UNA Pasadena will celebrate UN Day 2026: Empowering Youth for a Better Future on Monday, October 26, 2026, from 6:00-7:15 PM at the Polytechnic Upper School Library, 1030 Cornell Rd., Pasadena, CA 91106. The event will bring together students, educators, community organizations, volunteers, and members of the Pasadena community to celebrate local action and its connection to global goals. The celebration will recognize the United Nations and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while highlighting the work young people and community members are doing to build a better future locally and globally.
UNA-Pasadena is excited to feature Khin-Sandi Lwin as our keynote speaker. Lwin is a prominent international development expert, gender equity advocate, and voice for civil resistance in Myanmar. Over a 35-year career with the United Nations, she served across more than 10 countries, including high-profile leadership roles as a UNICEF Representative. Following her UN retirement, she turned her focus to dismantling autocratic power structures, notably delivering a TEDx talk on the social evolution of leadership and gender.
Also joining us will be Sophia Alicea, the 15th UNA-USA Youth Observer to the UN. Alicea works to build bridges between youth and international institutions, and has served as a Regional Security Studies Fellow with the NATO Veterans Initiative and a Young Leader in Foreign and Security Policy Fellow with the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.
This year’s event reflects the UNA-USA 2026 theme, “United to Deliver on Promises to Support Peace, People, and Planet.” The program will feature interactive activities, remarks from United Nations Association officials and youth leaders, and an advocacy-focused call to action. A featured component of the celebration will be a Youth United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Showcase, where students and teams will be invited to present their SDG projects through a short presentation accompanied by a video or slideshow documenting their work. Selected participants will become UNA Pasadena’s Youth Global Goals Ambassador and receive a $500 donation made in their name to an eligible nonprofit charity of their choice. Interested young people may submit their project HERE on or before October 15, 2026.
Community members interested in attending can RSVP here. For more information, please contact Secretary Beverly Goldin at unapasadena@gmail.com or (213) 925-1963.
