Round Square Adventure
By Gerry Bird
Following our four-day pre-conference tour in Iceland with four other Canadian Round Square Schools, we arrived in Hamburg, Germany on the afternoon of October 9. Representing LCS at the 2016 Round Square International Conference, which would begin the next day a couple of hours north of the city, were: Ali Attyani ’17, Hanen Alfuhaid ’17, Allie Avard ’18, Paige Bonner ’17 and Joe Gennaro ’18, along with Cara Westcott, LCS Trustee and alumni parent, and Gerry Bird, Director of International Programs.
Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany and is home to about 1.7 million people. Situated on the River Elbe, it is also a major transportation hub and the second largest port in Europe. After a brief rest at the hotel, we set out to explore the surrounding area on foot. Although few businesses were open late on this Sunday afternoon, we found a restaurant advertising “Old German” food and enjoyed a delicious meal – with most of us trying one of the many authentic schnitzel dishes.
The next morning, we boarded a bus with delegations from the other schools that had accompanied us on the pre-conference tour and returned to the airport, where we were met by a welcoming committee from the RSIC host school, Louisenlund. After a long bus ride through countryside that looked surprisingly similar to rural Southern Ontario, we arrived at Louisenlund. The school is located on the shores of a wide fiord off the Baltic Sea, near the tiny village of Güby in the province of Schleswig-Holstein, which is situated in Northern Germany near the border with Denmark. Dr. Kurt Hahn, who was also the inspiration for Round Square, was instrumental in establishing Louisenlund in 1949 on the grounds of a former private estate. Even today, the administrative centre of the school is in Louisenlund Castle, a stately waterside mansion, constructed by Hermann von Motz between 1772 and 1776 for Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel as a gift for his wife, Princess Louise of Denmark.
Most of the Louisenlund students and staff, other than those helping with the conference, were away on break, so the visiting student delegates were housed in the boarding houses on campus, while the adults were billeted with local families or stayed at B&Bs, inns or hotels in the area.
The theme of conference was “The Journey That Makes Us”, and it would focus on the word "journey” in a wider sense; as in our individual life’s journey, and journeys in terms of personal development. About 550 student and adult delegates from more than one hundred Round Square schools around the world were in attendance.
Given the very jam-packed schedule, the conference would prove to be both informative and fun – not to mention a little frenetic - but it would also be thought-provoking and inspiring. For example, over the next six days, we were captivated by some amazing keynote speakers. One of the most poignant of these storytellers was a young man by the name of Sari Samakie, who had attended a public school in Aleppo, Syria until ninth grade. Although he had been born in Montreal, Sari had moved to Syria, his family’s homeland, when he was just six. When his schooling was interrupted for three years by the war, Sari - like many Syrians - began to question the unquestionable, and posted a seemingly innocuous criticism of the current situation in the country on Facebook. Within days he was captured and tortured by the Syrian government, and only a month later, was kidnapped again, this time by the Free Syrian Army who accused him of being a government spy. Miraculously, his calm demeanour and articulate self-defence eventually earned him his freedom, along with the concern and respect of his captors – who, he recalled, actually telephoned his home a few weeks later to inquire about his well-being. At 18, Sari was awarded a full scholarship to attend King’s Academy, a Round Square School in Madaba, Jordan, where he is currently a senior and the head proctor of a dormitory. He is also the recipient of Round Square’s Kurt Hahn award for Fikra 3al Mashi (“idea on the go”), a community service initiative he began with two classmates to educate and empower refugees from Iraq and Syria. At the RSIC, Sari was interviewed on stage by a 26-year old Louisenlund alumnus and journalist, Henry Donovan, who had made him the subject of his 2015 documentary film, The Courage to Forgive.
Another journalist, whose story left an indelible mark on the audience was a young woman named Souad Mekhennet. A German citizen, Souad is of Turkish-Moroccan descent, and has written or worked for The New York Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, and German television ZDF. Among other topics she investigates, her stories – and three published books to date - provide a unique glimpse into Jihadist strategies and motivations. She is perhaps best known as the lead reporter of a Washington Post story that in February of 2015, first revealed the true identity of the ISIS militant known as “Jihadi John.” In 2014, Souad Mekhennet was also selected as a Young Global Leader by The World Economic Forum, a body that honours the most exceptional leaders under the age of forty from around the world.
