BSB Students heading to 2023 NAE-UNICEF Summit in New York!

We are delighted to announce that Lily and Wendy have been selected as our Student Ambassadors to represent BSB Shunyi in this year’s NAE-UNICEF Student Summit!

Year 10 students Lily and Wendy will be flying to New York in July 2023 to join around 160 fellow students selected from among 81 Nord Anglia Education (NAE) schools from 31 countries in this prestigious summit.

This is a unique opportunity exclusive to students studying at BSB and other NAE schools. In collaboration with our partners at UNICEF, we offer a transformational education to our students, which focuses not only on ensuring academic success but also on inspiring students to positively impact their local communities and the world at large. Tentative Events include a tour of the United Nations, workshops led by UNICEF, workshops led by World’s Largest Lesson, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Student Conference and excursions to visit New York City landmarks etc.

Well done to Lily and Wendy who have successfully made it the tough selection process. Application to this Summit was announced through the Year Group Daily Notice, and students’ response was immediate and overwhelming. Students sent in their application forms and had to go through two rounds of interviews. The initial screening interview was done on the 7^th March by Ms. Vivian Wei and Mr. Alex Goh. Four finalists were selected, and a final interview was conducted by Mr. Graham and Mrs. Needham on the 9^th March. Two students were then selected at the end of the interview process to represent BSB Shunyi at the NAE-UNICEF Summit 2023.

Bevan Graham, Head of Secondary said “The UNICEF collaboration provides first rate and unique opportunities exclusively for Nord Anglia Education students.  I am so excited that we will once again send representatives from BSB Shunyi to participate in the summer programme in New York.  It was wonderful to be involved with the interview and selection process as it highlighted the calibre of students we have at our school. I was so impressed by their eloquence, confidence and the genuine concern they expressed about issues of global significance. Although we were only able to select two students in the end, a huge congratulations to all the students who put their names forward and embraced the interview process with such professionalism and polish. They all did themselves and our school proud.”

Please see an interview with Lily and Wendy below to find out why they want to attend the Summit!

Year 10 Lily Kim

1. Why did you want to attend the NAE-UNICEF Student Summit?

The moment I heard about its name, I felt that this opportunity absolutely belonged to me. My future dream job is to be a diplomat, and I am working hard to make progress towards my dream. I join the BSB Model United Nations (MUN) Co-Curricular Activities (CCA) to develop my diplomatic skills. So, for me, this is a very precious opportunity given to me not only to improve my communication and advocacy skills but also to gain a larger presence in my school and influence the whole community.

2. Which part of the trip are you most excited about?

The fact that I have the opportunity to attend an international-scale conference with students coming from all over the world makes me excited and desperate to go on this trip. As my dream is to work in the United Nations (UN), to tour UN will absolutely be the best experience for me to get one step closer to my dream and also allow myself to influence the community in a positive way. Also, the World’s Largest Lesson workshop sounds very interesting, and I cannot wait to collaborate with others, negotiating the best possible solutions and pointing out possible amendments.

3. Please tell us which 2 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) you are most passionate about? What actions have you done or plan to do to make a difference in your local community.

I would pick SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being because it is a part of our human rights, which means that it is the basic fundamental requirement of humans. Connecting to SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation, this goal is set ultimately to protect our basic human rights, especially the vulnerable women and children. I consider this goal as one of the most important goals of SDG. Through the process of achieving this goal, the other goals such as SDG 1 No Poverty, SDG 2 Zero Hunger, and SDG 6 will naturally make big progress by securing especially the rights of women and children.

4. What do you hope to bring back from the trip to share with other BSB students?

I wish I could bring back the entire atmosphere of the Summit. The conference in New York will teach me the international mindset which people aim to learn from international school. In addition, with my improved skills of organizing and devising solutions or activities, this will benefit the local community in relations to SDGs as I am hoping to include all the students in our school and allow them to feel that they are able to contribute even a small act beyond the school community towards their local community.

5. What is your favourite subject and why?

My favourite subject is English because it taught me to discover my potentials. I used to be in English as an Additional Language (EAL)’s bottom set when I just came from South Korea, and I’ve never learned English before. English became my biggest weakness and I had to turn my weakness into my strength. I went to learn English everyday for 5 hours during summer break. And my efforts started to pay off. I moved up the sets one by one from Year 7 until now. As a result, I am in English top set now. English is the subject which gave me vision, joy, and hope.

