Darvin Jasper introduced Paige and her mother Cindy Reid. Paige is a student at St. John`s Ravenscourt School in Winnipeg. She is also a neighbour of Darvin.
Paige will be making a presentation about her trip to Bogota, Columbia for the Round Square Conference of the Americas. Round Square is a global network of schools from 50 different countries and 6 continents. Each school in this network have a passion for character education and experiential learning. Round square is centered around 6 main ideals; Democracy, Service, Internationalism, Adventure, Leadership, Environmentalism.
International Understanding- they explore many topics through a human rights lens to raise awareness of local and international issues
Democracy – the world renowned Public Speaking and Debate program helps promote democratic dialogue.
Environment-students identify ways to reduce the impact of the school on the environment and promote education for sustainable development.
Adventure – they offer a myriad of activities that foster a spirit of adventure.
Leadership – SJR develops their students to be leaders today and in the future and this culminates with a formal Leadership Diploma Program in Senior School.
Service – students serve and actively participate for the greater good of many different communities.
The Round Square Conference is a way for all the schools belonging to Round Square to come together and discuss experiences with like minded peers from around the world.
The 2018 Round Square Conference of the Americas was about breaking barriers and building bridges within a country after a war and devastation. This topic is very important to the people of Columbia as they go through a peace process after many decades of civil war.
Columbia`s history has been full of war. From the early 1960`s, the country has been full of armed conflict between FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia) and the government of Columbia. FARC was fighting for social justice through communism. The Columbian government was fighting for order and stability of the country. Throughout this conflict many people were killed, displaced or kidnapped. The fighting de-escalated in the early 2000`s. the country is moving towards a peace process. It is difficult for the people of Columbia to forgive FARC as well as the government for what they had put the country through.
The beginning of the peace process in Columbia was to have the people from each side of the civil war just talk to each other and try to understand, breaking barriers and building bridges. Paige thought that Bogota and Columbia would be a dark, scary place. She discovered otherwise during her trip. She came out of the country full of hope and seeing a future of peace in Columbia. The conference changed her entire perspective of Columbia and the World.
It took 4 plane rides and two days to get to the conference. The host site was a school, Colegio Los Nogales. The area was beautiful, lush green and mountains. The campus of the school was open to the elements with open walkways to classrooms. After a tour of the school, Paige met her billet family. They were very lovely, kind people and treated her very well.
Thursday was full of guest speakers. They goal was to learn how to turn local into global. One guest speaker was Daniel Buritica. He believed that you should not be asking yourself `what you want to be when you grow up`, but rather, ` what do you want to change`. He talked about how to take a new approach to situations. He had a three-step process:
- Find your passion- find what makes you happy and what you would want to do for other people.
- Dream – don`t just stay in the box people put you in, dream & think big.
- Invite people – this is where your one-person solution can become global, use the people around you to help achieve your goal.
Next was Global Citizenship. The idea of global citizenship was to find peace after the civil war in Columbia. Helping the soldiers of FARC become citizens again. Everyone is a citizen and included, embrace everyone`s perspective. This can lead to peace.
Internationalism focused on the many people who set their world view very early and try to get the world to fit that view. They often push away evidence that doesn`t agree with their world view. Consider multiple conclusions and perspectives and look at all evidence to disprove or question your beliefs and arguments. Connections help to solve problems.
Friday was all about Adventure and the Environment. They traveled out of Bogota to the mountain range (10,925 ft.) and Laguna of Guatavita. This was indigenous reserve land. Here they were taught about the ancient ways of selecting and training the new king. They had a good hike, then traveled to the town of Guatavita and talked to the locals. Paige was able to try out her Spanish.
Saturday was Democracy, Freedom of Speech and Thought. Street art and graffiti is used in Columbia to express ideas and emotions. Graffiti is considered cultural art in Bogota. The City of Bogota is considered one of the top 10 cities in the world if you want to experience world class street art / graffiti.
Sunday was Family Day. Paige brought along a bottle of maple syrup, so they all enjoyed waffles with a Canadian touch.
Monday was Service Day. They traveled about one hour outside Bogota to an orphanage. The goal was to help create a better living environment for the children. They planted trees, painted basketball courts, painted classrooms. The group that Paige was in planted corn. They had to prep the field, then plant the corn. Hard work!
The entire experience was fun, and Paige enjoyed every minute of the trip. She hopes to return to Columbia at some point in the future.
Q/A.
Lloyd Talbot asked if they have been able to convert the rural economy from cocaine based to other crops? Was this talked about?
A.- Not discussed at all. The talk was about moving forward.
Lloyd advised that to move forward you must remember the past mistakes and learn from them.
Martin Labossiere thanked Paige for her interesting presentation. We all believe in a strong, lasting peace in the world. Paige was advised that a donation in her name will be made to ShelterBox.
