In 2022, I attended my first global summit at the Cormier Youth Center. With a global goal of preserving language and culture, we used mehndi to create henna tattoos and talked to another high schooler in Mexico through the Portal. The challenge was to address a problem regarding the preservation of culture, and my group presented the history of Hawai'i and how taking rocks back home is not only bad luck for the tourist, but is detrimental to the island itself.
In 2023, I attended my second global summit at Old Town Hall. This year, the speaker talked about the environment and how water misuse affects the environment. This year, I helped plan some of the activities for the summit. I ran the scavenger hunt through the Goose Chase app and followed the theme by asking students to find sustainable and sustainable uses around town. Our challenge was to find ways to prevent the Merrimack River, which flows through Andover, from flooding every year. My group proposed to remove a dam placed further up the river near Ballardvale station.
In 2024, I attended my final global summit at Old Town Hall. As a senior, I had the opportunity to help plan the events and give back to the program. This year's theme was Life on Land and Life Underwater. We started the summit with a game of sharks and minnows ("Fishy fishy cross my ocean"). This year, stations included paper making, sushi making, and scavenger hunt. Afterward, our speaker talked about the Loon and how climate change and pollution were affecting its life. Finally, we ended the summit with the Loon Survival Game, where, unfortunately, my loons did not survive.
During my junior year, I attended an H4 where we watched the film Earth Air Water Fire which displayed the relationship between the environment and humans.
During H-Block on January 24th, 2024, exchange students from South Korea came to present about their school and culture. Some students dressed in traditional Korean hanbok, while others wore Korean school uniforms. They talked about the climate of their region, popular sports and activities, and even played a student-made video displaying their school. After the presentation, we learned how to make ddakji and play the game, which proved harder than it looked on Squid Games. Finally, we had a K-Pop dance battle, which I unfortunately lost, but had fun either way!