The title needs work; it’s a desperate attempt at coming up with something clever…

 

Unity in Diversity Day, formerly known as UN Day, is a day of celebration and cultural expression for the OSC community held at the beginning of October. This day is an opportunity for the international community of OSC to come together and represent our various cultures openly, as well as experience the cultures/traditions of others (similar to culture days held at other international schools around the world).

Organising this event is a combined effort of the teachers, COMUN students, and DP 1 students at OSC. Every year the COMUN students put their heads together and pick one of the 17 SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) created by the United Nations to serve as the theme for workshops on this day and the COMUN conference that follows later in the year. The workshops held on this day are then refined and carried out by the DP 1s along with the COMUN students to all the grades ranging from PYP 4 – DP2.

This year, we chose SDG 16; Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions. As a quick explanation, this SDG focuses on the idea that everyone in the world should be ‘free of fear and safe’, living their lives as they wish regardless of their ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, and/or faith, according to the UN.

Planning The Workshops

Naturally, as Secretary General, I had significant involvement in planning these sessions/workshops and the organisation of the day. At first, it was my job to introduce the concept of an SDG to the COMUN group in our Monday ASA (After School Activity), as well as allow them to make a fair vote on one to focus on. After some research, the vote was surprisingly straightforward as the majority had wished to study SDG 16 with little to no push-back from anyone who wished to do things differently. Next, I broke off the group into teams and tasked them with developing lesson plans that incorporated ideas of the SDG while being engaging according to the grades allotted to them.

Overall, planning the lessons took two ASA blocks, but we later realised there needed to be some more discussion and thoughtfulness in the lessons for some grades. I was in charge of overseeing the teams’ productivity and ensuring every lesson was educational, engaging, and interesting before we finalised them. For planning the workshops, the last step was to introduce the DP 1s to the work we had been doing so far, as they would help refine the plans and teach them to the different grades. This was when any fine-tuning or technical work needed to be completed regarding the workshops was finalised.

My job at this stage was to curate the groups/pairs that would be teaching together. This proved to be a more difficult task than I had initially envisioned as factors such as friendships, extroverted-ness vs introverted-ness, and compatibility came into play. Eventually, with the help of some of my classmates, I was able to make fair groups that included a member of the COMUN group and some DP 1s that I felt could work effectively together while also enjoying the day themselves.

On the day, I was visiting from class to class to ensure everything was in place and filling in for any last-minute changes that arose. In my visits, I was most proud to see everybody comfortable and sure of what they were meant to do and more importantly, the students they were teaching seemed to be genuinely enjoying. I also received some praise from the teachers overseeing these workshops on the way the lessons were organised and their subject matter, an achievement only possible through the efforts of everyone involved.

Emceeing the Assembly

This was the most nerve-wracking task of the day.

Every year on UD Day, we have a short assembly with one or two performances and traditions, emceed by the Secretary General of that year. Being the SG, the responsibility of being MC was mine this year. Though I am somewhat familiar with public speaking, the idea of speaking in front of the entire school was anxiety-inducing since it is something I haven’t done in the past.

However, public speaking and presenting are a large part of my role and position, so it was my responsibility to face the fear. After talking to the previous Secretary General and getting the itinerary of the day & assembly, I was able to come up with a script for myself, outlining the basics of what I needed to touch on and the sequence of events. As MC, it was my job to; introduce all the acts/performances, do an ‘SDG focus’ where I explain and define the chosen SDG, and open and close the assembly.

Though I was incredibly nervous and somewhat scatterbrained on the day of the assembly, I found that once I was on the podium, my nerves eventually faded so I could speak freely and comfortably. Something like emceeing an assembly may sound simple, but to me, it has been a great experience to learn about myself as a presenter and what it means to be on the organisational end of events such as this. A point I mentioned in the speech but bears repeating is that through planning UD Day, I have been able to reflect on the amount I have grown in this environment all in the span of only a year.