The IVECA Summer Camp concluded this week with the Global Virtual Roundtable event involving 11 roundtable sessions. Students from across the world joined expert panelists in a roundtable discussion on a variety of STEAM topics. The students and panelists discussed projects aimed at reaching the United Nations Sustainable Development goals.
Themes of the roundtables included public diplomacy, service-learning and community engagement, air quality, and building design. Student panelists presented on themes such as branding a nation through the soft power, trans-disciplinary approaches to solving the SDGs, technologies to address air quality problems, and addressing climate change and energy use in sustainable housing.
Students from the Korea Science Academy (KSA) of KAIST partnered with their IVECA friends from the United States, Morocco, Brazil, and Guatemala throughout the program. Students had the opportunity to communicate with their partners through live virtual classes and in the IVECA Virtual Classroom to develop their roundtable presentations. Distinguished instructors from prestigious universities, scientific research centers including NASA, and international diplomatic organizations, guided the students through lectures and group activities aimed at addressing the UN SDGs. Finally, the panelists met during the virtual roundtable event to present alongside expert panelists and moderators in front of a public audience.
IVECA team was happy to receive much positive feedback from the instructors, mentors, and the students:
“It was amazing to spend these 11 days with you! It was a unique opportunity and certainly opened my eyes to many other possibilities. I learned a lot of incredible things in this course, so thank you Ambassador and Dr. Kotsakis for all the learnings. And, obviously, to my KSA friends, it was a pleasure to know you” -- a student from Brazil.
"We have had a wonderful time following the course, and we have all learned deeply from this. Public diplomacy and soft power are two very significant factors in today's connected society… Having known what they are, there is no doubt that this course will help us all in the future and will likely dictate our success." -- a KSA student from Korea.