BIS HCMC student ambassadors headed to Houston, Texas for the Nord Anglia Education-UNICEF Student Summit

Last month we were proud to have three student ambassadors attend this year’s NAE-UNICEF Student Summit, hosted for the first time ever in Houston, Texas from 12 to 19 June 2024.  The event was hosted at Nord Anglia’s two schools in the city: The Village School and the British International School of Houston. Houston was chosen as the ideal location for the Summit thanks to being the first officially recognised “Child-Friendly City” in the United States of America.

Aaryan, Quynh Anh and Tim our Year 12 Ambassadors joined 120 students from around the world who were selected from across Nord Anglia Education’s global family of schools to attend this year’s Student Summit.

Through Nord Anglia Education’s global collaboration with UNICEF, our students have been raising awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through social impact projects. The SDGs are a collection of 17 goals set by the United Nations regarding social and economic development issues. At a community level each year, our students are actively engaged in making the world a better place through school-wide efforts to meet the Sustainable Development Goals led by our student ambassadors. 

Each year, students come together for the NAE-UNICEF Student Summit. This year’s theme was ‘Innovation’, and our students had the opportunity to:

• Join workshops led by UNICEF, World’s Largest Lesson, Generation Global, and subject matter experts on the SDGs, building advocacy skills, impacting change in their communities, as well as student leadership.

• Present a project at the “Global Issues Solutions Fair” working with their international peers to address problem statements created by UNICEF on important topics such as nutrition, learning, and health. The partnership between Nord Anglia Education and UNICEF aims to support UNICEF in further developing freely accessible learning materials on the SDGs, while helping Nord Anglia students gain the knowledge and skills required to make positive changes within their communities.

   

• Lead “peer talks” to share how they are taking action as leaders in their communities through social impact projects focused on sustainability, climate change, and social equality. The students will also take part in local community volunteering in Houston.

We are delighted to hear directly from Aaryan, Quynh Anh and Tim as they share their experience in their own words below. After the summer holiday we look forward to hearing 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.

BIS HCMC NAE Student Ambassadors

We are Quynh Anh, Aaryan and Tim, the BIS HCMC student UNICEF ambassadors who represented our school at the NAE-UNICEF Summit hosted in Houston in June this year. We had the honour to meet many individuals from all over the world, all with their unique stories and life experiences. The experience provided us with a collection of memories and learning opportunities that we look forward to taking back to our school community.

During the summit, we had the opportunity to attend workshops that enriched and empower our leadership skills. We learned about the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) framework from Valentina Buj from UNICEF HQ in New York and the importance of involving local communities in creating solutions. We also listened to the Child Friendly City initiative in the heart of Houston by Maryann Wanjau from UNICEF USA and their efforts to apply the Rights of the Child to a local context. 

On the second day of the summit, we were fortunate enough to learn and develop new skills through workshops delivered by World’s Largest Lesson. We learned about the power of data and how systems thinking could help in planning our initiatives. Later that day, we visited the Museum of Natural Sciences, where we discovered more about energy in Houston, specifically the move to renewable energy sources.

On the third day of the summit, we learned about advocacy and how we have the power to influence decisions on both a small and a large scale. We were tasked with looking at a case study, developing a plan of action, and presenting it to our peers. We then had an SDG footprint workshop, where we had the chance to assess the SDG footprint of BIS HCMC and look at the goals we need to work towards as a school. 

We also had the chance to visit the British International School of Houston and learn more about their social projects and how they are making an impact on their community. It was an inspirational journey filled with triumphs and downturns that allows us to reflect on our own contributions to BIS HCMC.

Tim, also had the opportunity to lead a peer talk on his initiative in school, recycling milk cartons to a variety of products. We were also able to listen to other ambitious projects around the world, ranging from Down Syndrome awareness to how two schools from India and Poland teamed up to alleviate the issue of period poverty. 

On the penultimate day of the summit, we began by learning about inclusive language and how to utilise such language in a way that is effective for all. That evening, we volunteered at the Houston Food Bank, with each of us being delegated different tasks, working towards the same goal of providing nutritious meals to those who experience food insecurity in the region. Ultimately, through the combined efforts of all the student delegates, we were able to provide over nineteen thousand meals.

Over the course of the summit over 40 Capstone projects were developed that targeted a range of problems. Each region focused on a different UNICEF problem statement, which could be adapted to fit the specific context of each school community. Southeast Asia targeted the issue of the lack of accommodations for children with disabilities in education.  We, as a school, crafted a solution plan that we hope to implement in the future, with the collaboration of our local community partners, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

After learning about the extent of success of achieving each SDG, or lack thereof, we as student leaders became aware of the dire situation. However, this summit was the voice of hope we needed to propel our efforts even further. It is with those small actions throughout the Nord Anglia Education schools that when amplified by thousands, broadens our impacts on society. The exchange of ideas and thoughts throughout the entirety of the summit was an eye-opening experience in which the diversity of perspectives contributes to each other’s initiatives, aiding us to a brighter future.

We are extremely grateful for this experience, and we are looking forward to bringing everything we have learned and applying to our school, helping our student population to become pioneers, supporting our local community and leaving a legacy for our planet.

Thank you Aaryan, Quynh Anh and Tim for embracing this opportunity, taking a lead in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals within our school and local community and for sharing this incredible experience with us.  We all look forward to hearing more in August and seeing your plans develop and implemented in the future.

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