Charles Wright Welcomes Delegates from China, Colombia, Poland, and the U.K. for Global Teen Summit
Tacoma, Wash. – Charles Wright Academy on Monday entered a full week of programming for its seventh annual Global Teen Summit. The Upper School welcomed high school student and faculty delegates from China, Colombia, Poland, and the United Kingdom on Thursday, Sept. 25, and Friday, Sept. 26, and will engage in cultural, social justice, and philanthropic exchanges through Oct. 5.
Organized by International Student Coordinator Ann Vogel and Upper School history teacher Nick Coddington, the summit packs numerous activities—from guest lectures to student roundtables to cultural excursions—into a 10-day program with the goal of empowering teens to engender positive change in their communities. Be it giving back by organizing a food drive or opening minds by teaching about fair trade, delegates are inspired to think critically about the choices they make and how those choices impact others. “We want them to realize that while they are the future, they are the present as well,” said Mr. Coddington. “The choices they make today have immediate and lasting implications.”
To that end, Global Teen Summit programming this year includes a guest lecture from Holocaust survivor Dr. George Elbaum, a field trip to Theo Chocolate in Seattle to learn about their fair trade and sustainability philosophy, an exercise in microfinancing through nonprofit website Kiva, and a visit to PATH headquarters (also in Seattle) to learn more about the international health organization's commitment to saving lives in developing countries. Every year, student delegates partner with a nonprofit for a student-led fund-raising initiative, and PATH is this year's beneficiary. In group discussions throughout the week, delegates “talk about some problems being outside of our ability to directly affect,” said Mr. Coddington. “We talk about international NGOs and, as a group, we unite to raise money for one NGO per year. This year is PATH. The CFO, Michael Kollins, will explain to our group how they operate and what they do in developing countries, give us a tour of their labs, and lead a discussion of how we as ordinary citizens can be part of their work.”
The ultimate aim for summit leaders is to initiate dialogue and provide teens the tools to bring about change in their own communities—although participants manage to insert a bit of levity amid the deep discussions. “We spent class solving all of the world's political, economic, and social problems,” joked Upper School history teacher John Lemma on the first day of the summit. A student then piped up, saying, “Actually, we talked so much that we created some new ones.” By introducing student delegates to real-life examples of community service, sacrifice, and struggle, summit organizers encourage the teens to put human faces and names to global issues and atrocities—from the Holocaust to current events in Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine—before returning to their home countries and determining who may need help and how they can make a difference. “We are very deliberate in our process,” said Mr. Coddington. “We introduce each nation to a set of models—Kiva, Theo, Dr. Elbaum's rescuer, PATH—but each nation has unique challenges that face them. We provided each teacher with training on how to help the teens make informed choices on how to impact their communities when they return home. With that, we are careful to let them select what they will do. We set aside time for each exchange group to brainstorm about who 'the other' is in their community and how to reach out to them so that 'us' and 'them' become 'we.'”
For more information and updates on the events of the 2014 Global Teen Summit at CWA, please visit charleswright.org or Facebook.com/CharlesWrightAcademy.