Around the world from home
Summit connects 15 countries By Eduardo Andrade, Editor-in-Chief
This year’s biennial International Summit, held virtually Feb. 1-5, was the largest in school history, with 15 countries and 139 international students participating in the event. However, the magnitude of this event struggled to get through to students despite its historic nature. “When you’re live, even 150 people can make it feel like the school size doubled, but on Teams, even though we had significantly more people it just shows up as a little number 200 or whatever, and you really don’t get the sense of, ‘there’s a lot of people here,’” senior Jeffrey Drew said. Drew served as both country leader, an intermediary between country ambassadors and administration, and as a co-leader with Cadre #9. “So I guess yeah, more people, more representation, but it felt a little bit downsized.” While the summit did feel smaller, this helped some students recover part of the personal connection lost over virtual meetings. “It was completely different since we couldn’t connect as well with the students; however, I learned a lot from them and I hope they feel the same way,” junior Ashley Oliveira Andrade said. Andrade was a country ambassador for Zimbabwe. “Just like last time, I made a lot of friends from all over the world and I’m very glad we had the summit this year. I thought I wasn’t going to be able to create new friendships, which wasn’t the case.” This sentiment was largely reflected by the international guests, with 61% of international students reporting that the cadre groups were their favorite event, according to a survey conducted by administration Feb. 5-6 “I will never forget-- the Cadre meeting,” Princess Narh said. “I got to meet new people and learn about their backgrounds and also change some contacts if we wanted to stay in touch.” By meeting with the same group every day during the summit, participants found it easier to connect with each other, as
8 | Feature< February 2021 > @TornadoTimes
Fifteen students meet on Teams for their daily cadre meeting, where they had time to talk to students from almost every country participating. The biennial International Summit was held virtually from Feb. 1-5 as the COVID-19 pandemic has affected schools around the world. PHOTO COURTESY OF ANN WAYLAND COOK
GRAPHIC BY EMMA PARKER
