Zach Galloway 2025 United Nations Global Peace Summit

My name is Zach Galloway. I am a student at Trinity Western University. For the past 3 years, I have worked to create an environment where people feel seen, heard and understood. This year, those efforts culminated in an independent journalism endeavor, The Table. Through The Table, I have been selected to attend the 2025 United Nations Global Peace Summit. This trip is the chance of a lifetime, and I want to be as well prepared for it as I possibly can. Receiving funding from external sources will help relieve one of the stress factors so I can focus on bringing my best self to the United Nations assembly.

The event will cost almost $3000.

I am a kid from a small American town that no one has ever heard of. I've been through the American foster care system. I know what it is like to exist on the periphery. In the past four years, I have experienced things I had never imagined were possible when I was a child.

My passion lies in making sure no one ever feels unseen. I use the platform I have to build others up. I want to be a vessel through which others may find their voice. I simply want to represent my community, the place that welcomed me when I was looking for my place in the world. Now, it is through that community, Trinity Western University, that I get to help build a better future, and I get to make sure that not just the individual students of TWU feel seen, but that TWU as a whole entity is seen. I want the world to see the light that shines from the students of this university. Each of you has the potential to be a world changer, and that path will be easier with lights shining on you and what you can do. Let me be the beacon that draws attention to all that we can be.

At the United Nations assembly, I will be exposed to other peace builders, and other people who share my passion for casting a light on the unseen. There will be journalists like myself, there will be survivors with stories to tell, there will be hundreds of other like-minded students from universities across the world.

When I return from this summit, I can use my experiences, networks and connections that I will have forged at the event to create a wider platform for more people to feel heard and seen. I can use the connections I build to participate in many different local charities and outreach programs.

My dream is to work with disadvantaged youth to help build them into the best people that they can be. Tom Peters says “Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.” The past four years I have focused not on trying to be a leader, but someone who can be an example of a leader, even when the obstacles are daunting, even in the face of persistent heartbreak and defeat. These efforts have been paying off this year, and the opportunity to go to this event will make everything that preceded it worth it.