New York City Chapters
RTT New York City
City-Wide Chapter
RTT Columbia
RTT NYU
RTT NYC Chapter Mission:
Empowering Young New Yorkers
-
As RTT NYC is located in the heart of Manhattan, we are committed to empowering young New Yorkers by providing them with a platform to express themselves to world leaders in New York at major UN conferences.
This summer, we will be organizing monthly meetings to educate, inform, and prepare young people for the UN General Assembly’s First Committee Session. We are also interested in planning activities at major universities in New York State.
In the past, we have provided opportunities for students at Columbia, Cornell, Fordham, and New York University to attend the 2nd and 3rd Meetings of States Parties and the 2025 NPT PrepCom. Our Youth delivered statements directly in the main conference rooms, side events, and met with key governments.
Check Out Our First Cohort and Upcoming Activities!
RTT NYC Executive Team
Elaine
Elaine is a second-year student at Columbia University studying Political Science and Economics, with a minor in Philosophy. She has dedicated her life’s work towards diplomacy and public service, co-chairing her city’s youth council leading to free menstrual products in public spaces, free public transit for high school students and being a representative at the National League of Cities in Washington, DC. Elaine applies her scientific acumen from growing up in Waterloo, Ontario to her policy work by reorienting perspectives on innovation toward peace as opposed to conflict. Through this, she has become a part of RTT as a youth delegate for the United Nations Meeting of Third State Parties, advocating for a world without nuclear war. During her time in DC, she was a strategist under Cecilia Kang, the White House Technology Correspondent for the New York Times, witnessing first-hand how technology policy is formed by collaborating directly with White House AI, trade, and political staff. Her work experience includes political consulting, law firms, policy research, think tanks, and municipal, state, and federal governments.
Yulianna Acuña
Yulianna Acuña is a Youth Advisor with Reverse the Trend (RTT), the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s youth initiative advancing nuclear disarmament and nuclear justice. She is a senior at New York University studying International Relations and Latin American and Caribbean Studies. A first-generation Costa Rican American, she has supported Costa Rica’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations and gained direct experience with multilateral diplomacy on disarmament and non-proliferation. In that work, she served under Ambassador Maritza Chan Valverde during her chairwomanship of the UN General Assembly First Committee (Disarmament and International Security). With RTT, she has represented youth at the Third Meeting of States Parties (3MSP) to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and participated in the 2025 NPT Preparatory Committee
Jonathan Lam
Jonathan Lam is a junior at Cornell University studying Industrial and Labor Relations and double minoring in International Relations and Migration studies. As a son of Vietnamese Refugees, Jonathan is passionate about advocating for displaced refugees, immigrant rights and international human rights law and its intersection with disarmament.
Jonathan is a Youth Activist and New York’s Community Organizing Coordinator for the Refugee and Migrant rights task force at Amnesty International USA. He is a youth organizer with the ACLU of New York and his activism work with the organization has been featured on Teen Vogue, NBC news, ABC news, Chalkbeat New York, NAACP press, Cornell Daily Sun and Queens Local News.
Jonathan is also a RFK Human Rights John Lewis Young Leader Fellow 2024-2025 and was a U.N Youth Delegate to the U.N Summit of the Future, where he was first introduced to Reverse The Trend. Jonathan is currently leading an advocacy project called Sanctuary Beyond War, dedicated to advocating for displaced refugees rights and pushing for disarmament. Jonathan aspires to become an immigration and international human rights lawyer.
Meet Our First Cohort
-
Alei Rizvi
Deputy Director of RTT and Graduate Student at Columbia’s SIPA
-
Tyler Barrett
Policy and Advocacy Assistant of RTT and Coordinator of New York Chapter, Columbia Student
-
Yulianna Acuña
NYU Student
-
Douaa Ahmed
NYU Alumnus
-
Carrene “Cara” Gepilano
NYU Student
-
Bri Gibson
NYU Alumnus
-
Jonathan Lam
Cornell Student
-
Gowri Madhu
NYU Student
-
Owen McKenna
NYU Student
-
Max Minewicz
NYU Student
-
Anderson Peck
Williams Student
-
Lena Pothier
NYU Alumnus
-
David Shi
Williams Student
-
Zaira Canales Rodriguez
NYU Student
Previous Events
-
2025 NPT PrepCom at UNHQ
We brought a delegation of young people from New York. They delivered a youth statement, met with delegations, and participated in our side events.
-
Speaking at the United Nations
Two of our youth representatives delivered an international youth statement at the NPT PrepCom. We are one of the few initiatives that provide such opportunities for young people.
-
3rd Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW
We sponsored international youth to travel to the UNHQ. Our delegation delivered substantive statements, organized substantive side events.
-
NYU Event on the Humanitarian Impact
We convened a special event with Ambassadors from Austria, Costa Rica, and Kazakhstan with survivors of the atomic bombings and young people.
