Round Square Maintains Global Connections

January 29, 2021

Academics

GNS

Four Grade 9 Round Square students took part in a virtual conference last week hosted by Calgary French School, which consisted of a Zoom collaboration and virtual conversation about the environment, with a focus on the oil industry and its effects in Alberta.

“It was really student-led,” said Sophie Davies. “Each breakout room had a different student leader…it was interesting to see how it was working because I had no idea what was going to happen going into it.”

The conference was one hour long and included 94 participants from Grades 7 to 9.

“It was cool to be a part of something with many schools, and getting to see how they think about the government,” said Kate Flye.

Last Spring, the Middle School had planned to host the Young Round Square Conference, but it had to be cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions just a few weeks before it was set to start. Sophie and Kate were both leaders on that project.

“Obviously ours was going to be on a much bigger scale, and we were also going to talk about the environment and adventure—which I think is hard to capture on a Zoom call,” said Sophie. “For our conference, a lot of the activities were planned to be outside, and seeing the outdoors or going to Camp Qwanoes.”

“There was a lot of work going into the YRS conference, so it was definitely sad when we weren’t able to hold it,” added Kate.

While they weren’t able to host their conference, being able to join in on virtual ones has been appreciated.

“It was really interesting to see how they did it,” said Sophie

Having been in Round Square for a couple of years already, both students have enjoyed the variety of topics that it covers.

“I like having the international perspective,” said Sophie. “There are schools all around the world—like in India—attending and having the same opportunities and helping around the world.”

“You can connect with other schools about different topics,” added Kate. “They are larger and global topics.”