BSB Ambassadors at the NAE-UNICEF Summit in New York 2023

It’s an exciting time of the year for our Nord Anglia Family of schools as the NAE-UNICEF Summit kicks off in New York City. Year 10 Lily and Wendy are our Student Ambassadors representing BSB Shunyi in this summit. They have successfully made it a tough selection process among all the applicants and going through 2 rounds of interviews. Click here to read more.

During this Summit, over 100 NAE students present the ambitious projects that their own school has taken to advance the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their community this year. Together they cultivate their social purpose; tackle major issues using creative solutions; develop their leadership and advocacy skills; and connect with NAE students from across the globe. They enjoyed a tour of the United Nations, workshops led by UNICEF, workshops led by World’s Largest Lesson, SDG Student Conference and excursions to visit New York City landmarks.

They will bring back what they have learnt to their schools, find ways to advocate, engage, and take action to transform future generations.

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.

Lily: “My future dream job is to be a diplomat, and I am working hard to make progress towards my dream.  The fact that I have the opportunity to attend an international-scale conference with students coming from all over the world makes me excited! As my dream is to work in the United Nations (UN), to be able to visit the 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.”

Wendy: “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. This will definitely broaden my vision and innovate my thoughts. Seeing many foreign perspectives will be an interesting and pioneering experience for me.”

Here’re some highlights taken from Lily and Wendy’s report:

Day 1 (Wednesday, 12^th July)

Student delegates from across NAE schools attended the welcome ceremony. They listened to Dr. Leslie’s speech about what to expect over the next few days. After the briefing, they went to Dave & Buster’s restaurant for a traditional New York style dinner. They were assigned into small groups, participated in a group competition to learn about collaboration and strengthened their bond as a group while having fun. Back at the hotel, they get to know their roommates who are students from different regions in the world. It was an interesting day as they enjoyed making so many new friends!

Day 2 (Thursday, 13^th July)

They took the subway to UNICEF and got to experience the crowded subway station on a normal New York workday.

At UNICEF, they first participated in the workshop ‘The One-Minute Challenge’ which was ran by the UNICEF HQ Youth Advocacy Team. The objective was to learn about Youth Engagement and Advocacy, interact with specialists and explore ways to become part of the change to achieve the SDGs and address global challenges. The most impressive concept for was the ‘Theory of Change’ which was an equation: advocacy + youth engagement + SDG = action.

After listening to the lesson, they were gathered in a group and were assigned SDG to work on.

Lily’s group was assigned SDG 12, especially focusing on waste, over-consumption, and fast fashion. Lily’s favourite idea was ‘community garden’ solution which was about growing plants in the local area which can be taken care by anyone in the local community. The planted fruits or vegetables can be shared. This way, it reduces over consumption, raises awareness and strengthens local engagement.

Wendy’s group was assigned SDG 3, ‘good health and wellbeing.’ The group decided to focus on vaccine distribution in the smallest units of a community. They gave ideas about ensuring that the entire population have access to vaccines. The debate was very interesting as we could listen to other students’ real-life solution that they carried out in their own community which gave us an idea of what we could do in ‘our’ community as well.

Next, students had the session called ‘Ask The Expert’ which was very useful time to further their  understanding and knowledge about those important SDGs especially related to children. Before students  went to New York, they had to research about different problems in their own school community.

 and they heard that in general, girls seems to have lower self-esteem compare with boys in terms of education. When they met expert of SDG5, they found out some solutions for the problem, such as giving complementary learning for girls, counseling, girls-centred programs to give them a chance.

Both Lily and Wendy gained a lot of ideas related to SDG 6, which is focused on sanitation. We had suggestions from the expert of increasing hand sanitation in school, which will consequentially help with the general health status of the school.

After the sessions, students went to the Summit ONE Vanderbilt which they had so much fun. On the summit, the view was amazing and they both took hundreds of pictures! Day 2 was an amazing day.

Day 3 (Friday 14^th July)

Students went to the Nord Anglia International School New York to attend the World’s Largest Lesson: Playbook for Activism. After the lesson, they were sorted into groups to prepare for the conference.

Lily was in the group for ‘peace, justice and strong institutions.’ They considered questions such as what our schools could do to better advocate to support the goal. Saidy, who was one of the members of group presented very innovative idea of creating something called ‘SDG club.’ Lily was amazed by how each one of the members could freely speak out their opinion and listen carefully to others’ opinion as well. From this discussion, Lily’s motivation for taking action at BSB became so strong. She thinks that this is the biggest benefit of meeting different people and listening to their ideas.

Wendy’s group was SDG 10, ‘reduced inequalities.’ Out of all the subpoints of this SDG, our group decided to focus on ‘the rights in education of the disabled population.’ They chose this specific issue as the term ‘District 75’ was brought up during research. There is a district in New York known as a centralised area of schools for the disabled students. This area has been accused of not segregating disabled people from the major population. Alarmed by this example, we decided to suggest the solution of having standard schools adapt equipment for the disabled people, thus allowing the major population to communicate with the disabled population.

For today’s excursion, Lily visited Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum. Wendy spent time walking around Times Square, exploring several parks and taking photos.

Day 4 (Saturday 15^th July)

Each group presented during the Conference on the last day.

Wendy’s group presented about SDG10. She was in charge of starting off the presenting mentioning the issue of District 75. Then her teammates took turns introducing the SDG, subpoint, explaining the problem, and bringing up the solutions. In the end, they implemented a small design which left great impression in Wendy’s mind. They speak the phrase ‘SDG 10, reduced inequalities’ out loud while showing them in sign language. The collaboration process was great as she got to hear from other students’ perspectives around the world.

Lily’s group on ‘peace, justice and strong institutions’ is the last group presenting. Other groups’ presentation was impressive. The idea of creating an application called ‘SUDEGO’ seemed viable and applicable in real life as they even planned which facilities to create for the goal and how much money or effort is needed for the solution. Looking at others’ presentations helped the students have broader scope of SDGs with solutions.

Summary from Lily and Wendy

Overall, the summit was such a precious opportunity for us. The student delegates came from 58 different schools around the world. We came from diverse countries, including Switzerland, India, UAE, Mexico, etc. We had different backgrounds, languages, and cultures. However, we have something in common. It was passion. Passion towards global goals, the SDGs. Each of us were already making changes, small but still impactful and crucial.

This summit taught us that a bigger world exists. It is bigger than our school, bigger than Beijing, and bigger than China. We interacted with a lot of like-minded individuals who were already passionately trying their best for what they consider as important. We will not forget them and remember when we start making changes in a local, national, and international scales. And our friends will always be there to support us. It is time for our school to contribute, take action, and make changes.

Lily (1st left), Mr. Andrew Fitzmaurice, NAE CEO (2nd left), Wendy (1st right)

In fact, BSB Shunyi students have been attending 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.
Click to see previous trips below in 2019, 2018 and 2017.