve projects by majority vote, with most moving from idea to execution within 30 to 60 days. That structure has fueled projects around the world, from sustainable agriculture programs in Nigeria to sickle cell awareness campaigns in Uganda. In New York City, members have introduced SDG-aligned lessons for pre-K and early elementary students, fostering early awareness of global citizenship. And in Europe, the network has convened government officials and education experts for webinars on refugee integration and equitable access to education.

This global momentum began years earlier, not on a grand stage but in a humble classroom. Derin first learned about the Sustainable Development Goals as a 12-year-old student in northern New Jersey and the child of Turkish immigrants who placed a strong emphasis on. Rather than taking the framework at face value, he began to wonder if the language of global policy was reaching the public at all. 

"Policymakers assume that awareness is already there," Derin says. "But it isn't. And if the average person doesn't understand these goals, they can’t help achieve them."

With the 2030 deadline set by all UN member states to achieve the SDGs rapidly approaching, only 18 percent of targets are on track, 35 percent are progressing steadily and nearly half require significant acceleration. For Derin, the data reinforced what he had already sensed: without knowledge, participation stalls.

So he began teaching himself, reading UN reports, watching briefings and experimenting with coding. In 2023 while still in middle school he built a simple website called SDG Kids Connect. He ran it alone, writing clear explanations of each goal, coding a quiz-style game and linking to organizations doing real-world work.

Derin soon realized that a website alone wouldn’t grant him a seat at the table. To bridge the gap between student hobbyist and international stakeholder, he spent the following year scaling the platform into a project incubator, cold-emailing youth activists across dozens of countries to build a legitimate global constituency.

He formally incorporated SDG Youth Connect as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and relentlessly messaged 45 different UN representatives until he secured a response. It was this shift, from a digital tool to a legally recognized Civil Society Organization, that provided the “cause and effect” necessary to bypass age restrictions and gain entry to the 2025 High-Level Political Forum. 

Within weeks of the forum, SDG Youth Connect partnered with NextGenNav to launch an AI and SDG hackathon featuring $50,000 in philanthropic funding to advance mission-driven initiatives emerging from the program. More than 400 participants, forming over 80 teams from around the world, took part.

The projects reflected problems often overlooked in global tech spaces. In Nigeria a team built an AI system that detects water leaks and contamination using audio, video and satellite data, rewarding community members for reporting issues. In Bangladesh a young developer created a low-cost, language-inclusive menstrual health platform designed for women excluded by mainstream applications.

Winning teams were invited into a follow-on program to further develop their solutions, shifting the event from a competition into a pipeline for long-term impact.

Also in 2025, SDG Youth Connect partnered with ArtsEnvoy.ai to launch the Youth AI Creators Academy, an initiative focused on practical skill-building and innovation in artificial intelligence. The academy seeks to create structured opportunities for learning and experimentation, aligning technological education with the idea that development is strongest when communities contribute to solutions.

For Derin, this latest project is an extension of his broader belief in youth agency. Meaningful change comes when young people move from spectators to participants, and participation itself is a catalyst for progress.

“Every young person who realizes they can take action reminds me why this work matters.”

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This story is part of Why Not Us, an open call series amplifying youth-led activism.