Written by: Sai Sharan Chettiar, Grade 8 (CLSP)

On 4th May 2020, our school GIIS organised Global School Exchange (GSE), where students from GIIS campuses across the globe congregated for a competition on the exchange of ideas related to the global impact of Coronavirus.

To our delight, GIIS East Coast team stood third in the contest that was participated by hundreds of students.

This intellectual event was hosted on a webinar platform and witnessed teams from various campuses: Japan, Malaysia, India, and Singapore. Each team comprised of four students of Grades 8 and 9, who had to cohesively contribute their stringed thoughts, perspectives, and solutions on emerging problems.

We at GIIS EC started our preparation with zeal. After a brief brainstorming session; we had chosen ‘Education and Economy’ as our focal point of analysis. Problem identification was done through a fishbone diagram for the education sector and a sector chart showing potential winners and losers under the economy. Factual graphs bolstered our presentation. A potential solution table was illustrated for each entailed problem. We strived on tangible solutions that can be incorporated conscientiously.

At the day of the event, my teammates and I felt the adrenaline coursing through our veins as we eagerly awaited our turn to present; this is where countless hours of working and dry-runs came down to. As the event commenced, we exchanged messages of luck, the organisers made an introduction speech that announced the start of team presentations. All our prior feelings of apprehension vanished as each team stepped up and presented with confidence and bravado.

It was a fascinating sight as each perspective was diverse from the other on various industries like the education sector, oil and gas, employment according to their geographical location. It gave us some insightful information on how a person’s surroundings can drastically affect their thoughts on a topic.

As the judges announced the result and our team was declared one of the winners, we were ecstatic. All our hard work paid off! Most importantly, we were honoured for the opportunity to take part in a very fun and educational competition where we got to learn something at every step of the way. This was indeed an unforgettable experience to cherish for life.