In the morning of January, 26th, thirty students of Dulwich College Seoul were jumping up and down with excitement to attend the 5th Global Youth for Environment Forum that was taking place at the Seoul National University. 

The first Global Youth for Environment Forum took place in 2012 and since then, this event has been targets for many young green leadersto participate in. These events are managed by the “Environment graduate school of Seoul National University” and hosted by “Samsung Engineering”, “Eco generation” and more. For this Environmental Forum, the theme was ‘Sustainable Energy for the Future Generation’.

This opportunity let the students take part in lectures that were presented by 5 honorable people; Dr. Sunjin Yun, Julian Quintart, Prof. Myoungju Lee, H.E. Gerhard Sabathil and H.E. Thomas Lehmann. All 5 of the lecturers had different topics to point out and talk about, which were (in order) “Concept and status of sustainable energy”, “‘How to live sustainably’ - message for young leaders’ ”, “The first zero energy housing complex in Korea” and “Efforts to make sustainable energy in practice in EU and Denmark”. 

First, each student was given a translator and a little booklet, where you could see the timetable, different information about the event and a page where you are given a blank rectangle next to each speech so you could place the sticker (of proof that you listened to the lecture) and, later on, receive a certificate for. The booklets also showed the located seats of the students,which were placed randomly along with different students from other schools and countries. The opening ceremony started off with information about the whole event and other ideas of lectures, about to be given out soon. The first lecture started at around 10:30 and lasted an hour, like the other speeches that were ahead of them.

After the speeches, students headed to the cafeteria to eat their lunch, with; kimchi, mushrooms, and deep-fried cheese pork cutlet. Following lunch, the lectures continued with a boost and continued to give the students more knowledge about the environmental issues with encouraging lectures that included information such as; some simple ways to slowly help solve the issues, how EU is making huge efforts to encourage progress in the solutions, how the world is expected to change over next 100 of years if the world is left to be as it is right now, how hard it is to produce energy, back details of what it used to deliver your goods and so, so much more. However, It wasn’t only the students that were taking in new information but adults, also, were learning from the students.The adults were really surprised about the knowledge and passion the students, which was shown by their level of questions.

When all the lectures were finished, each student was handed a certificate for their participation in the event, along with a water bottle and a bag. One of the students mentioned; “This was a brilliant chance for me to increase my knowledge of what I am interested about and if I had another chance like this, I would attend it, without a doubt. I’m so thankful to have had this experience.” “From these lectures, I found out that lectures can be fun and that there are so many passionate students out there.” Jenna Lee, one of the attendees, tells us, “I think there should be more events like this to make more serious awareness about how this world is becoming if the world continues this way.”

This event is increasing in participation and popularity from future green leaders. Take your opportunity and have a chance to increase your knowledge about the current situation of this world we live in. How can this world become a place we all dream of? How long is it before it’s too late to redirect our acts? What will YOU do?

Cho, JuHyun (Julie)

Year 9 (Grade 8)
Dulwich College Seoul