FLORIDA HIGHLIGHTS

As the tired but exhilarated team return home, they have been reflecting on some of the highlights of the week ...

EMIL: The conference offered a lot of diversity, and there are many things to take away from the conference in terms of culture but also attitude towards the world around us. Having spent a whole week with people from all across the world, I personally gained a better understanding of the different attitudes people from other cultural backgrounds have, and how people from other countries have to be understood, communicated with and managed differently from people from the same cultural background as yourself. The theme" Waves of Change" was brought across very well by Saint Andrew's school. It motivated me to change the world to a better place whilst holding on to my dreams, but always thinking in a favourable way about the community we are living in.

HUGH: Having now experienced the entire Florida conference, I can safely say that choosing a highlight is damn-near impossible. The adventure, service and environmental days were all educational and inspiring, while the football game and dance were also highlights. The environmental day at the Everglades was particularly stimulating as it showed us not only the different cultures of the world, but also the differing environments. I think the conference has inspired me to follow the IDEALS further in life outside of school.

LUISE: Overall the conference was an amazing experience and I have taken away many things from it. On one hand, meeting and essentially living with over 400 other people from all around the world has encouraged me to look at the world we live in on a greater spectrum and larger scale. The different environmental, activity and service days made me appreciate the world we live in much more and I can truly say that we, the entire conference, have started Waves of Change globally.

Living in an American host family, I was warmly welcomed, felt at home easily and can say that not one opportunity was missed to have fun. I shared this experience with three other girls, from Canada, South Africa and Switzerland, who I quickly became very close to. The different key note speakers gave a variety of view points on issues facing the world we are currently living in, as well as the issues we will have to face in the future. I generally feel inspired to be more conscious of my actions and willing to create a positive wave of change wherever I will go.

SHONA: After experiencing the entire Florida conference, I have found it hard to pick out an individual highlight. Having a week packed with adventure, leadership, service and inspiring talks it has really changed my view on everything. From football games to cultural evenings and Barazas, I have really come out of my comfort zone and experienced a whole new world. From the trip I can safely say that I learnt a lot of people are very similar and that you can make a change if you really put your mind to it. After learning more about the IDEALS, in future I will hope to take on board an RSIS project to help the people in need and maybe get involved with more charities to help out and make a change.

CHLOE: Personally I found that the whole conference was a highlight. The environmental, service and adventure aspects each had highlights of their own and the dance and football were also a big highlight and the perfect ending to the conference. Through the conference I was able to meet a wide variety of people from all over the world and from different cultures and backgrounds - this has taught me that it's important to take into consideration everything when working together, and to be able to work together we have to be accommodating and considerate of other people's views. The conference has also shown that no matter what country you come from or what cultural background you have, you can want the same thing from life and are able to work together with a variety of different people. Through this, I'm inspired to become more aware of my surroundings and the environment, and I've learnt that everyone can make a change, but in order to make a large change we must work together.

ANTHONY: This week has been a new and invigorating experience for me. I have been able to meet new people from many different cultures from around the world whilst being inspired by speakers who have had the opportunity to make a difference in modern culture, whether it be through building schools, lending short term loans to communities in Africa or ending the circle of poverty in Africa with the five steps necessary to form a sustainable community. However, the most impacting speech for me was the closing ceremony speaker because it opened my eyes to the technologies that have been discovered (yet are still not in the public domains) and the positive impact they could have on society if the right person was given control. Despite this, none of the speakers were able to contend with the amazing activity days ranging from a trip to the Everglades and talking to crocodiles (or alligators) to the day of adventure on the high ropes and building boats out of cardboard that were destined to fail. It is impossible to choose a highlight out of all this but the leadership talk has probably taught me the most on how to make an impact in my school, including influence over people attending an event.

Well, that pretty much wraps up this year's Round Square blog! Have we delivered on our promise of a life-changing experience? You can be the judge of that, but if you go back and re-read the first 'Hopes and Expectations' entry and compare it to this one, I don't think you will be left in much doubt ...

