Andrea Winter of Concord attended the Global Young Leaders Conference that concluded earlier this month in Washington, D.C., and New York City.

The Global Young Leaders Conference is a unique leadership development program for secondary school students from around the world who have demonstrated leadership potential and scholastic merit.

Winter, a student at Villa Duchesne High School, is among 350 outstanding scholars from around the world who attended the conference.

The theme of the Global Young Leaders Conference was “The Leaders of Tomorrow Preparing for the Global Challenges and Responsibilities of the Future.”

During the conference, Winter interacted with key leaders and newsmakers with powerful influence over politics, finance, culture and diplomacy, and took part in a carefully designed curriculum that included thought-provoking simulations that build leadership skills.

“The Global Young Leaders Conference challenges students like Andrea Winter to cross cultural barriers and collaborate in a team effort to tackle many of the conflicts facing the world today,” stated Michael Lasday, executive di-rector of the Congressional Youth Leadership Council, the organization that sponsors the conference.

“We firmly believe that for a student who may have a history of conflict with a student of a different culture, the barriers can be lowered by recognizing differences and building on similarities. When ideas and points of view are shared, the true results of the conference are realized,” Lasday stated in a news release.

The Global Young Leaders Conference culminated with the “Global Summit,” in which students applied what they learned throughout the conference as they debated, negotiated and built coalitions dealing with such issues as foreign aid, global warming, cooperative efforts in space, terrorism and human rights.