After making her big mark in the recently concluded ASEAN Youth Volunteer Programme 2015 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Raxel Ann Gonzales, BSED English 3 student and UNO-R Debate Society Founder and President, is once again set to make a name in the international arena as she will be representing the Philippines in the upcoming World Forum for Democracy 2015 in Strasbourg, France. After going through a difficult selection process with more than 200,000 applications from all over the world, Gonzales is one of the 30 non-European delegates, who will be joining 45 other select young leaders from the European union in the WFD2015 in Strasbourg, France, come November 16-21, 2015. This year’s forum will revolve on the theme: “Freedom VS Control: For a democratic response?”, to hear young leaders, organizations, and experts from the world over, on the imperatives of its new democracy agenda. In addition, Gonzales is the only Filipino applicant who successfully qualified in the top 30, making her the sole representative of the Philippines in the world forum. “I am overwhelmed with such an opportunity, to be honest, as never did I expect that I will be blessed to make it to the top30 who will be invited to join the forum. I worked hard to make a good application and I hoped and prayed for the best. I just can’t thank the Lord enough for this wonderful blessing,” Gonzales said. “There is a hint of pressure with the fact that I will be solely representing the Philippines in the World Forum, but I will definitely do my best to represent the Filipino People and the ASEAN well,” she adds. Gonzales will be flying to France with all of her VISA, travel and accommodation expenses fully-funded by the Council of Europe and will be given the chance to join round-table discussions with highly-esteemed state leaders and policy makers from all around the world.