Our NAE student ambassadors collaborate and develop innovative solutions at the 2023 NAE-UNICEF Student Summit in New York City

Last week two of our students, JaeYeon and Caitlin, joined over 100 NAE student delegates from around the world at the NAE-UNICEF Student Summit in New York City.  This also included delegates from our NAE schools in Vietnam; BVIS HCMC, BIS Hanoi and BVIS Hanoi. 

This was an extraordinary opportunity for JaeYoon and Caitlin to develop their leadership and advocacy skills and collaborate with like-minded students to cultivate their social purpose through the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).  They were able to build on their knowledge, exchange ideas and tackle major issues using innovative solutions to support the SDG’s. 

Over the three days, students had the opportunity to learn from people working at UNICEF and the projects they are involved with, take part in a variety of workshops aimed at developing school and locally – based solutions for SDG’s.  All of which culminated in a presentation to a panel of experts on the last day, at the first ever NAE SDG conference. 

Our student delegates also had plenty of opportunity to unwind, socialise and get to know each other better whilst seeing some of the sights of New York City at the same time.  They visited the One Vanderbilt skyscraper, Times Park and Central Park. On the final day they started with a morning walk on the Highline – NYC’s elevated linear Park – leaving them energised, before leading presentations at the SDG conference.  What a perfect way to start the day! 

 

We are extremely proud of Jaeyeon and Caitlin for all they contributed at the summit and for their commitment and attitude.  Caitlin confidently put herself forward to take on a lead role as conference moderator and was one of two NAE student delegates selected for the position.  An impressive achievement amongst such a delegate of strong student leaders.  

We are delighted to hear directly from JaeYeon, Year 12, and Caitlin, Year 11, as they share their experience in their own words below.  When school returns after the summer holiday we look forward to JaeYeon and Caitlin sharing their ideas, implementing initiatives and inspiring all students at BIS HCMC to take an active role in SDG solutions within our school and wider community. 

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We are JaeYeon and Caitlin, this year’s BIS HCMC NAE ambassadors. Last week, we had the privilege of participating in the NAE-UNICEF Student Summit in New York. The summit has been anything but short of diverse experiences and an innovative exchange of ideas. 

 During our time in New York, we participated in various workshops to build on our knowledge and abilities to become better student SDG leaders. Generation Global workshop built on our techniques to foster effective dialogue and taught us the differences between discussion, debate and dialogue. The United Nations and the World’s Largest Lesson-led workshops deepened our understanding of SDGs and gave us an insight into how our young voices can change the world. Finally, the Careers in UNICEF workshop fair gave us an amazing opportunity to meet with members of UNICEF and hear their captivating stories about their work.  

 

 

The summit culminated with the SDG student conference, where we collaborated with other equally dedicated NAE students around the globe to come up with innovative solutions to achieve Sustainable Development Goals within our local communities.  

The final presentation of our work was performed before a panel of experts that included Mr Andrew Fitzmaurice, the CEO of Nord Anglia Education, Dr Elise Ecoff, Chief Education Officer of Nord Anglia, Ms Jennifer, member of UNICEF and Ms Kinvara, the director of the World’s Largest Lesson. The panel also involved two Student Moderators, which Caitlin was proudly one of.  

It truly was wonderful to apply all that we learnt from the different workshops and see everyone’s hard work come to life in the final presentations.  

2023 is the halfway mark of our goal of achieving the SDGs by 2030. As daunting as the task of accomplishing all 17 goals seems, it is crucial that we continue to remain hopeful. As our societies continue to grow more interconnected, the SDGs serve as the blueprint towards a brighter future for our global community. Combined with the wonderful new friendships we have formed with the other student delegates; the summit has opened our eyes to the different possibilities in which we can all contribute towards advancing the SDGs.  


Taking all that we have learnt in the summit, we hope to apply initiatives to better both our school and the local community once we return in August.