I n December 2018, I had the honor and privilege of attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference [a.k.a. Conference of the Parties or COP24] in Katowice, Poland, for one week alongside Dean Diane Husic. It was one of the most remarkable experiences I had while a student at Moravian, and as I reflect years later, I realize that it provided a monumental shift in my life perspective and an invaluable asset in my career.

As a first-generation college student, I had not dreamed of studying abroad or having such a worldly life-altering, high-level experience; I felt lucky enough to be pursuing a college education. Moravian changed my life in several ways; however, attending COP24 opened so many doors for me after I graduated.

During my first week of law school at Widener University, we had to tell a fun fact about ourselves, so I shared that I attended COP24 the prior winter. The energy in the classroom shifted as people stopped what they were doing to listen. My experience at the conference drew the attention of my peers, which helped me get chosen president of the student government and a voting representative to the American Bar Association for the Delaware Law School at Widener.

I can attest that I likely wouldn’t have been interviewed for certain jobs had COP24 not been listed on my résumé. At almost every job interview, my experience at COP24 was among the first topics addressed, and it helped me obtain my current position.

I am a lawyer with a specialty in transactional corporate law in the corporate capital of America. This is a very difficult job to land. Without having high-level globally recognized experiences on my résumé such as COP24, this law specialty would not have been an option for me.

Although COP is advertised as a science-based conference, it offers so much more. This was the first time in my life that I was in the same room as global leaders and where global change and movements originated. I attended events led by various countries, some of which I had never heard of, and learned about their realities with poverty and lack of resources to combat climate change. I observed next-level technological innovations, and plans that countries already implemented to have a sustainable impact on the lives of those living in their communities, and I engaged in discussions regarding what changes Moravian had made in Bethlehem to impact its students and local community long-term. I even attended a single-day international legal conference at a prestigious European university. Words cannot describe how impactful that was to a young woman who was the first person in her family to receive a college education.