Assumption, Italy students tackle world issues
Italian and Assumption students work on G7 issues in summit simulation
A year ago, Tea Hoxha accepted a teacher’s invitation to participate in a competitive simulation of a G7 summit in her hometown of Cividale, Italy.
The 18-year-old said earning second-place as the best delegate meant “a huge door opened,” one that led her and nine other Italian students to Assumption College Catholic High School in Windsor this week for the first international YounG7 Summit simulation. Hoxha is serving as the summit’s secretary general for a simulation that will focus on climate change for one group of students and terrorism for another.
The Italian delegation was joined by 30 Assumption students along with various teachers and administrators with the Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board for an official kickoff Tuesday at the board offices on California Avenue. The Italian students have been in Windsor for a week, working with their Canadian counterparts on global resolutions for their two assigned topics. They’ve been emailing back and forth since the summer.
“It’s a marathon of ideas,” said Lorenzo Micheli, a leader of the Italian delegation in his role as manager of a national outreach program aimed at student engagement in Italy.
Futura Italia organized the first YounG7 Summit for Italian highschool students in 2017, the year their country hosted the annual G7 Summit involving Italy, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Delegates from these countries meet to discuss global initiatives for economic and environmental health.
The student delegates will mimic the positions of the G7 country they’re assigned to represent this week.
“It’s easy to complain about an issue,” Hoxha said. “Not a lot of people are able to discuss what’s going on. You gain a huge amount of knowledge.”
Alexa Mognon is Assumption’s 17-year-old student prime minister and is serving as chairperson of the prevention of terrorism committee. “I hope to get a new perspective on the world and a new perspective on how we can maintain peace,” said Mognon, who was immediately drawn to the project because both sets of her grandparents are from Italy.
There is another group of nine Futura Italia students engaged in a similar exercise in Montreal. Assumption was chosen as the Ontario school through a connection the board’s department of international education had with several teachers in Italy. Xuan Nguyen, the board’s manager of international education, said a delegation from Futura Italia did a site visit in July. They found Assumption’s deep history in offering the International Baccalaureate program and the school’s long-standing United Nations club made them a good fit as a YounG7 host.
“We have had the IB program for 14 years so our students are well versed with global themes,” Assumption vice-principal Elisa Houston said. “We were the perfect fit for the G7.”
The summit wraps up Friday with delegates presenting their resolutions. The student judged best delegate will get to attend the 2018 YounG7 Summit in France. Micheli hopes to have all seven G7 countries participating in a youth summit simulation by the time Dubai hosts the 2020 G7 Summit.