Southville International School and Colleges IB students joined the Global Issues Network Manila (GINila) Conference last September 5-6, 2014. The GIN is an international student network that strives to empower students to address global issues within their sphere of influence through community service and action. The conference focused on four global issues; poverty, education for all, biodiversity losses, and disaster mitigation.

Clarice Meneses (IB 2 student) spoke of her experience saying, “GINila was amazing. I came here expecting a simple solution factory that was completely theoretical and ended up with a completely new experience. I loved how GIN not only gave us what-if situations, but changed our paradigms and gave us the opportunity to do what we proposed.”

In addition, Kimberly Pollard (IB 1 student) commented, “I learned a lot from this conference and met a lot of intelligent people and we actually got serious stuff done.” Another IB 1 student, Blanca Garcia, mentioned that “GINila was an eye-opening experience. I learned a lot about the poverty situation in the Philippines and the different ways to help out.”

Overall, the event was well-attended bringing together students from Aguinaldo International School, Brent International School Manila, Chinese International School Manila, International School Manila, and Xavier School, to name a few.