Polymath Pharrell Williams is now a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. The producer and Louis Vuitton menswear creative director addressed the main conference room at UNESCO's Paris headquarters which featured about 800 students, as he accepted the honor.
He told the audience in his speech, "I never dreamed in 51 years that I would be standing at a podium like this, in a building like this." Later in his speech, he discussed the fragility of humanity, stating, "We are at a crisis as a species." He adds, "I’m betting on the youth. I’m betting on the kids. I’m betting on all the people who’ve been marginalized for so long, generationally, to stand up, band together and realize that we’re so much stronger when we pull together,” he said. “It’s never too late to start thinking about what your dream is, because your dream can pull you out of a very tough situation...When you dare to dream, I promise you can do it. Just do it piece by piece."
Audrey Azoulay, director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization noted that a goodwill ambassador for UNESCO "goes beyond diplomacy." She also mentions that Williams is the first American citizen to be named a goodwil ambassador since the U.S. returned to UNESCO last year. Pharrell continues in his speech, So much of the blessings in my life I credit to hard work, community and collaboration, all the pillars I think about when I reflect on really what UNESCO’s mission and vision is. There are many voices and devices that prey on negativity and exacerbating our differences. They use it to divide us and to scare us. But spending time in so many different places, cultures, cities, countries, I’ve seen firsthand how much we’re all connected and intertwined." He shares his goals, "My goal is to promote the kind of education that helps even the odds for marginalized kids like myself, and adults by closing the opportunity path. At the core of everything that I do is the belief that opportunity should not be determined by the circumstances of where you come from."
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