6. What are 2 of your favourite CCAs and what do you like about them?

My favourite CCA is definitely MUN CCA. In this CCA, you get to experience something you will rarely or may never get to experience. You can gain your knowledge on issues related to different SDG goals and find the genuine joy of debate. Best of all is joining the conferences with other schools and meeting new people.

7. What do you think is special about BSB?

BSB is special because the school motivates us to be ambitious. The school motivates every student, even those who are not interested in academic achievements. It fosters a suitable environment for students to focus on their studies and provide various opportunities to find their interests.

8. Do you know what you want to study at University? What do you want to be when you grow up?

I want to study political science and diplomacy because I want to be diplomat when I grow up. I want to study that subject in a good university that provides good education, so I am studying hard to excel in every subject to achieve my dream goal.

Year 10 Wendy Chen

1. Why did you want to attend the NAE-UNICEF Summit?

First of all, the United Nations had been something I have been chasing after subtly for a long time. Starting from my first Model United Nations experience in Year 6, I had this idea that the United Nations is somewhere I would like to go. This summit is an elevated step from MUN conferences for me to understand the United Nations. Second, leaving China to participate in a formal event is challenging. As I seldom had opportunities to attend events abroad, this will definitely broaden my vision and innovate my thoughts. Seeing many foreign perspectives will be an interesting and pioneering experience for me.

2. What part of the trip are you most excited about?

I am most excited about the conference part. I see the conference as an opportunity to communicate with others. As one of my aims in going on this trip is to see different perspectives, communicating with others directly will be the best way. Direct communication will not only allow me to see others’ ideas but also understand their thinking process. I believe that logical links are a crucial part of expressing ideas.

3. Please tell us which 2 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) you are most passionate about? What actions have you done or plan to do to make a difference in your local community.

I am most passionate about SDGs 3 and 17, health and partnership respectively. Health is the base of all actions. This is the goal that supports us to achieve all other goals. While SDG 3 focuses on the possibility of individual actions, SDG 17 is an essential step in putting our actions into the greatest possible impact. Collaboration is crucial, yet we lack it. 

As SDG 3 is easier to make progress on due to its emphasis on individuals, I had actions taken on this goal before. When I attended the John Locke Essay Competition last year, I wrote my essay on antimicrobial resistance as an underestimated existential threat. This deepened my knowledge of this crisis, which allowed me to introduce this issue to people around me. I have also focused on teenage mental health before, writing articles on a WeChat official account about stigma and shame.

Regarding SDG 17, communication is the centre of my plan. Communication with other students at the conference is the first step needed. The second step would be to present my experience and thoughts from this trip to fellow students in our school. Once we created collaboration within a school, it would be easier to connect to more outside groups.

4. What do you hope to bring back from the trip to share with other BSB students?

The first thing I would like to bring back is the atmosphere of the United Nations. As there will be a UN tour, I will be able to feel the environment of the United Nations. The second thing is the feeling of communicating with many other students. I wish to bring back unfamiliar ideas shaped by different surroundings.

5. What is your favourite subject and why?

My favourite subject is history. This has been my favourite academic area for quite a long time. I have been reading books about Ancient China ever since Year 4. It was out of pure curiosity that I liked history when I was younger. Currently, I am intrigued by the potential of this subject. I find interpreting and knowing why someone did something is very significant. It is also shocking how both plans and mistakes can change our world today so comprehensively.

6. What are 2 of your favourite Co-Curricular Activities (CCAs) and what do you like about them? 

I’ve dedicated all my time to the MUN CCA. The reason why I like this is still based on the fact that it revolves around the United Nations. The first reason I love MUN conferences is because of communication, which is the central source of knowledge for me. Secondly, MUN resolution topics are entirely based on real-life issues. Even though our abstract solutions developed through small discussions may not be pragmatically effective, it fundamentally raises our awareness of such urgent issues.

7. What do you think is special about BSB?

Being an international school, BSB contains extraordinary and diverse perspectives. There are students from all over the world, each one is able to inform others of where they were born or grew up. BSB contains a wide range of information sources, allowing us to not only rely on the internet to gain knowledge but also to hear personal opinions from people coming from foreign countries.

8. Do you know what do you want to study at University? What do you want to be when you grow up? 

I only generally know that I want to study in the humanities direction. Specifically subjects such as history and political science. I want to work in organisations capable of changing the world such as the World Health Organisation. 

We're looking forward to more updates from Lily and Wendy! In fact, BSB Shunyi students have attended the NAE-UNICEF Student Summit in New York three years in a row before the pandemic and have taken important roles in each of the events. Please click here to read more details.