Tomorrow’s leaders gather in US
YOUNG leaders from South Africa and elsewhere in the world have been in Washington and New York learning the valuable skills of leadership and critical thinking.
Iman Mia and Swantish Singh are two pupils who represented South Africa at the 2014 Global Young Leaders Conference which was themed Becoming Leaders of Change.
Both Grade 12 pupils left for the US on June 29 and returned last week.
Iman is at Durban Girls’ College and Swantish is at Mondeor High School in Gauteng.
The young leaders attended the conference session in Washington DC, which saw them interacting with key leaders in global politics, finance, culture and diplomacy.
Marguerite Regan, Dean of Academic Affairs for the conference, said the pupils had the opportunity to collaborate with peers from around the world.
“The conference wasn’t what I expected, in fact it surpassed my expectations,” said Mia.
About 278 students took part, from India, the US, Canada, Australia, Ghana and Kenya.
“The conference dealt with global issues and we were broken up in groups of 15 to 20. Each group was given a specific country and asked to tackle the social, economic and political problems.
“This collaboration allowed us to learn about the different cultures and exchange diverse ideas and solutions,” said Swantish.
Being around so many pupils from different backgrounds, Iman said she was surprised to learn that there were many similarities.
“I discovered that everyone at the conference had the same goals and ambitions to develop their country and overcome global issues through the international community.”
Guest speakers included representatives of the World Bank, the United Nations and George Mason University.
“We had different speakers every day and my favourite was Angelica Sildero of the Bureau of the World Bank. She was engaging and knew her content.”
Iman and Swantish spent four days in Washington and six in New York. They went on tours to the White House, the Washington Monument and the Museum of Natural History.
Iman believes the youth, from 12 years onward need to gain knowledge about politics and raise their awareness of whats happening around them.
“In this way the youth can hold important conversations and even make changes to their own communities and countries.”