The Global Youth Summit, Actions for Earth, will be held in Melbourne from 19 to 21 January 2020.
The GYS summits and camps have been held a couple times per year in different countries, mostly Asia, but will be held for the first time in Melbourne Australia in 2020.
Karen Kim the director of Pounce Global says she is proud to be hosting over 200 international and local participants aged 12-18 for GYS2020.
GYS 2020 includes a Model United Nations workshop, key industry speakers, an international competition on 'Innovative Sustainable Solutions for a better future', hands on interactive sustainability workshops.
This summit has been hosted by Pounce Global in Australia, Hemisphere Foundation in Singapore and many supporting partners including the Korean Society of Victoria.
Karen Kim says as an educator, she has been interested in the mentoring and education of youth and encouraging confidence and a sense of responsibility to contribute to the community.
“From a community perspective I think the time is right for an international summit in Australia focussing on the UN's 2030 Sustainable Development Goals” she says.
“What attracted me to this project was the opportunity for young people to learn future skills - to network with international delegates, learn public speaking skills, participate in a United Nations workshop, work with leaders in sustainability and feel empowered to make an impact to shape their own future.”
Recently, the 'Innovative Sustainable Solutions' is an international competition which challenges students to think of ways they can improve problems which they face or have observed in their local communities.
Karen Kim expresses many people who are solving issues by thinking outside the square.
“One of our guests at the GYS2020 noted the wastage of soap bars for example, at hotels across Australia. She set up a business to collect all the soap and repackage them for distribution to third world countries where so many thousands were dying from simple lack of sanitation which lead to disease that simple soap can help prevent.” She says.
“Another example is a solution invented by a group of GYS students last year from Oman who noticed the pools of water around service stations resulting from water tanks becoming overfilled. The bodies of water attracted malaria infested mosquitoes which became a hazard for neighbouring villagers. The students devised an electronic sensor which alerted drivers when their tanks were full of water to avoid overflow. It is simple and effective.”
Karen Kim said the competition provides an opportunity for students to showcase their ideas, receive feedback and potential assistance for further development or commercialisation.
Action on climate change is an at-times big issue but there are some communities in Australia who say they feel left out of the discussion.
Mark Kim, treasure of KSV (Korean Society of Victoria Australia) stressed that the Korean Australia community can show leadership in this regard and become involved in opportunities such as the Global Youth Summit.
Left to right: Mark Kim (Treasure of KSV), Julie (Administrator), Sohwon (President) and Karen Kim (Director of Pounce Global) Source: Supplied
For this reason, Korean Society of Victoria Australia decided to sponsor a couple of students from Korean Australian community to attend.
Mark Kim says it would be a worthwhile experience for future leaders to participate in such an international event, representing both Korea and Australia.
"We decided to support some students in Korean community for them to gain skills in leadership, international networking, intercultural exchange, public speaking and talk about the opinions representing the Korean community at international events like this"
If any Korean students want to benefit from this opportunity to represent the Korean Australian community at the Global Youth Summit, you can message via website
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