Farah Hussain '05, a local youth and sustainability activist with a worldwide vision, believes that young people have what it takes to solve the world's most-pressing problems.

"Some people only see youths' negative attributes," says Hussain, a College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) graduate. "A different model of thinking is to see youths' assets: their fresh, new voices; their innovative, inspired ideas; their readiness for action." But to tap into those assets, "you need to engage young people early on to have a stake in their communities and see their lofty ideas for the future happening on a local level."

This May, Hussain and Cornell graduate student Daniel Roth founded Tompkins County's Youth Connect, an intergenerational group of about 20 youth leaders, ages 15 to 30, who meet monthly in Ithaca's ABC Café to share ideas on making their corner of the world better.

And this June, Hussain helped draft a policy document for more-sustainable cities proposed by 500 youth leaders from around the globe at the first ever World Youth Forum, held in Vancouver in conjunction with the World Urban Forum. Both she and Roth attended as members of U.S. Partnership Youth Action Team, a national coalition of 300 youth leaders.

"Locally and globally, we're 'mainstreaming' young voices on such issues as alleviating poverty and building sustainable communities," Hussain says. Idea sharing and relationship-building are the keys.

To spend time with Hussain is to be dazzled by her optimism and energy. "For women of color it can sometimes seem as if everything is stacked against you in a world that can be harsh, unyielding, angry and oppressive," she says. "But just knowing this and yearning for something different makes me want get up every morning with renewed hope and vigor, and continue to forge onwards."

Hussain was cared for as a baby by her grandmother in Guyana, before emigrating to the United States when she was 4. Raised primarily by her mother in Queens, N.Y., she is the first in her family to go to college. Initially, she didn't feel she fit in at CALS -- until she started reaching out through her interdisciplinary major in community development and social policy, and volunteer work through Cornell's Public Service Center.

She taught high schoolers in Newfield about food and nutrition through a Cornell Cooperative Extension education program, volunteered at Ithaca's Greater Ithaca Activities Center and was a legislative aide with N.Y. state Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton. The experiential learning enriched her studies and made her feel she was doing something of value.

Inspired, Hussain postponed graduate school "to pursue my passions and find my niche." In addition to her youth work, she became an Americorps VISTA volunteer at Ithaca's Alternatives Federal Credit Union, where she helps people of modest means become financially savvy about running their own small businesses. "It's about asking what their dreams and goals are and helping them figure out how to get there," she says.

She also hosts an award-winning public affairs television show on local cable Channel 13 with a socially progressive agenda, where she and Roth were interviewed this August by Wayles Browne, Cornell associate professor of linguistics, on their experiences at the World Youth Forum.

Hussain excitedly told Browne about forum attendees' interest in such Ithaca initiatives as a car-sharing proposal; partnerships formed at the forum between youth councils from places as far-flung as Nairobi and Oslo; and "the great sense of unity among youth's voices" on the shared goal of a healthier, more-sustainable world.

Sustainability, to Hussain, means a "liveable wage and safe, nonviolent atmosphere; recognizing our ecological footprint, and doing what we can do to minimize our use of natural resources; equity -- ensuring we're not taking away more than we need and leaving someone else with nothing; and most important, ensuring the survival of generations to come."

"It's a holistic way to look at the world," she says, and it's very much needed as "the baton is passed from one generation to the next."