A 13-year-old prodigy will address 142 teenagers today at the first Northern Ireland youth leadership conference in the US.
Organised by the Children's Friendship Project of Northern Ireland (CFPNI), the teenagers have been staying with American host families for the last month.
Greg Smith, a 13-year-old American who graduated top of his college class this year and who has set up his own international youth organisation, will speak to the group about improving their communities in the North.
A 2002 Nobel peace prize nominee, he has organised humanitarian aid projects for East Timor orphans and the youth of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The Northern Irish teenagers will also meet 40 black teenagers from Newark, New Jersey, who won a community award for their work with inner-city youth.
The Irish have been flown in from their host cities across the US, including New Mexico and Colorado, for the four-day conference. Eleven co-ordinators travelled from Belfast for the conference at DeSales University in Centre Valley, Pennsylvania.
The CFPNI, a charity with no paid employees, raised money for the summer programme by holding fund-raising events in cities around the US. This is the 16th summer it has brought teenagers from Northern Ireland to stay with families in the US.