Another inspiring speaker, Ben Saunders, overcame dangerous challenges of a different kind. A world renowned polar explorer, Ben lead the 108-day, 1,800-mile Scott Expedition on skis across Antarctica, the longest human-powered polar journey in history, and the first completion of the expedition that defeated both Captain Robert Scott and Earnest Shackleton at the beginning of the last century.
Equally impressive was a “pioneer” of a different kind, Dr Manfried Spitzer, who is Director of the Psychiatric Clinic in Ulm, Bavaria. In 2004 he founded the Transfer Centre for Neuroscience and Learning which conducts educational research and investigates pedagogical development. One of Dr. Spitzer’s areas of expertise is the effect of technology – mostly negative we would come to find out – on learning and social development in children. Although some of his findings were a little uncomfortable for young people and adults alike to hear, his personal challenge, “Have you got your smartphone or has it got you?” couldn’t help but resonate with the audience.
Following each keynote address, we met in our assigned Barazza groups to discuss the speaker’s message. “Barazza” is a Swahili word meaning “meeting place”, and it was here that students and adults from schools around the world shared ideas and impressions of each keynote address, facilitated by student leaders from Louisenlund. As is the case at all Round Square Conferences, the Barazzas at Louisenlund proved to be a particularly effective and enlightening means of cross-cultural sharing.
And of course, the Round Square IDEALS of: Internationalism, Democracy, Environment, Adventure, Leadership and Service, were front and centre. For example, the Adventure component was a full day sailing excursion on the fiord in one of Louisenlund’s many sailboats, a couple of which were larger, but most of which held a maximum of eight students, under the leadership of a senior Louisenlund student “skipper.” Likewise, Service Day featured an array of challenging service activities ranging from a beach cleanup, to training with Louisenlund’s student fire brigade, to eradicating invasive plants, and building birdhouses at the school farm.
The activities and speakers were interspersed with a variety of engaging social and entertainment opportunities, such as the International Cultural Showcase, with students performing traditional music and dance from their home countries, and the final night’s dance, that in true German fashion, ended much later than most school dances would in Canada.
While our time at Louisenlund would prove unforgettable for many reasons, the LCS student participants were unanimous in saying their most lasting memories of the conference would be of the people they had met from around the world, with whom they had shared so much, and forged remarkably meaningful friendships over the short course of a week. Under the organization’s new “Discovery Framework,” participants in RS programs are now known as “Explorers.” There can be no doubt that the journey undertaken by delegates to the 2016 Round Square International Conference was one of exploration and discovery; of self-discovery and of learning about the world around them, as well as about the other peoples and cultures with whom we share the planet.
The next Round Square conference will be the Americas Regional Conference that will be hosted by Belgrano Day School in Buenos Aires, Argentina in April. The student delegates for this conference have already been selected, but later this winter, we will be inviting applications from students interested in representing Lakefield College School at the next Round Square International Conference, to be hosted in October 2017, by three schools in Cape Town, South Africa. The theme for that conference will be “Unite to Ignite the Fire Within,” and students currently in Grades 9 through 11 are eligible to apply. The following video, produced by the South African host schools, will hopefully whet your whistle for what promises to be an amazing adventure and learning opportunity!
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Lakefield College School is a private, coeducational boarding and day school for students in grades 9 through 12, located in Lakefield, Ontario, Canada.
We respectfully acknowledge that Lakefield College School is located on the Treaty 20 Michi Saagiig territory and in the traditional territory of the Michi Saagiig and Chippewa Nations, collectively known as the Williams Treaties First Nations, which include: Curve Lake, Hiawatha, Alderville, Scugog Island, Rama, Beausoleil, and Georgina Island First Nations. Lakefield College School respectfully acknowledges that the Williams Treaties First Nations are the stewards and caretakers of these lands and waters in perpetuity and that they continue to maintain this responsibility to ensure their health and integrity for generations to come.
We respectfully acknowledge that Lakefield College School is located on the Treaty 20 Michi Saagiig territory and in the traditional territory of the Michi Saagiig and Chippewa Nations, collectively known as the Williams Treaties First Nations, which include: Curve Lake, Hiawatha, Alderville, Scugog Island, Rama, Beausoleil, and Georgina Island First Nations. Lakefield College School respectfully acknowledges that the Williams Treaties First Nations are the stewards and caretakers of these lands and waters in perpetuity and that they continue to maintain this responsibility to ensure their health and integrity for generations to come.
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