Note: I am finally catching up on my blog. This post starts my journey in 2020. I was in China in early January.
Several years ago I received an email invitation from Erik Paulson, the MUN Director at The Concordia International School in Shanghai for the JBS MUN team to visit CISSMUN. I was intrigued because the conference was in China, I knew we could travel in January, and they have a great reputation as a THIMUN affiliated program. As I planned my tour for the new year it looked like I'd hit the January trifecta of CISSMUN, THIMUN-Qatar and THIMUN-The Hague.
What I discovered at CISSMUN was yet another remarkable program run by the most generous, passionate MUN leaders. I know I probably sound like a broken record at this point, raving about all these conferences, but for me personally, you can just feel the positive energy from the get-go; from the email correspondences from the student leadership (meaning the MUN Director has the confidence to leave much of the planning of a huge conference to the students) to the level of competency of the student Chairs to the quality of students engaged in debate. I sincerely hope to bring JBS to CISSMUN someday.
There were over 1000 students from 78 different schools at CISSMUN XI. They came from as far away as Ecuador and Miami and from many provinces of China. As the Coronovirus was very new and not yet a huge global concern, I simply took the prophylactic measures and washed my hands frequently and stayed off public transportation.
How do I love CISSMUN? Let me count the ways:
(Top ten to be exact, in no particular order)
1. Erik Paulson: I would argue that when you stare death in the face, and live to tell about it, there are special people who take that adversity and turn it into something positive. They continue to live knowing that every breath, every conversation, is a blessing. Their renewed contract on life is a commitment to taking nothing for granted. Erik is a fighter with a huge heart. He is committed to his students, nurturing their skills as global leaders. He knows the value of dedicating one's time and energy as a teacher to our youth who are our hope in the future of this planet. The students are SO lucky to have him in their lives and I believe they know it, which makes their time together and the process of creating CISSMUN very special.
2. LeeAnne Lavender, above holding Mariatu's book, is the service learning co-coordinator at Concordia and leads the Global Issues Network (GIN) that usually runs alongside the MUN conference. She also teaches a Global Development Studies class that I was fortunate to speak with the day after the conference. From the moment I was introduced to LeeAnne at registration I could tell this conference could do no wrong. Along with Erik, LeeAnne brings so much educational value to the program, clearly placing the value of students learning to be change makers as the core of the curriculum. She inspires me to be a better listener to hear other peoples stories.
3. Jordan Hattar is the founder and director of Help4Refugees.org, an organization designed to raise awareness of the situation of Syrian refugees living in refugee camps in Jordan. I met him several years ago at the Qatar Leadership Conference in Doha and it was wonderful reconnecting and hearing more about his journey with his NGO. Below is a link to his incredible story that he shares in an interview with LeeAnne. So often my MUN students are so well researched in their topics that they want to do more than write about the issue they are studying. Jordan is a wonderful example of how anyone can drop what they are doing and go out and do something as a call to action with impact. Jordan shared with the students of CISSMUN how he was inspired by a university professor who shared a story about her family members who were killed in Syria. It made Jordan want to do something. He took a semester off, started to listen and record stories of Syrian refugees in a camp in Jordan, near the Syrian border, and ultimately started the NGO. Jordan later applied seven times for an internship with Michelle Obama before receiving it on his eighth try. His persistence paid off and his work with Mrs. Obama in the White House led to further work to be a voice for the Syrian people. I esteem Jordan for his commitment to the Syrian people.
(this link will take you to three interviews recorded by Concordia's C.ITIZEN C.OLLECTIVE (Citizen.c); Mariatu was interviewed by the press team and Jordan and yours truly were interviewed by LeeAnne).
4. Mariatu Kamara is a UNICEF Ambassador on behalf of children in armed conflict. She is a survivor of the Sierra Leone civil war and a powerful advocate for peace and justice. As the keynote speaker at CISSMUN this year, Mariatu shared the story she tells in her book The Bite of the Mango. She goes in detail about how she watched members of her family and her village be slaughtered by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Like so many people captured by the RUF, Mariatu, at the age of twelve, had her hands cut off as symbol of how the people of Sierra Leone no longer had "the power in their hands" to vote and could no longer mine diamonds. After passing out from this trauma she was thrown into a ditch with other bodies and left for dead. But she survived and now spreads her message of peace, perseverance and forgiveness. To be in the presence of such a strong woman and hear her story of survival and what she made of her life is humbling.