THE EXPONENTIAL ERA

Today we met the man who has made commercial trips into space a reality, Dr Peter Diamandis. A true visionary, he hit on the idea of running a competition with a 10 million dollar reward for the first team to build a commercial space flight vehicle. Ten years later, and the companies who entered have spent far more than ten times the prize money in researching and ultimately delivering a solution. He is now working on similar projects in other areas, offering for example prizes for the successful creation of an electronic healthcare device that could help to plug the serious world shortage of doctors, and a piece of educational software that could educate children who have no access to schools. His mantra: there is no problem that we cannot solve if we harness the full brainpower of the human race through technology.

We are, (he argued and few will disagree), entering an era where technological development is advancing exponentially rather than in a linear fashion. Faster and faster computers are now building faster and faster computers. Within 20 years, his prediction is that a single handheld device will carry more brain power than the entire human race! If this seems a little far fetched, older readers of this blog may have grown up reading a work of science fiction, written in 1981 by Douglas Adams, called The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. The title refers to a pocket sized electronic device that is capable of accessing all of the knowledge in the universe at the press of a button. A ridiculous idea that such a thing could exist! 30 years later, most of you have one in your pocket. An African bushman has more information at his disposal today than did President Reagan.

The recent technological advances, Dr Diamandis argues, are not just about increased convenience: they are a total game-changer for the entire human race. Many of his visions are frightening. Consider 3D printers: already in existence, ladies might like to look forward to the time in the not too distant future when buying a pair of shoes online means printing them out in your sitting room rather than waiting for the postman to call. Nice! But what about the guy who already successfully 3D printed a fully working gun? For gun, substitute nuclear weapon ... and suddenly none of this seems a particularly good idea...

But you cannot put the genie back in the bottle. Pandora's Box is open and we cannot shut it. In which case, the only solution going forward will be for the leaders of tomorrow to develop a unified global vision: the very technology that is potentially so frightening could yet be our saviour in helping us to achieve this. But success in this respect will require not just education for all, but also collaboration around a set of shared principles and ideals.

Anyone still questioning the point of Round Square?!

ROUND SQUARE'S GOT TALENT

Well, they weren't quite Ant & Dec ... but the presenters of the Round Square's Got Talent show promised us a veritable smorgasbord of cultural diversity and we were not disappointed. There is something both special and surprising about watching students from other countries show us what they can do.

Creativity is not one of the six IDEALS but it sure as hell should be. We had singers and pianists and rock bands and violinists and film makers and karate experts and dancers ... and dancers ... and the dancers just kept on coming ...

What is it about the dance that so perfectly captures the essence of a culture? Perhaps it is the fact that without words, there is no language barrier? Perhaps it is the naturalism of the body language, movements and physical expressions of the performers? But above all, the colourful, exotic, exciting costumes! We are used to the idea in British drama that we dress up to be what we are not, but tonight's dancers were dressing up to be who they are ... And they were so proud of it.

The talent within the Round Square family is clearly immeasurable but not just in terms of the performances themselves. Ant & Dec they weren't, but the presenters kept us thoroughly entertained throughout and managed the changeovers with panache and style. Surely these confident and articulate showmen and showwomen were not the same shy and gangly teenagers who had introduced themselves with a nervous giggle and cocked up their lines earlier in the week? Round Square's real talent is in providing the circumstances and situations for blossoming transformations that any butterfly would be proud of.

#notaholiday

I suppose it is inevitable that if one is going to a conference in Florida in term time one will hear the phrase 'enjoy your holiday' once or twice before one leaves. But what have our intrepid students actually been up to since they arrived? TJV caught up with five of the six this morning.

