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.
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