The programme gave young people firsthand experience representing the UAE on a global stage, strengthening leadership, confidence, and cross-cultural engagement.
Al Ain, : The UAE Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka brought the Youth Ambassador Programme experience to students at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) as part of a special session titled “A Session with the UAE Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka”. The session highlighted the important role of youth in representing the UAE on one of the world’s largest international platforms.
A flagship initiative of the UAE Expo Office, the Youth Ambassador Programme provides participants with practical experience in national representation, cultural diplomacy, and international engagement. At Expo 2025 Osaka, Youth Ambassadors worked at the heart of the UAE Pavilion for six months, engaging with visitors from around the world and taking on responsibilities across its operations.
Mariam Al Memari, Head of the UAE Expo Office, said: “The Youth Ambassador Programme reflects the UAE’s continued investment in young people, giving them opportunities to learn through responsibility and experience. At Expo 2025 Osaka, they represented their country, worked across cultures and engaged directly with people from around the world.”
“What they gained goes well beyond the Expo itself. It builds confidence, judgement and a broader understanding of how the UAE engages with the world. Sharing their story at UAEU allows us to share that experience with another generation of young people and encourage them to consider the role they too can play in representing the UAE,” she added.
The UAE Pavilion’s Youth Ambassador cohort at Osaka comprised 46 Youth Ambassadors, including 24 Emiratis, 20 Japanese participants and two expatriates residing in Japan. They worked across guest experience, operations, protocol, programming and communications, engaging with visitors, official delegations and the media throughout the Expo.
Their responsibilities extended beyond the Pavilion’s day-to-day operations. Youth Ambassadors helped plan and deliver International Youth Day, which brought together more than 200 young people from over 60 countries. They developed and delivered their own programme concepts during Youth Ambassador Takeover Weekends and facilitated activities for younger visitors through the Children’s Summer Programme. Their contribution to the Pavilion experience was recognised with the Best Staff Award at Expo 2025 Osaka.
The UAEU session also reflected the programme’s continuing legacy. Ayesha Al Marzooqi, Deputy Pavilion Director of the UAE Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka and Head of Operations at the UAE Expo Office, led the session and brought a personal connection to the programme, having begun her own Expo journey as a Youth Ambassador at Expo 2015 Milan.
Reflecting on her own journey, Al Marzooqi said: “My experience as a Youth Ambassador at Expo 2015 Milan showed me how much young people can grow when they are given the opportunity to represent their country on a global stage. At Expo 2025 Osaka, I had the privilege of seeing a new generation of Youth Ambassadors take on that same opportunity and make it their own.”
“The Youth Ambassadors grew in confidence, learned to work across cultures and became an important part of how visitors experienced the UAE. By sharing their experiences at UAEU, we hope to inspire students to see what could be possible for them,” Al Marzooqi added.
She was joined by Youth Ambassadors Alia Aleissaee and Ahmed Al Darei for a fireside conversation about what it meant to represent the UAE in Osaka. They discussed their interactions with visitors, working alongside colleagues from different cultures, the responsibility of representing their country, and the confidence and skills they developed during the experience.
The session also gave students a broader view of the UAE’s participation in World Expos and the thinking behind the UAE Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka. Guided by the theme Earth to Ether, the Pavilion connected the UAE’s heritage and values with its ambitions for the future, with young people playing a central role in sharing that story with the world.
During its six months at Expo 2025 Osaka, five million visitors experienced the UAE Pavilion’s Earth to Ether journey, which explored the country’s progress and ambitions across sustainable technologies, healthcare and space exploration.
