Young leaders to ring in change

Round Square is a world-wide association of more than 80 schools on five continents. The UK-based registered charity encourages students to develop their personality by participating in community services, work projects, exchange programmes and adventuring, which usually takes its students half way around the world. The Millennium School, Dubai, is the only school with a Round Square membership here in the UAE. The last conference was hosted in the school in 2008.

The students Rachith Sengupta, Nikhil Pillai, Fathima Mohammed and Nethra Kulothungan, spoke to Khaleej Times on what their expectations from the conferences are and their plans on playing host to participating schools.

School Principal Michael Guzder said that the students have been given ample training to both partake and host the conference right from the Middle School level. Students and teacher delegates will be staying in the school for the conference, he said. He added that 173 student delegates from 17 schools from Armenia, Oman, Bangladesh and India are expected to take part in the conference.

“Round square aims to nurture students to make them better citizens, beyond the academic arena,” said 19-year-old Fathima.

Rachith and Nikhil explained that the school has been actively participating in regional and international conferences that have been taking places in various Round Square member schools across the globe. Recently, six students along with the Principal attended the international conference in Wellington College, UK.

The theme of this year’s Round Square is ‘Be the Change’. The theme and logo were conceived and designed by Nethra Kulothungan. “I designed the logo keeping in mind that the students of today are in fact leaders of tomorrow and they need to bring in necessary changes to make the world a better place,” said Kulothungan.

The students insisted that the conference has been a fantastic platform for them to meet their counterparts from other schools.

“We are in touch with the students we met at the other conferences through Facebook. We have made a lot of friends over the course of the conferences and we believe we will remain friends,” said Rachith.

The students have an action packed itinerary planned including a trip to the Burj Khalifa and a desert safari.

“The conference has become a movement for the students in the school. The number of students who profess interest to participate in exchange programmes, adventure trips and other activities has increased drastically in the last couple of years,” said Guzder. He added that students and parents have to come to realise that a lot more that just academics needs to be done for the over all development of a student.

dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE