The Unity in Diversity Day, which used to be UN day, is a day where we share our traditional clothing, culture, and food, which is quite literally a diverse range of people being united in a day.

As I came into school, there were people wearing their national clothes ranging from little kids to parents. The one I remember the most was a French friend of mine in DP2, Antoine, bringing a baguette and munching on it during the event, it was simply hilarious.

After some time, people gathered around their flags, and a photographer started to take photos of people from each country. We have a small group of Korean students in this school of 5 including me, two in MYP2, one in 5th grade, one in 4rth grade, and Mr. Kim, our music teacher. It seemed like all of them were wearing Korean hanboks, even the one in MYP2 was wearing some kind of cloak made of Korean traditional clothes.

Then the teams started to head to the gym from the outdoor court one by one, and I was the one holding up our flag. I tried to give the little ones a chance to hold up the flag, but it was a bit heavy for them so I held it together by their sides. When we got to the gym, I started to wave the flag from left to right, making it draw a nice 8-shaped curve.

After the gathering, we all left the gym, and left for our workshops. I was working with the MYP 3.1, and our workshop was discussing the SDG-16(Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutes) which is about promoting peaceful and inclusive societies, providing access to justice for all and building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. We watched a video about it, and then mainly focused on institutions, and so we asked them questions such as “What word comes to your mind when you think of the word institution?” “What do you think makes an Institution ‘strong’?”

After we discussed SDG-16, it was time for the MYP 3.1 class to make their own institutions. We split them into two groups, and explained the following instructions to them:

• Create a name for your institution.
• Think about the beliefs and objectives of the UN and SDG Goal 16.
  • How can you apply that to your institution?
• Who are the members of your institution? 
  • Make a constitution: A list of responsibilities the members need to uphold.
• Make a list of your policies and initiatives.
• What values are upheld by the institution
  • Ex. The four values of the UN are Inclusion, Integrity, Humility and Humanity.  
  • The values of OSC are Courage, Compassion, and Curiosity
• What do you do? What are your Objectives?
• What makes your institution strong?

One group made an institute where they would be a government funded organization helping out refugees, and the other group made an institute that helps obesity by having diet programs for free, and is funded by having their own exercise products(straps, protein shakes etc.).

They presented their posters to each other, asked questions, and gave each other feedback. It was surprising to see how much they were aware of how realistic their plans are, and kept asking questions about exactly how each other were going to carry out their plans.

After getting feedback from the MYP 3.1 students, we finished our session and left for the food in the canteen. Food from all around the world, not only were they tasty, but it was also interesting what kind of food other countries have. The Korean corner had some yakgwa(Korean sticky sweet snacks made of honey, nuts, etc.) left, so I went around all the different countries’ corners to give it out to the parents/teachers that didn’t have a chance to try them.