Victorian Young Leaders to China: pre-departure camp

Counting down to an experience of a lifetime

On August 31, a group of Northcote High students adventuring on the Victorian Young Leaders to China program went to the Kwong Lee Dow building at Melbourne University to meet with our other classmates and schools in the VYLC program. The day consisted of many announcements and introductions as well as two workshops. One was hosted by the Department of Education and the other by a company called High Resolves who try to come up with new ideas to make the world a better place. We then had the opportunity to organise an excursion to the CBD with our school. Northcote decided to go to Melbourne Central and then Treasury Gardens where we ate ice cream together. As a group we all bonded. After that, we returned to Ibis Hotel where we ate dinner and went to our rooms and all talked in the hallway. The next morning, we returned to the Kwong Lee Dow building to continue through more speeches a Chinese test and then we got to interact with people from the other schools by getting put it into groups. Each group was given a topic and we had to make a poster on it, these topics ranged from Social media in China and what to do when you go to homestays. After lunch we all took a walk to University Square. At University Square we read the code of conduct for our dormitories in China and had to make a play and get each other group to guess what rule it was. It was a great experience and we all got closer as a group and got to meet new people. Now we are all so excited to go to China in November!

Izzie H – Year 9 Young Leader

To start the day off we went to the university building it was held at. We were then introduced to all the teachers and executives running the program. This was our first glance at all the other students on the program. We then went through the bulk of the day learning about Chinese culture and diversity. We ended the day off with the CBD adventure which was a great opportunity to socialise with the people from my school group who I wasn’t as familiar with. We had dinner at our hotel. The next day begun with a lovely test at the ripe hour of 8 in the morning. It then moved onto a couple more workshops said our goodbyes and headed home. Overall it was a really great experience and really gave me a much better idea what to expect when do finally go to China.

Zach W-K – Year 9 Young Leader

In exactly 7 weeks, just under 20 of us Northcote High year 9 students will be embarking on a new and exciting journey. After a weekend of preparing ourselves for what to say and not to say when in China, and learning about the fascinating culture, we are all eagerly awaiting the 2nd of November. During our first two weeks in China we will be staying in Beijing at the Beijing Language and Cultural University, where we will be participating in language classes and visiting cultural attractions i.e. The Great Wall, The Summer Palace, The Forbidden City and more. Then we will be heading to Shanghai for three and a bit weeks, where we are staying at the Shanghai Foreign Languages School, taking language classes, visiting a local school, going on home visits and even more. We all cannot wait to plunge into this once in a lifetime experience and look forward to it so much.

Alicia C– Year 9 Young Leader