Juan Sebastian Ballestas Murcia
SSDP Board Application
The Basics
School: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá
Email: jsballestasm@gmail.com
Major(s) / Minor(s) / Areas of study: Major in Philosophy
Current year in school: 7th Semester.
Expected graduation year: 2014
What are your tentative plans after college?:
After completing my undergraduate degree in Philosophy, I plan on doing a masters in Economics. To complement that, I hope to remain connected to the design and implementation of public policy and research with emphasis on vulnerable populations and youth.
Leadership Experience
Describe your advocacy skills and experience. Include work outside of SSDP.
In high school between 2004 and 2007, I was a student representative and became part of the working groups and discussions on the Five Year Plan for Education in the Capital District (Bogota). Since 2009, I have been working with Accion Tecnica Social (ATS), a Colombian NGO, which is responsible for the design and execution of public policy development and corporate social responsibility programs. ATS’s interventions program, designed for leisure and recreational spaces, Echele cabeza cuando se dé en la cabeza, has positioned itself as a pioneer project in Colombia regarding risk reduction and risk mitigation in drug use. In 2011 I founded, along with others, a research initiative in education, OPE, the Observatory of Educational Policy.
In January 2010, with technical support from ATS, I was the founder of the first chapter of SSDP in a Latin American and Spanish-speaking country; that chapter, in the National University of Colombia, has positioned itself as a powerful voice for students and youth in the debate on drug policy in the country and the region.
How do you plan on balancing a busy schedule as a student, an SSDP activist, and a board member?
I think that the activities I am involved in complement each other, thus allowing me to participate on all levels. My academic training is a useful way to approach policy debates, to the extent that my professional interests are in line with the design of public policies and with an emphasis on adolescents. I believe that working with SSDP is an essential complement to identifying the needs of this sector on a national and regional level. From several fronts, I am working towards the same goal: young people and the development of democracies and policies favorable to them. In this sense, my studies and work will be enriched by being a member of the SSDP board and vice versa.
SSDP Chapter Experience
What formal positions have you held in your SSDP chapter? When?
I am the founder and principal coordinator of the SSDP Colombia Chapter at the National University since 2010.
Describe your leadership style, particularly within your chapter.
Within the chapter, we choose to develop proposals based on the ideas that come up for each of our members. My job is to channel the motivations, interests and ideas, towards the development of a specific activity. On the other hand, I have made a specific emphasis on strengthening public relations of the chapter, which means taking part in the decision-making and participatory discussions on the drug related issues in the region. This has caused the chapter to have a wide and solid list of partner organizations.
Describe one project that you led or are leading. What was/is your role? What has this project accomplished?
Currently at the National University we have been working on the idea of ??opening the debate regarding the student health services center. The University does not recognize the drug use among their students and chooses an approach of prohibition, which in practice translates to denied health services for the students. Along with the University’s Welfare of Human Sciences, we have been designing strategies to propose changes in the institutions in this area.
What fundraising or revenue building experience have you had in the past?
As part of Accion Tecnica Social, I have worked with the agency processes that are involved the public and the private sector. Resource management, physical and financial, has been a constant in these processes and have provided me the opportunity to learn more about fundraising in the public sector.
The Board
Why do you want to serve on the SSDP board?
I would like to be part of the SSDP board to work towards the full integration of Latin America and to strengthen SSDP in the region. Knowing the role that Colombia has within the drug policy discussions throughout the world, I think that the presence of a Colombian member will enrich the conversation and provide new elements to the debate.
What do you believe are the board's most important functions?
The SSDP board is the opportunity for decision making within the organization, in this sense the board’s main objective, from my point of view, is to converge the different contexts of each chapter, each region, with its own needs, proposals and initiatives and aim to consolidate the processes of change in drug policy in the world through the SSDP perspective. Based on the Consultative Status to the UN, SSDP should also focus on influencing the international stage.
What are your goals for your board tenure (be as specific as possible)?
1. Consolidate at least five chapters in different parts of Latin America.
2. Propose an event in Latin America to convene organizations working on the drug issue from the perspective of young people.
3. Encourage SSDP to partake in a domestic agenda to mobilize around the need in Latin America for an urgent paradigm shift when it comes to drug policy (bearing in mind that Latin-American youth are largely those most affected by current drug policy).
If elected to the board, would you retain a leading role and/or formal position with your chapter?
I would not remain as coordinator of the chapter, but there is a strong team that can handle local work within the University.