 WHAT HAS INSPIRED YOU MOST SO FAR AND WHY?
HUGH: The leadership talk from Mike Weber was really interesting, especially as it was like the guy was preaching the gospel!
EMIL: It has inspired me a lot meeting so many new people across the globe, and getting to know different cultures is enjoyable and fun. I have been inspired by the speakers and the talks we were given during the conference. A large inspiration to me was to see that you can even be an entrepreneur at a very young age, if you believe in yourself and believe in your idea.
SHONA: The adventure trip out and the leadership talk have inspired me the most as it has made me see that everyone can be a leader and can persuade people to do a lot of things they usually wouldn't. The adventure day showed me the importance of teamwork and that no matter the situation you can normally get through it.
CHLOE: The service day has shown me how important it is to be able to give back to the community and it also taught us teamwork skills because we had to work together in order to clean up the beach without it taking too long. 
ANTHONY: The talk by the leader of Pencils of Promise, who had been building schools for those who do not have access to education, was really inspirational!

 SOUNDS LIKE YOU'VE ALL HAD A RANGE OF INSPIRATIONAL EXPERIENCES AND ESPECIALLY LEARNT THE VALUE OF WORKING WITH OTHER PEOPLE. WHO IS THE MOST INTERESTING PERSON YOU HAVE MET OR SEEN SO FAR?
HUGH: Danish is in my Baraza group : he is OBSESSED with cats and beyond, and he cried when I showed him a photo of my cat!
EMIL: Madeleine, because she was that girl who sticks out of the crowd, her smile enlightens even the darkest corners in the school. This was due to her engagement and willingness to change lives of the less fortunate people in this world.
SHONA: So far the most I interesting person I have met has been the lecturer from the leadership talk: he has shown me how easy it is to persuade people and how all it takes to be a leader is to be influential and believe in what you want.
CHLOE: For me it's also been the man who gave us a lecture on leadership because he interacted with us and he made the talk fun and interesting, and I feel that I listened the most to him because what he had to say was interesting.

 WHAT HAS THE CONFERENCE MADE YOU WANT TO GO OUT AND DO IN THE FUTURE?
HUGH: I was really inspired by the service trip, which opened my eyes to nature's need for maintenance.
EMIL: It has showed me that when you become an entrepreneur, you should not just focus on the success of the company, as this is only a product of the actions your business takes. Your business should be set out to help the people in the world. 
SHONA: it has made me in the future want to go out to meet more new people from different places and help those who are less fortunate then I am.
CHLOE: It's made me want to travel more and to go out and help other children who are less fortunate than me. 
ANTHONY: It has made me want to do a Round Square service project in the future and make a difference in the world.

GREAT TO KNOW THAT THE CONFERENCE SO FAR HAS MADE SUCH A DIFFERENCE TO YOU? BUT WERE THERE ANY ASPECTS THAT YOU FEEL COULD HAVE BEEN IMPROVED?
HUGH: The opening ceremony took nine thousand hours and, apart from the keynote, seemed slightly uninspiring.
EMIL: The long waiting times in the morning dragged on a bit, even though I had nice conversations.
SHONA: Some of the talks we have been in haven't been really engaging and loud so it is easy to lose interest. Also in the Baraza meetings not all the wave makers [the student leaders] know what they are talking about and so it becomes less interesting.
CHLOE: We've had a lot of lectures so far that aren't interactive and so they don't really capture our attention in the way that the speaker hoped, and since we're all very tired it makes it harder to concentrate. 
ANTHONY: The opening ceremony as a whole was very long and had lots of people speaking for half an hour saying the same thing as the person before them.

SO IT SEEMS OUR STUDENTS PREFER THE MORE INTERACTIVE ELEMENTS OF THE CONFERENCE BUT ARE MANAGING TO TAKE THE ROUGH WITH THE SMOOTH. GOOD LUCK FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK, GUYS!

IDEAS & IDEALS

Round Square was started in 1966 by a group of five like-minded schools as a means of sharing good ideas, through conferences, exchanges, service projects and other worthwhile collaborations. Today, the organisation has changed beyond all recognition: with around 100 global members and many more additional regional members, the organisation is approaching the moment when it will need to reinvent its structure and purpose if it is to continue to provide quality and equality of opportunities for its members. For the adult delegates, most of Tuesday was spent pushing around ideas about how Round Square can modernise itself.

