march-26-2018
SESSION 1- motor speed way
Students begin the day with a field trip to Motor Speed Way for a tour and lap around the track at top speed of 100mph. A great way to start a Monday before continuing the day with lectures
Students begin the day with a field trip to Motor Speed Way for a tour and lap around the track at top speed of 100mph. A great way to start a Monday before continuing the day with lectures
SESSION 2- student presentations
At the end of the WA school day, ambassadors divided into groups and presented their experiences and pieces of their action plans to the students matriculated in Westlake Academy. They were asked questions after their presentations a personal favorite of mine was "what will you tell your community about Westlake when you return to your home country?"; although the responses were overwhelmingly positive the most common had to do with our hospitality which I believe is something our community and families hosting should be very proud of. |
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DINNER AT THE BRADLEY'S
Tonight, the former mayor and his family are kind enough to open their home to our symposium and invite our ambassadors to dinner. The evening will be filled with fun, laughs, and good food.
Tonight, the former mayor and his family are kind enough to open their home to our symposium and invite our ambassadors to dinner. The evening will be filled with fun, laughs, and good food.
march-24-2018
SESSION 1
Guiding themes- How does the positioning of media influence perception? subtext has massive influence on perception. Students analyze and discuss images and how perception of tone, mood, and purpose shifts between different arrangements of text, pictures, and colors. The students are divided into groups to ensure that each student is with an ambassador from another school in order to diversify discussions; round table like atmosphere with each student participating enhances the comfortable atmosphere giving each student a chance to speak their mind. words have power on you Your words can have power as well |
mar-22-2018
SESSION 1- expectations and goals
To start the day the student ambassadors completed an activity to clarify their goals for the symposium. First the student dressed why they applied, second the ambassadors considered what they wanted to learn from the symposium, and lastly the ambassadors considered how they were going to accomplish these goals and identified their two favorite steps to achieving these goals. |
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SESSION 2- Alpha Beta and Stereotypes
session two began with discussions over culture, specifically what culture is composed of. The students were split into two groups and given new identities as their own cultures: the alphas and the betas. Then each culture would send ambassadors to the other, not knowing each other's new cultural rules, and attempt to communicate. The purpose of this was to show the importance of emphasizing acceptance and that an effort to understand one another's culture and habits is crucial in communication and creating new relationships |
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SESSION THREE: community
throughout the afternoon there was a specific focus on ethics and moral leadership. In this specific activity students began by defining a community; overall, the conclusion reached was that a community is not necessarily geographically limited, but rather a group of people connected by a common factor, goal, or characteristic. When the ambassadors entered the room, the chairs the chose to sit in had an upside down card underneath. At this point the students learn what country has been assigned to them and go through several exercises which rank them based on their access to resources, wealth, income per year, etc... This impactful exercise emphasized the fact that these unfair circumstances are not the choice of those in them, but purely based on chance. The concept of community plays a role in determining who should do something? what should they do? who is responsible? etc... |
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Mar-20-2018Today was the busy opening ceremony day. Many students followed their hosts throughout their school day as they arrived on campus and ended the day with an opening ceremony. Pictured you will see many student ambassadors with their hosts each other. Looking foreword to the first day of the symposium tomorrow!
Dear readers, please share this website with anyone who wished to follow the symposium, pictures and video clips will be uploaded daily along with details of the activities during the symposium. |
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mar-19-2018
The first two schools, Uplands College and Nanjing Foreign Language School, arrived last night! Jet lagged and all they will continue their international experience by joining their hosts at school on Tuesday 3-20-18 while the rest of the students join them throughout the day as they arrive.
Important event notice:
Westlake, please join us in welcoming these ambassadors in an evening of friendship and discussion on March 22nd. Hope to see you there!
Westlake, please join us in welcoming these ambassadors in an evening of friendship and discussion on March 22nd. Hope to see you there!