Federico Pieri is in his second year of Political Science at LUISS, but he already has acquired significant international experience: he won the most recent Rome MUN as a representative of Afghanistan for the FAO commission and presented his project on sustainable agriculture at the latest TEDx talk in Bologna, his hometown.
Having always been interested in international relations, Federico decided to participate in the United Nations simulations that are held each year in Rome: "I was interested in the idea of learning more about the structure of the UN and putting my English to the test." Along with an Austrian girl, Katharina, he drafted a project on agricultural innovation to fight underdevelopment in Afghanistan. He did a lot of studying and spent many hours doing research to draft his proposed solution, starting from an idea that differed from those of the United Nations: "We think that the only possible approach for less developed countries is grassroots change and not something imposed from outside. For this reason we have focused on reforms that create schools for farmers, seed banks, information campaigns to promote growth and sustainability, and permit the sharing of agricultural techniques, know-how and strategies to save energy. It went well." So well that Federico and Katharina’s project won with a large majority of the votes, with the news spreading as far as Andrea Pauri, the organizer of the 2014 TEDx conference in Bologna.
TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a non-profit organization whose motto is "ideas worth spreading." It began 25 years ago as a four-day conference in California, and through a number of initiatives, TED has grown into a network of local events organized independently, that is, TEDx: as with the annual conference, the leading figures in "thinking" and "doing" are invited to talk about their ideas in brief presentations. "It was an amazing experience: I never would have dreamed I’d be part of such an event." A ten-minute talk, rehearsed again and again with friends and parents, to talk about his winning project at MUN: "Speaking before your hometown, in a theater that you used to go to only as a spectator, is a one-of-a-kind feeling. But the most valuable part of the experience was the friends I made backstage.”
Now about to finish his three-year bachelor’s degree program, Federico is looking towards the future: “My dream is to be able to offer my skills to help others and to work with international organizations to promote development in the world.” Small changes could begin even at LUISS, where a community garden was recently created: "It is an extremely innovative project and I believe that it could bring about a new aspect of the green economy at our university, among others."