In the penultimate week of the summer holidays four of our IB Diploma students flew to Hong Kong to participate in an IB World Student Conference, the first within the Asia region. The theme of this conference was, ‘iResponsibility: Explore how we engage in the online world’ and students from IB schools across the globe took part. Our students spent five days attending lectures at Hong Kong University on topics such as visual literacy, surviving in a digital age and the power of social media. They also spent time in workshop groups with students from other schools and cultures. In these sessions they debated the information that they had heard and developed CAS projects for use within their home schools through a structured ‘iPlan’. They also discussed topics such as ‘Slacktivism’ (supporting an issue by ‘retweeting’ or ‘liking’ it) and ‘Hacktivism’ for social change. It was a busy week, with much of their free time taken up with iPlanning and developing a performance for a ‘Culture show’, however we still found time to explore Hong Kong, visiting Ocean Park and Lamma Island. The students returned tired but inspired by the lectures and keen to raise awareness of the topics that they covered. Some of these topics will now be discussed in ILS and may be put into action through their CAS projects. This was a fantastic opportunity and allowed them to form important global connections with other IB Diploma students.
Ms Lauren Binnington, Head of Sixth Form
“Towards the end of last summer, I went along to the fourth and final IBWSC of 2013 which was held in Hong Kong.
Generally, over the course of the week, we listened to sessions led by experts on topics such as corruption in China and the use of internet for evangelization because of the overall theme of the conference. We also took part in interactive workshops which I found intriguing because I had never experienced anything like that before.
We also had to come up with iPlan presentations which were to be presented on the final night of the conference. My group decided that littering was a huge issue, so we proposed some ideas to help solve the problem of littering.
In terms of accommodation, we stayed in the residential halls of HKU. It was nice to have a roommate, though we did stay up talking until the next morning every night… On top of that, I was able to meet people from over 20 countries, and made friends with quite a few of them. We talked about the IB, discussed future career options as well as universities, but we also had fun being silly together!
So overall, I got so much out of this trip. From learning how to be safe on the online world to developing my lacking social skills - it was truly an unforgettable experience and I can’t wait for next year’s IBWSC!”
Michelle Kwok, 12/13A
“The IB World Student Conference was honestly a phenomenal, unforgettable and enjoyable experience. I’m really grateful for the opportunity of travelling overseas to Hong Kong and participating in the conference. It varied from a range of team-building activities to get to know your groups to multiple inspirational speeches from valued figures to visits to an amusement park.
There were at least one hundred and fifty other IB students from twenty-six different countries so it was very diverse. People came from all over the world such as Canada, Zimbabwe, USA, Kazakhstan, Australia, Fiji and China. Meeting and bonding with all these people was amazing since everyone was so different yet so friendly. All the talks from all the people about iResponsibility were remarkable and extremely informative too. Not only that, we came up with potential CAS projects which was very useful. We also got to do some site-seeing around Hong Kong too. Personally I really enjoyed the whole trip as I made an abundant amount of new friends, learnt information about the social media today and initiated a CAS project for my upcoming years of being in IB. I was surrounded by intellectual students and experienced teachers who were all willing to give advice about anything and everything too. We stayed in the university with roommates we had never met before which I found rather exciting. Overall, it was a lovely experience and I’m hoping to attend at least one of the three conferences next summer.”
Trang Nguyen, 12/13C
“If I have to describe the IB World Student’s Conference in one word, it would be mind-blowing! To experience such a fun and engaging conference was a great privilege for me, since I was able to interact with IB students from over 25 different countries and gaining new knowledge along the way. The theme of this year’s conference was iResponsibility, which applied to us all since we all use some sort of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter for communication and connection. However, most of us are aware that social media could be used as a vehicle for change if responsible, hence the name, iResponsibility. Through this conference, I was able to gain ideas from leading expert speakers, participants and planned out a related project with my Global Action Team (GAT). I believe this can be implemented across BIS. My favourite moment of the conference would be Global Culture Night, enjoying performances from a variety of countries and cultures, particularly those funky African drummers. Most of all, the friends that I made and the knowledge that I gained will be the things that are cherished the most about the conference.” - Nghia Mai, 12/13H
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