Hoops of Hope
The theme for the 2011 Secondary Schools United Nations Symposium (SSUNS) is “We Ignite” and the conference featured a 17-year old keynote speaker with an amazing story that inspired delegates to ignite the passion within them. Austin Gutwein founded Hoops of Hope when he was just nine years old and has since raised over $2.2 million for orphaned children in Africa. It all started with a video that he saw many years ago and he now got to share his own video to encourage the delegates at SSUNS to start changing the world by changing one person’s life — and to have your own life be changed in the process.
Austin’s two main lessons are:
- When you help change someone else’s life, it will change yours
- You don’t need to change the world; just change the world for one
Here are video and photo highlights from Opening Ceremonies:
Secretary-General Deep Seal hopes to ignite students' passions at SSUNS
SSUNS Secretariat pose with Hoops of Hope founder Austin Gutwein
Good luck to all the delegates this weekend! We hope the conference will be a wonderful educational experience for all!
