WILLOUGHBY HILLS, Ohio, Nov. 19, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Rustic Pathways, the 2018 WYSETC Best Youth Travel Operator, will host its first Critical Issues Summit from July 16 to Aug. 2, 2019, in Southeast Asia.
This unprecedented two-week conference will bring together 100 student changemakers from more than 20 countries around the world. The Summit will allow students to explore five critical issues: globalization, access to education, refugee crisis, gender equality, and access to water.
Students will spend the first week in Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, or Cambodia delving into one of those issues in a local community and learning directly from the people it affects. All students will come together in Udon Thani, Thailand, for the Summit’s second week. They will participate in an Innovation Curriculum designed by our partner GiveBackHack to foster the skills needed to create change, and hear from issue experts as part of an engaging speaker series.
The Summit will conclude with a Design Challenge where groups of students will create projects to address a critical issue and compete for the chance to win $10,000 in seed funding.
“This opportunity is a perfect fit for students who are passionate about making change, especially students who have a track record of advocating for change in their own communities,” said Brent Watkins, Rustic’s Vice President of Program Operations. “It’s also a perfect fit for any student who’s curious about the skills required to solve big problems and interested in creating a better global community.”
To enable any student to participate, Rustic will provide 25 full scholarships that cover the program cost and airfare to Southeast Asia. For more information, visit rusticsummit.com.
What the Summit Looked Like for One Student
Antonette Liao attended the Summit on the gender equality track in 2019. She spent her first week in a homestay in Na Nong Bong, Thailand, with the women of the Radical Grandma Collective, learning what they were fighting for. She later wrote about the trip for our alumni series.
“One day, the Grandmas, myself, and the 15 other students were sitting down on the bamboo mattress having lunch, chilling, and talking to each other. I looked around and took in every detail. Some were struggling to use a chopstick, food was being switched around so people could try everything, and laughter was everywhere. I thought to myself, how lucky am I to be here, right now, in this moment?”
Antonette Liao, Critical Issues Summit: Gender Equality, 2019
Read her full story: Finding Ease in the Unknown.
Twenty-five students attended the Summit on a full scholarship, selected from nearly 300 applicants across 39 countries. You can meet the full scholarship class, see the Summit itinerary, curriculum, and resident experts, or read how we measure what students carry home from programs like this in our Student Impact Evaluation.
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