On Thursday May 19, students from across the Dwight Schools network convened for the inaugural Climate Conference, a student led initiative designed to share and promote goals for climate action.
The event included Dwight School New York, London, Seoul, Shanghai, Dubai and Online Global, with student leaders from across all schools presenting and sharing various projects that the schools implemented, as well as the environmental goals for next year. Ms Vanessa Rees, Senior Program Manager from Global Vision International was also a guest speaker.
Amongst the environmental projects from across all schools were initiatives to reduce food waste, recycling collections, hydroponics for self sufficient food, water saving, plastics ban, energy efficiency, tree-twinning project, and a fantastic partnership between Dwight London and Nepalese schools.
The Dwight Schools Climate Conference was initiated and organized by Dwight School Seoul’s Jessica Oh from Grade 11.
“I started thinking about the idea for the climate conference at the beginning of the school year. As we have a diverse group of schools in the Dwight network, I thought we could share environmental initiatives to encourage each other and make a global impact,” said Jessica.
“In the beginning it was challenging to reach out to the schools but once we contacted each other we had virtual meetings together which allowed us to easily communicate. Then everything was easier.”
“It was astonishing to see the environmental projects that the other schools did over the past few years,” said Jessica.
The Dwight School Seoul Eco-Council has been working on various eco-projects throughout the year and the conference provided a further opportunity to see and hear first hand the efforts of their fellow Dwight students in other parts of the world.
“This event was a culmination of months of hard work from our Eco Council and is a testament to how passionate they are about making positive change to our local and global communities,” said Ms Heather, Dwight Seoul’s Eco School Coordinator.
The conference was delivered on stage at Dwight School Seoul with outside participants joining via Zoom and interacting with the students on stage.
“It is always a pleasure to support students as they find their voice and growing confidence to make a difference in the world in which they live. They all made excellent presentations, both virtually and on stage,” said Mr Burke, Dwight Seoul’s Dean of Technology and Innovation.
“Congratulations to all for their enthusiasm and commitment to making a positive contribution to local environments and raising global awareness through the Dwight network. And of course well done to Jessica for bringing the conference together.”
The event is available for anyone to watch via Dwight School Seoul’s YouTube channel and is embedded below.
