BISB Students Meet UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

BISB Students Meet UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Members of the BISB middle school Model UN club were honored to meet the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this week, during a ceremony at the Harvard Foundation in Cambridge. It's not every day a middle school student gets to greet, shake hands and speak with a world leader. But for a group of eight British International School of Boston students, that's exactly what one day this week was like.

Members of the BISB Model UN club were honored this week to attend the Harvard Foundation's Humanitarian of the Year award ceremony, watching as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was recognized with the award.

Thanks to a generous invitation from BISB student Maya and her family, the students were able to attend the ceremony, meet the Secretary-General at the event and experience a truly international event.

BISB students were featured in a photograph with the Secretary-General on the United Nations website this week.

For Maya, whose father is the director of the Harvard Foundation, the ceremony was even more special. She was asked to present flowers to the Secretary-General during the event, thanking him on behalf of the children of Massachusetts for his dedication to peace.

"I was nervous, because I'd never been in front of so many people and never met someone so important," Maya said on Friday. "But it was very exciting, and a really good experience."

This was an incredible experience for our middle school students, but for Maya, the international learning doesn't end there.

Next week, she is going to Oslo, Norway, to attend the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize to young global leader and women's rights activist Malala Yousafzai.

Maya met Malala last year when the young leader visited Boston, and said she is looking forward to seeing her again and celebrating her achievement.

"I am so proud of her, she's accomplished so much," Maya said.

We look forward to hearing more about Maya's journey to the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony upon her return.