5. Hats off to the student leadership team who run the entire conference while Erik steps back once training is over. As soon as the delegates come to registration, it's the student's show and did they ever shine. The Secretary-General, Corey Zhou, (pictured above) did a brilliant job instilling confidence in all participants by managing over 1000 participants in 15 different UN forums. It was clear to this observer that the overarching mission of the conference was cultivating an ethic of service to others. Focusing on the magnitude of the challenges confronting the international community, the Corey and his team truly inspired each of their participants to match words with actions, and to find ways in which everyone can make a difference to those less fortunate than ourselves.
6. For me, the presence of a delegation from Iran at CISSMUN XI was powerful. Just two weeks prior to this conference came the US drone strike that killed the Iranian General Qassem Soleimani when he arrived at the airport in Baghdad, Iraq. The tension was "diffused" just days before the gavel fell to open debate at CISSMUN when a missile was "unintentionally" fired in Iran at a Ukrainian passenger airline, killing all 176 people onboard.
My conversation with these young women was about the obstacles they had to overcome to put themselves in a position to debate global issues at a large international MUN conference. Their presence and performance was inspiring, working hard to seize every opportunity to use their individual and collective voices to speak out about the challenges of the world they live in. In a symbolic gesture that was quite moving, the conference organizers asked a member of the delegation from Iran and a member of the delegation from Palmer Trinity School in Miami, Florida, to come together and co-emcee the closing ceremony. To say the least, it was nice to see these two students stand and work together at this moment in the conference.
7. The Vigil is the conference newspaper at CISSMUN. The team of 20+ students produce a daily magazine whose design is like few others I've seen in a conference newspaper. The layout, photography, videography and reporting clearly comes from a dedicated staff of young aspiring journalist. Check out their work: https://www.cissmun.org/media-hub
8. Special shout out to the President and Chairs of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) who ran their forum as experts and with seriousness in purpose. I was so impressed that I asked the team to provide a summary of their work which we posted on our MUN Impact webpage and was most certainly noticed by the UNODC office in Vienna who were proud of their work. http://munimpact.org/ccpcj_cissmun2020/
9. Along with his wife LeeAnne, Brian Lavender (center in photo above) is the driving force behind Concordia's C.ITIZEN C.OLLECTIVE newsroom. Citizen.c is the "nexus for intelligent dialogue and thoughtful action, seeking to empower the changemaker in all of us." According to Brian, "The media messages we consume become our values. It's invigorating to be part of a unifying force in our community that enables the sharing of stories and ideas that inspire transformation - first on a local level, then globally." Brian and his team in Citizen.c help student think more critically about who they are as a learner, leader, thinker, and collaborator and in that process, they are in the position to make meaningful contributions to their community through the impact they create both inside and outside the classroom.
10. Concordia International School Shanghai is a special place. It's hard to sum up my overall experience, but I think this quote I found on their website does a pretty good job in explaining what goes on in the halls and in the classroom of this school:
"If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
I certainly saw it in how they organized and ran a very large MUN conference. I saw it in the details that surround the school; from the green, sustainable walls and roofs of the buildings to the care they take in the commons and cafeteria to recycle all items, including food waste.
I can't thank Erik and his team enough for their warmth and hospitality; for including me in a group dinner with all his long-time friends and colleagues to showering me with so many Concordia spirit wear and items.
I dream of the day I can bring my John Burroughs students to CISSMUN.
At the time of writing this post, over a month after my visit, the school has shut down indefinitely because of CODIV-19. I wish everyone well as the school works to continue their curriculum online from remote locations around the world. This is no doubt exhausting work, but from what I hear, given the joy of learning that takes place at Concordia, things seem to be going well.
Touring Shanghai
I did give myself a few days to enjoy the city of Shanghai, spending time in the Bund (waterfront area in central Shanghai), the French Concession, Yu Garden and the Jing'an Buddhist Temple. Considering the Chinese New Year was only a week away, the city with a population of close to 30 million people felt quite empty. With the Coronovirus lurking in Wuhan province over 500 miles away, I was cautious and focused most of my visit with time spent at the school. In a nutshell I was very aware of the quality of the air, which seemed quite hazy the first few days, but turns out it is winter and the haze in the sky was really condensation. It poured down rain my third day and the skies cleared for my last few days.
I was also impressed with the urban planning in the city. How do you move 30 million people around? The flyover and overpasses in the highway structures were extensive and breathtaking, moving traffic in an "organized" manner. Speed limits are slow compared to the US standard of 70mph and many of the flyovers shut down at 2am for cleaning They also had pedestrian above ground and under ground walkways that kept people from congesting the intersections. Smart!!!!
Not bad, Grasshopper. You are becoming a true world traveler. The things you will learn about yourself and the globe on which we live! Enjoy your sabbatical, Peter