Last month Year 12 student, Poppy L-S, joined other students from the LiFE Multi-Academy Trust schools of Ashby School, Countesthorpe Academy, Ibstock School and The Winstanley School in an inspiring trip to India for a Model UN event hosted by Manav Rachna International School in Faridabad.
We caught up with Poppy to find out more about this rare opportunity to richly develop the 6C skills of Citizenship, Communication, Collaboration, Character, Creativity and Critical Thinking.
- What does the Model UN mean to you?
I think it’s a chance for young people such as myself to get involved in today’s politics and get a deep enough understanding of issues so we can form our own opinions on what we think solutions may be.
- How did you get the opportunity to go to India?
I believe I was chosen out of a group of students after having my name put forward by one of my teachers who believed I’d make the most of the experience.
- What did you do in India?
We ended up doing a lot of things and were very busy. As well as the conference, we did a lot of sightseeing such as going to Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal, We saw a lightshow one evening with giant puppets, and also had a culture evening that I ended up singing at! We also had so much delicious food.
- What were the main messages of the Model UN conference?
The main one was to be resilient and keep going even if things were difficult, which was very important when your points were being torn apart by your fellow delegates. It was also heavily encouraged to just have a go, because you’ll never improve if you don’t try.
- How was it like working with other students from other LiFE MAT schools?
It was awkward at first, because we had only met once before and were now going off to a new country together, but we quickly became very close and such good friends. We would spend our evenings sitting in the corridor of our dorm rooms talking for hours and helping each other with our speeches for the conference. It was really sad leaving them because the memories we made together made the whole experience so special.
- How was the overall experience?
It was honestly such an incredible experience and I’m so lucky and thankful that I was chosen to do it. I made amazing friendships and awesome memories. I miss it already!