Students met Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai and heard from former diplomats and national security officials
Five Colorado Mesa University political science students headed to Boulder in April after being selected from more than 35 applicants to attend the 2026 Conference on World Affairs. Students Kayla Bauer, Jordan Jenning, Jachin Glassman, Alexis White and Kira Smith spent four days listening to former diplomats, national security officials and other speakers take on issues in politics and international affairs.
One of the trip’s highlights came before Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai’s keynote address, when all five CMU students and Assistant Professor of Political Science Holly Oberle, PhD, talked with her about what she planned to discuss and took a photo with her.
“All the students were buzzing,” said Oberle. “They were so happy, so excited and so overwhelmed.”
The Conference on World Affairs brought together people with different backgrounds and perspectives to talk about current issues.
“It’s really more about experts, thinkers, students, activists and artists, all kinds of people with different perspectives on contemporary issues coming together to just talk,” Oberle said.
Students were free to build their own schedules and chose sessions that interested them. Sessions included discussions about international development, America’s relationship with NATO and public service. They also watched former U.S. national security advisers Susan Rice and John Bolton debate the United States’ role in the world.
Yousafzai closed the conference to speak about education, becoming a public figure at a young age and how being internationally known while attending university shaped her college experience.
For Oberle, hearing about that side of Yousafzai’s life stood out.
“It was really insightful to hear about somebody that is so famous and so well-known, but get an insight on her actual private life,” Oberle said.
Students also had opportunities to talk with speakers after sessions.
“A lot of my students were the first ones up in line to talk to the speakers after their official speech,” Oberle said.
Some of what they heard in Boulder connected directly with what they were already studying at CMU. In Oberle’s World Politics course, students participate in a United Nations simulation where each person represents a country and considers an issue based on that country’s interests rather than their own views.
The conference also gave students the chance to hear directly from people who had spent their careers working in foreign policy and public service. Oberle hopes experiences like this will also help students see the different directions a political science degree could take them.
“There are so many ways to get involved, to make a career in public service,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be in traditional politics. It doesn’t have to be becoming an elected official.”
The trip came together through CU Boulder’s Higher Education and Democracy Initiative. Oberle participated as a fellow alongside faculty from Fort Lewis College and CU Boulder, meeting throughout the semester to discuss civic and democratic engagement in higher education.
Giving students opportunities to experience political science outside the classroom has been one of Oberle’s goals since coming to CMU. As an undergraduate, she participated in a study abroad program that changed the way she viewed her education.
“That changed my life immensely, that experience, more than anything in the classroom,” Oberle said. “It’s always been my purpose to pay it forward, to create those same experiences for my students now.”
Learn more about CMU’s political science program, or visit supportingcmu.org to support political science students.