Students Journey to Singapore for International Round Square Conference

By Alexi Sandhu, Staff Writer|November 22, 2015

Students pose in front of the Singapore zoo.

On September 28th, Hackley’s six student delegates, sophomores Hunter Freedman, Kioni Marshall, Hallie Robin, Julia Stewart-Wood, Will Zhou, and I, along with Assistant Headmaster Steve Bileca and math teacher Karen Casper embarked on a journey to Singapore to represent Hackley at the 2015 Round Square International Conference (RSIC). RSIC consists of schools all around the globe. Each conference focuses on an aspect of one of Round Square’s IDEALS (Internationalism, Democracy, Environment, Adventure, Leadership, Service) — this year’s RSIC focused on Sustainability and the motto “Act Today, Change Tomorrow.”

Our trip lasted two weeks, with a four day pre-trip in Malaysia, followed by the six-day conference in Singapore at the United World College of South East Asia (UWC). UWC is a group of schools all over the world run by the same organisation, with two campuses located in Singapore. e students returned early on the morning of Friday, October 9th.

After an almost 22-hour trip we arrived in Singapore early Saturday morning, but it most definitely did not feel like morning with the 12-hour time difference we experienced.

Singapore is one of the last remaining “city- states” in the world — the country is literally just one big city. While we were there, we went sight-seeing and were able to see a few temples, ate some unique food, and walked around what we thought was “Chinatown” until we collapsed in our hotel beds for a night of restful sleep. On Sunday, we went to the Singapore Zoo and Little India before saying goodbye to Singapore and leaving for a place called Taman Negara, home of the oldest rainforest in the world (yes, it’s older than the Amazon!). After a very interesting experience on an overnight train ride and then a two-hour boat ride to the middle of the jungle, we arrived in a remote yet beautiful resort. After getting over the initial shock and horror of not being able to access our Snapchats and Instagrams on shaky wi-fi that depended on the weather, we settled into our small bungalows quite comfortably, with our gecko roommates.

Our native Malaysian guide Lina lled our days in the jungle with laughter and screams. We met the resident tapir, took a ride on the rapids, and went on a canopy walk and a night safari where we observed walking stick insects, glowing mushrooms, and the fear-inducing hunter spider and scorpion.

“I don’t want them to touch me, I don’t want them to look at me, I don’t want to feel their presence, I don’t want to. Just no,” said Kioni, of her encounters with these animals. Luckily I was the only one bitten by the bull ants, but was thankfully saved by Kioni’s leadership and a handy alcohol swab provided by Will.

All in all, Taman Negara was a unique experience very different from anything available in the media and technology-saturated US. “My favorite part was really getting completely immersed in the real nature and jungle… no wi-fi, no internet,” said Will.

Finally, we returned to civilization in Singapore the night before the conference began – on October 1st. The first day of the conference was relaxing yet chaotic, as many schools were just arriving and sleeping students could be found everywhere recovering from their ights.

Meeting our host families at the end of the day was a new experience to us all. The next day we dressed formally and met up at the Opening Ceremonies where Will, our flagbearer raised our flag during the Ceremony of the Flags. Thee biggest surprise of all was shaking hands with the King of Greece – we were all fangirling afterwards!

Throughout the next few days, we talked about the United Nations’ goals and how they relate to sustainability, as well as listened to keynote speakers who told us their stories about how they made an impact on the world. “Having our Barazza leaders… talk to us about [sustainability] and teach us different problem solving techniques really expanded what I know about sustainability and about how we [can] create a more sustainable school,” said Julia.

We met many students from places around the world, including Canada, Australia, India, and South Africa. It was a pleasant surprise discovering that they knew many of the songs, movies, and TV shows that we knew as well! In these groups, we discussed sustainability goals of the United Nations, and met students from di erent places around the world, including Canada, Australia, India, and South Africa.

One day was a service day, where we did community service projects with younger grades, such as visiting a home for the elderly, dancing with disabled people, and organizing trash at a recycling center. Another day was “Discover Singapore Day,” where we participated in a scavenger hunt throughout the city, visiting landmarks including the Singapore Flyer (think London Eye, but bigger) and the Gardens-by-the-Bay.

On our last day of the conference, we came up with an action plan to bring back to our school to improve our sustainability. Will explains one of our goals on the action plan is to “get a report on… how much food we intake during lunch versus how much is actually wasted”.

Will said, “I felt that what was really important to me was getting to meet people from literally everywhere around the world … and getting to make new friends and learn about their life…this was really an eye-opening experience for me and it’s really a once in a lifetime opportunity to socialize with people to get a broader view of their life and their culture.” Kioni, for one, received “life experiences that I will always remember and I will look back and think, this trip to Singapore really gave me a new outlook on life”.

“Round Square is just a great opportunity to meet stu- dents from all over the world and connect with them while learning about a topic that interests yous” said Julia. If that type of experience sounds interesting to you, think about signing up for 2016 RSIC, in Switzerland and Germany!