This summer I was fortunate enough to work for an organization that works half in DC and half in NYC! The company is called Envision EMI and I worked for the Global Young Leaders Conference. It is where high school students from around the world come to DC and NYC to learn about cross cultural skills, leadership, do a little model United Nations and visit a ton of places! I was a Faculty Advisor, which meant I taught some cross-culture skills, some leadership and facilitated some MUN simulations.
Talk about an inspiring summer! Wow! These kids, or scholars as we called them, are amazing! They were literally the next leaders of our world, the next policy makers, prime ministers, Secretary General, diplomats, presidents, etc. For only being on average 16 years old, they have accomplished things people in their 60s havent even thought of trying. The amount of projects they are involved in, the charity/humanitarian work, the experiences they have had, the places they have visited/lived was astounding. They really inspired me to apply to international schools and I have thus refocused my career plans. But I will get back to that later.
Without doting on my scholars for too much longer, let me tell you what I was able to do and see! Through this work I was able to hear from various speakers talking about their different projects. A few of the speakers were 20 somethings who founded an NGO and are working with big name NGOs to solve some of the world's problems. Talk about making me take a look at my life. I also was able to go to the State Department and hear from a few speakers about various topics from Middle Eastern affairs to antisemitism to the diplomatic community. I also was able to go to the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Australian embassy. Also, while in DC I went to the Smithsonian museums, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, the White House, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, MLK Jr Memorial, FDR Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial, the Korean Memorial and got to hang out on the National Mall... all while being paid! AND that was just in DC. In New York, the program stayed on St Johns campus in Queens. Through the program I went to Times Square, Mary Poppins on Broadway, 5th Avenue, Rockefeller Center, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty, Chinatown and Little Italy, the United Nations, Columbia University, New York University, Empire State Building, SoHo, South Side Piers, and a few other places I cant even remember.
There were a few highlights of the trip that arent connected to the program itself but just connected to an experience. I fell in love with New York. It is everything you want it to be, it doesnt exceed expectations but it delivers what you expected. There are so many movies where NYC is featured so you feel that it cant actually be real or look like that, but it does. It looks exactly like it does in the movies or tv shows. For some reason this surprised me more than anything else. Even Times Square is everything you think it would be. One of my favorite moments of my summer was getting Halal food from a food cart (chicken and rice) and taking it to the middle of Times Square. I just sat in the middle of everything and people watched. It was awesome! I saw the naked cowboy, Good Morning America's newsroom, the New Years ball, all of the news tickers, the lights, NYPD, the yellow cabs, tourists, business people, all of it. I even saw Tim Gunn of Project Runway and I totally turned in to the tourist that freaks out when you see a famous person.
Another memory from this summer was on one of the breaks from working. I met up with two travel friends who live in New York. They are also foodies, so they showed me a whole different side of New York. One lives in Brooklyn and so I saw a little more of Brooklyn. She also showed me around a few of the neighborhoods around Manhattan. The first night I hung out with them was on the Fourth of July. We decided to go to Coney Island and go to a baseball game there! How American is that? Baseball, Fourth of July, Coney Island, fireworks, Nathan's hotdogs, fairgrounds, beach... it all made the perfect 4th!
One of the most delicious places she showed me was Xi'an Famous Foods. We shared the cold noodle dish and it was AMAZING! Seriously I cant talk about this dish enough. It was amazing and perfect for the hot weather. If you ever are in NYC, go here and eat this! Wow. She also taught me how to order a bagel and the fact that you need to ask which ones are warm so that you know which one is the freshest. Also, and even more important, Never, Ever order your bagel toasted. They dont do that and they will judge you for it. So just order the warm ones and you will be good to go!
There were so many other awesome things I did this summer but I am tired of writing this blog. I have so much on my mind right now. As I mentioned earlier, these scholars inspired me. They made me really rethink a few things, the main one being how badly I want to live abroad again and how I really want to start working in international schools. So when I came home from this job, I applied like crazy to lots of places. I heard back from a few but I think I have found my home. I will update later once I have more concrete information. :)
Talk about an inspiring summer! Wow! These kids, or scholars as we called them, are amazing! They were literally the next leaders of our world, the next policy makers, prime ministers, Secretary General, diplomats, presidents, etc. For only being on average 16 years old, they have accomplished things people in their 60s havent even thought of trying. The amount of projects they are involved in, the charity/humanitarian work, the experiences they have had, the places they have visited/lived was astounding. They really inspired me to apply to international schools and I have thus refocused my career plans. But I will get back to that later.
Without doting on my scholars for too much longer, let me tell you what I was able to do and see! Through this work I was able to hear from various speakers talking about their different projects. A few of the speakers were 20 somethings who founded an NGO and are working with big name NGOs to solve some of the world's problems. Talk about making me take a look at my life. I also was able to go to the State Department and hear from a few speakers about various topics from Middle Eastern affairs to antisemitism to the diplomatic community. I also was able to go to the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Australian embassy. Also, while in DC I went to the Smithsonian museums, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, the White House, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, MLK Jr Memorial, FDR Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial, the Korean Memorial and got to hang out on the National Mall... all while being paid! AND that was just in DC. In New York, the program stayed on St Johns campus in Queens. Through the program I went to Times Square, Mary Poppins on Broadway, 5th Avenue, Rockefeller Center, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty, Chinatown and Little Italy, the United Nations, Columbia University, New York University, Empire State Building, SoHo, South Side Piers, and a few other places I cant even remember.
There were a few highlights of the trip that arent connected to the program itself but just connected to an experience. I fell in love with New York. It is everything you want it to be, it doesnt exceed expectations but it delivers what you expected. There are so many movies where NYC is featured so you feel that it cant actually be real or look like that, but it does. It looks exactly like it does in the movies or tv shows. For some reason this surprised me more than anything else. Even Times Square is everything you think it would be. One of my favorite moments of my summer was getting Halal food from a food cart (chicken and rice) and taking it to the middle of Times Square. I just sat in the middle of everything and people watched. It was awesome! I saw the naked cowboy, Good Morning America's newsroom, the New Years ball, all of the news tickers, the lights, NYPD, the yellow cabs, tourists, business people, all of it. I even saw Tim Gunn of Project Runway and I totally turned in to the tourist that freaks out when you see a famous person.
Another memory from this summer was on one of the breaks from working. I met up with two travel friends who live in New York. They are also foodies, so they showed me a whole different side of New York. One lives in Brooklyn and so I saw a little more of Brooklyn. She also showed me around a few of the neighborhoods around Manhattan. The first night I hung out with them was on the Fourth of July. We decided to go to Coney Island and go to a baseball game there! How American is that? Baseball, Fourth of July, Coney Island, fireworks, Nathan's hotdogs, fairgrounds, beach... it all made the perfect 4th!
One of the most delicious places she showed me was Xi'an Famous Foods. We shared the cold noodle dish and it was AMAZING! Seriously I cant talk about this dish enough. It was amazing and perfect for the hot weather. If you ever are in NYC, go here and eat this! Wow. She also taught me how to order a bagel and the fact that you need to ask which ones are warm so that you know which one is the freshest. Also, and even more important, Never, Ever order your bagel toasted. They dont do that and they will judge you for it. So just order the warm ones and you will be good to go!
There were so many other awesome things I did this summer but I am tired of writing this blog. I have so much on my mind right now. As I mentioned earlier, these scholars inspired me. They made me really rethink a few things, the main one being how badly I want to live abroad again and how I really want to start working in international schools. So when I came home from this job, I applied like crazy to lots of places. I heard back from a few but I think I have found my home. I will update later once I have more concrete information. :)