There is a growing recognition now that the Round Square needs to be about a lot more than just conferences (which are now unmanageably large and prohibitively expensive), exchanges (which can only ever be the exception not the norm) and service projects (where again restrictions on numbers and high costs make them inaccessible to all but a very few lucky students).

An increasing number of Round Square schools are now recognising that if Round Square is to be truly meaningful, it needs to be inclusive of all students, rather than an exclusive club for the lucky few. For that to occur, it has to be all about the ethos of the IDEALS - Internationalism, Democracy, Environmentalism, Adventure, Leadership & Service - permeating the whole school culture, rather than about specifically branded 'Round Square activities' that can only ever be accessed by the minority.

The Round Square Board and member schools have been scratching their heads for some time as to how exactly the inclusion of all students in Round Square can be achieved. This is where you heard it first, so whisper it softly ... but it seems that the Felsted Diploma or something like it may just turn out to be a very important part of this process! As part of Tuesday's programme, TJV was asked to give an 8 minute presentation to the conference on how the Diploma has been developed at Felsted. The response to this presentation has been overwhelmingly positive: when one hears phrases like 'solution to all our problems', 'it's now clear what we have to do' and 'I learnt so much' floating around, one cannot fail to be proud of what one has created.

Those of you who were here five years ago when MJW first arrived may remember his extravagant statement that he wished Felsted to be viewed not only as an outstanding centre of excellence and innovation in the UK, but also internationally. Expect, now, an increase to the already existing stream of adult visitors to Felsted from other Round Square schools, wanting to see what we are doing. Expect, now, a further upsurge in interest in Felsted from students in other schools. Another mad and impossible plan that turned out to be not so mad after all ... Be proud, Felsted! What you do is very special.

Follow us on twitter: @FelstedRSIC

Photos

Just arrived, and welcomed by beautiful sunshine and 29 degrees ( 5th October 2013)

 

Meeting a delegates from last year's MUN  (6th October 2013)

 Very nice PAPF lunch with HM King Constantine (7th October 2013)   

Raising the flag for Felsted (9th Cctober 2013)

HATCHING MAD PLANS

There is something incredibly special about meeting people you already know in a completely different setting, and this is one of the premises on which Round Square is founded. For the teachers, this is often about renewing contact with colleagues with whom one has previously collaborated, as well as hatching mad plans for new projects. Round Square itself started as a hatched mad plan!

For the students, it is equally special to renew friendships, especially when you find yourself meeting someone you didn't expect to see again. Emil found himself unexpectedly bumping into a student whom he had helped to host in Elwyn's House for last year's MUN. For Luise, the meetings and greetings started before we had even left England, finding that a number of students from her previous school were on the same plane!

Never underestimate the difference that you can make just by welcoming and hosting people. There is a school in Morocco called El Araki, who have just been admitted as Global members of Round Square: in their presentation to the conference, there were pictures of Felsted MUN. When I thanked their teacher, Mr Firdaous, for including these he said that we were the very first Round Square school to host them as visitors. El Araki now have their own MUN club, all as a result of a mad plan hatched between BJLC and Mr Firdaous a few years ago.

A few minutes later, we were listening to Adam Braun, the CEO of the charity Pencils of Promise. When in India five years ago, he asked a street child what he wanted most in the world and the boy said: ... a pencil! Not a car, not an I phone, not smart clothes ... A pencil, an education, the chance to do things for himself ... Humbled by the experience, Adam vowed to make a difference and hatched a mad plan to build a school and name it after his grandmother, a holocaust survivor. It turned out that this was just the start: his plan, mad even by his own standards, is to build 100 schools in the developing world in 2014. That's one every 3.64 days ... but don't bet against him achieving this! His message to the Round Square student delegates: go out and do it NOW before you are old enough to know what is impossible. Only those mad enough to think they can change the world actually succeed in doing so.

Check out http://www.pencilsofpromise.org/ for more information about this inspirational charity who are literally changing children's whole worlds, every single day.

Follow us on twitter: @FelstedRSIC