For Dominion seniors Leslie Mark, Emile Khattar, and Daniel Aparicio, this past summer meant more than simply sandy beaches and time off of school; from July 18-26, these students attended the fifth annual Hwa Chong Asia-Pacific Young Leaders Summit with 72 other students from schools in 11 countries around the world. The 10 day summit, which took place at the Hwa Chong Institute in Singapore, immersed students in a diverse environment to discuss global issues and explore foreign cultures.
While Mark describes how “being [in Singapore], how they treated us, [and] the different government agencies that we got to see made us feel very honored and privileged to be there,” those rare opportunities were neither the most memorable nor favorite part of the trip for the participants. Unanimously, each agreed that the best part of the experience was meeting the other students from around the world. “It was cool to see how similar we are even though we're in different latitudes and longitudes, just to see how we all have the same aspirations no matter what culture,” Mark said.
Aparicio noted that “because we were the same age, [we] had mostly the same interests so we got along really well with them. We could talk about a lot of things.” According to the participants, the unique bonds formed through the summit have lasted to this day, as evidenced by ongoing communication between the participants and their new friends and by the plans that Khattar and his roommate have to visit India next summer.
A benefit that came with making new friends was the increased cultural understanding that each participant gained through the experience. “At the summit, we learned a lot more than what the CIA Factbook has to say... What I noticed is that they had a very open perspective and they knew a lot about other countries, particularly the United States,” Khattar said.
After the summit, Aparaicio said, “you feel more educated about the world. I got an understanding of what other people think about America.” As the only school from the United States at the summit, “we got to change their views about Americans,” he said.
“It felt great [to be the only American delegates at the summit],” Mark said. “It put a lot of pressure on us but we needed pressure because we needed to represent our nation [well]. You knew you had to do a good job, and we did.” This rang especially true in Mark's case, as she came back from the summit with the Outstanding Speaker award for her speaking and presentational prowess. Additionally, Khattar received an honorable mention.
During the summit, students were required to complete three assignments: a cultural board or display, a cultural performance, and a presentation based off of one of the predetermined issues in concern to the delegates' culture. The United States was the last to present their dialogue and showcase their performance during the closing banquet. Together, Mark, Khattar, and Aparicio spoke about immigration and danced to a medley of songs from the different eras of music throughout the course of United States history.
During a typical day at the summit students participated in various activities, such as group dialogues, presentations that the students completed on preselected topics, lectures with guest speakers, and several field trips. These field trips ranged from cultural activities like touring Singapore to visiting various governmental agencies and exploring facilities for institutions such as MediaCorp, a group of commercial media companies in Singapore. All delegations, including their teacher chaperones, had a chance to have high tea and meet with the president of Singapore, S.R. Nathan. Many teambuilding activities were included as well.
Through student interaction, the program accomplished its goal as each participant came away with certain revelations. “It's oppressive [if] you can't see the world [because] every country has something to offer for itself and so if you're inside that box, you can't really see,” said Khattar, addressing one of the important points he learned while in Singapore.
Among the various things that the participants learned from the summit is the logistics of conducting one. Mark and Khattar plan on incorporating the various things that they learned in the international summit that Dominion will be hosting this April. “Mrs. Rodgers told us to take notes on the summit so we could bring them back here” for the international summit that Dominion will be holding next April, said Khattar. Dominion’s summit will be a smaller version of APYLS, with six schools from around the world each sending four students here for the purpose of global communication and understanding.
As the teacher chaperone for the Dominion students, marketing teacher Sandi Tucker participated in many events and learned techniques to incorporate into her classroom as well. Though initially she went because she “wanted an opportunity to see how business is done internationally, globally,” Tucker ended up finding much more than just examples of what it is like to market in a foreign country.
Tucker and the other attending teacher chaperones constantly collaborated on ideas, gave feedback, and discussed various teaching methods. “It opened my viewpoint on how different educational systems, while they are different, still focus on the same things: learning and advancing and improving the students' experience.... It just gave me an idea of how much I really appreciate where I am and how much I love teaching what I'm teaching,” she said.
Similarly, Mark, Khattar, and Aparicio all gained a sense of appreciation for the United States in addition to that which they gained for other countries. In Mark's words, while “the delegates and the facilitators, they saw the beauty of America, the diversity that's within America,” the participants too realized these aspects to a greater extent. Also, “seeing the dynamics of [the Singaporean] government made me really appreciate the government we have in the United States,” Mark said.
Though Aparicio's interest in the summit initially stemmed the idea that “it just seemed like a fun thing to do: meeting people, going to another place that I've never been to,” Mark's statement resonates well within each of the participants as she declared “we accomplished beyond what we thought we would.” For Aparicio, “it was probably the best two weeks I've ever had in my life,” he said.