By Jennifer K. Morita

June 11, 2025

Puan Maharani, Indonesia’s first woman speaker of the House of Representatives, pushed for gender equality and human rights to make a better world for all during her recent visit to Sacramento State.

“We live on the same earth. No one owns the earth for themselves,” Maharani said. “Therefore, we need to prioritize cooperation, mutual assistance, dialogue, tolerance, a culture of peace, and a culture of love of nature and gender equality to make a better world for everyone.”

Maharani, one of Southeast Asia’s most influential political leaders, delivered the keynote address to a standing-room only crowd at the first Hornet Model United Nations Conference held at Sac State on June 10.

“Humans are born with inherent dignity and worth, and this inherent dignity and worth is equal for all humans, white, black, straight hair, curly hair, male and female,” she said. “These biological differences do not alter the dignity and worth of human beings.”

The event was organized by Sac State’s Model UN program – fresh off of a big win at a national conference – and reflective of the University’s growing efforts to engage the international community.

Maharani was joined by several other Indonesian leaders, including Agustina Wilujeng Pramestuti, mayor of the city of Semarang, and eight members of the country’s House of Representatives. The visit included a welcome dinner and reception at the Julia Morgan House on June 9 and a tour of Sacramento later in the week.

“This is a historic moment for Sacramento State, the inaugural Model UN conference here on campus,” President Luke Wood said. “We’re particularly honored today to recognize our distinguished Indonesian delegation, whose presence here is a great example of the international spirit that defines the United Nations, but also defines the ethos of Sacramento State.”

Maharani is part of a family of political leaders who have shaped the history of Indonesia, the world’s third-largest democracy. She is the granddaughter of founding President Sukarno, who led the country in its struggle for independence, and the daughter of the first woman president, Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Before she was elected speaker in 2019, Maharani served as coordinating minister for Human Development and Culture, overseeing eight ministries including Education, Health and Women’s Empowerment.

Her visit to Sacramento State provided a platform to reflect on those experiences – and to share a broader vision for equity and inclusion on the global stage.

“Democracy alone is not enough to ensure that the rights of men and women are equal,” she told conference participants. “History has proven that women’s rights in politics do not progress in line with the growth of democracy.

“Therefore, it is also necessary to have a society that understands the importance of upholding human rights. Building gender equality is not about deciding who dominates or who is dominated. Rather it is about finding common ground for everyone to play fair roles in aspects of life, regardless of whether they are men or women.”

Although the conference theme was women in international leadership, speakers also touched on recent events and human rights more broadly.

“Programs like these are so important to students like me, because we live in an age of globalization. It’s undeniable that things are becoming more easily accessible with travel and information and technology, so programs like these really help in developing professional skills.” -- Emilie Jocson, an international student from the Philippines and one of the event's organizers

CSU International Programs Director Jaishankar Ramen acknowledged the presence of U.S. Marines and the National Guard amid immigration raids and protests in his hometown of Los Angeles, calling them “antithetical to who we are as human beings.”

“Sometimes this (international) work is very difficult, and in these past five months it’s been very challenging,” Ramen said. “We just have to stay on one focus – the students. All of you who are here as students, you matter.

“We have to stay the course. As my boss tells me, you don’t back down. You double down.”

There are more than 13,000 international students enrolled in the CSU, the largest public university system in the U.S.

“California itself is an international melting pot,” he said. “The largest diaspora of any country that you can think of is in California. … It is very important to understand that we are one people. We are one nation. We are different cultures, and we need to celebrate and recognize that.”

Sac State is one of the only CSU campuses to have hosted a Model United Nations conference. The event was organized by the University’s Model UN program, which is part of the year-long Model United Nations course.

The course provides students of all majors an opportunity to learn about international relations while role-playing as a United Nations delegate. As part of the class, students attend the Model United Nations Conference in New York each spring, earning the Overall Outstanding Delegation Award in 2022, 2024 and 2025. They have also attended conferences in Germany and Japan.

The conference at Sac State grew out of a desire to train future delegates from Sac State as well as those from other colleges. The day-long event included discussion panels and debate sessions for delegates to negotiate resolutions.

“Other schools knew us for our research and were actually copying a similar curriculum and training model because we were prepared for our conferences and other schools were noticing,” said Jenn Galinato, secretary-general of the Model United Nations Club.

Emilie Jocson, an international student from the Philippines who helped organize the conference, highlighted the need to prepare students for an increasingly interconnected world.

“Programs like these are so important to students like me, because we live in an age of globalization,” Jocson said. “It’s undeniable that things are becoming more easily accessible with travel and information and technology, so programs like these really help in developing professional skills.”

Model UN Club members say the inaugural conference will be the first of many.

“This will be the stepping stone for everything else that we’ll be doing in the future,” Galinato said.

“The hope is we can get the next generation of change makers, dreamers, and go-getters into the work of international relations and foreign policy. We aren’t the only ones who want to go and change the world, and we can’t be the only ones doing it.”