65 Students Participate In UNIS Conference
The Bermuda Youth Harvesting Conference was held at XL Capital on November, 13-14, with the annual conference organized by Global Arts Productions in conjunction with the United Nations International School [UNIS], with the aim to have students learn the power of activism amongst their generation.
The two-day conference provides an opportunity for students to hone their skills at home and then have an option to participate at the annual UNIS Conference held at the headquarters in New York. This year, 65 students from public and private schools were designated by their school to participate in the conference.
MP Leah Scott and Andrew Phillips, President Global Arts, with 65 high school student representatives
“Over the years, all of Bermuda’s high schools have attended the conference. The conference is based on a format that consists of six teams. Each team has representatives from all of the participating schools. The objective is for students to learn that even in diverse groupings; they have to work together toward a common objective. The end result is that no matter which team wins every school wins,” a spokesperson said.
“This process has continually created incredible results for the conference and our society. It is the hope that the UN will use this formula for countries. UNIS is in the process of officially inviting Bermuda youth to join UNIS youth to present this template to the relevant UN officials. The template has many applications. It is successfully being used in “sports and health” via the locally televised national high school challenge.”
Junior Minister for Education Leah Scott, attended the conference to offer support to the students and the organizers of this annual conference. Ms. Scott said, “I commend the organizers for developing this partnership with UNIS that has provided our students with the opportunity to be able to attend and participate in the annual UN conference – the world’s most distinguished international stage.”
Conference organizer, Andrew Phillips said, “From the beginning we have been closely linked to UNIS. We set our conference objectives and deliverables based on the criteria set by UNIS.
“The conference objective this year has three parts -create a diplomatic presentation in a specified format to the United Nation Heads in March 2015; create or revise the national sports template or develop a campaign that will feed needy and elderly families.
Mr. Phillips added, “These objectives were achieved by utilizing a total of six teams with two teams each working on one of the three tasks.”
I think that the use of uniforms by our students is excellent in identifying which schools are represented. Unlike the US schools where everyone looks alike.