Global Education
BHS students and teachers are offered a wide variety of opportunities to travel the world for educational and cultural experiences. The benefits of these trips are often best expressed by the students themselves. Below are reports from three recent trips in which the students share what they saw, learned and gained overseas.
UNIS-UN Conference
2018 in New York City UNIS-UN was founded in 1976 and hosts an annual conference focused on a contemporary global issue. Expert and engaging speakers are invited to present to an audience of 700 high school students, from international schools on five continents. For the past 40 years, the Conference has been held in the General Assembly Hall at the United Nations Headquarters, in New York City. This year, five students from BHS attended the conference, which was titled, “Under CTRL: Technology, Innovation and the Future of Work,” exploring questions regarding the way in which innovations will improve lifestyle and efforts in development. UNIS-UN is an important, and often inspirational, experience for students, and two of the BHS delegation share their thoughts on attending the conference with Torchbearer: Courtney Bromby IB1: Being in the UN General Assembly was an amazing experience, and I gained a lot of knowledge on Artificial Intelligence, and how it could affect my future career. The thing that stood out the most for me was that I was able to ask the speakers questions - I never thought I would have been able to speak in front of around 800 people! Paige Martin IB1: It was interesting to me that the topic of the conference was technology, but the speakers were able to apply it to many areas, such as business and politics, as well as the ethics surrounding developments in technology. We had the opportunity to meet students from around the world who were interested in the topic as well, and, through the debates, we were able to hear many different opinions. To be in the General Assembly was eye-opening, considering how many important decisions have been made in that room. It is definitely a trip I would recommend.”
22 Torchbearer Spring 2018
Global Impact: BHS Students who attended the UNIS-UN Conference were able to attend the Global Assembly at the UN Building in New York, which left a lasting impression on their perspective of global decision-making.
Language and Culture in Bordeaux, France
In April 2018, a group of Year 9 and Year 10 students travelled to Bordeaux, France, the hometown of Head of Foreign Languages, Esther Rozenberg, for an eight-day adventure of language, cultural immersion and culinary delights. The city centre is a UNESCO protected site, and, with most of it pedestrian, along with its close proximity to the Bassin d’Arcachon and the Dune du Pyla, it made an ideal choice for walking and exploring with the students.
The 11 students stayed with host families and attended language school each morning for three hours. Staying with French families provided the girls a glimpse into French family life, and they had the opportunity to practice their French speaking, and enjoy homemade French food – like croque monsieurs - upon their arrival! Charlotte Weinstein ’22 and Aria Turchiaro ’22 describe some of their experiences in France: At Bassin d’Arcachon, we walked around the city and visited a few historical sites. One was a metal tower that was designed by the same man who created the Eiffel Tower - except it was quite a bit smaller. Only eight people could go up at a time, and the view from the top was amazing. We also went to the tallest sand dune in Europe, the Dune de Pyla - it was huge! It took a while for us to climb to the top, and when we got there, it was so long,
we could hardly see where it ended! On Monday morning it was time for our first French class with France Langues, where the teacher had us speak only in French. In the afternoon, we did a walking tour of Bordeaux, and visited a cathedral. On the way back to the tram, we tried really good pastries that were filled with cream; almost everyone bought a bag of them. More than a few bags were squished after being stuffed into backpacks, on the way back to the host families!
Later in the week we visited the Cité du Vin, a modern wine museum. We walked around the museum and listened to different audio and video presentations about the history of wine. Some of the videos even used 3D images, which was really cool! There were also some sections of the museum where you would smell different scents which affected the taste and smell of wine.
On another day, after classes, we took a bus to a city called St. Emilion where we learned about the history of the city and climbed up a tower. It had exactly 118 steps (we counted!). The tower used to be a jail, and was quite dark and the stairs were steep in certain parts, but it was really exciting. When we got to the top, we were able to see an overview of the beautiful city. Afterwards, we went into a cathedral that a monk called St. Emilion created, and we had a chance to take pictures of the beautiful features of the cathedral.
Our favourite part was when we went to a little patisserie in the city and tried some
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