By Stefania Felicia, YES 2017-18 Indonesia, hosted with AFS in Indianola, WA

A few weeks ago, 27 people from different backgrounds gathered in the same room and everything changed.

This moment happened during the three-day Better Understanding for a Better World (BUBW) Conference I attended in Orlando, Florida. BUBW is an annual conference conducted by Civilizations Exchange and Cooperation Foundation. It gives American and international high school students from diverse backgrounds the chance to meet each other and work together on leadership-building, interfaith and intercultural dialogue. It was a great honor for me, and other exchange students from around the world, to be selected as a participant. The event included an International Youth Summit, group discussions, visits to various houses of worship to learn about different faith traditions, and presentations from all the countries and cultures represented.

I also highly appreciated the interfaith discussion and the visit to a church, synagogue, and mosque to speak with faith leaders and learn more about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. What I discovered was that all these religions have the same roots and have more commonalities than differences

I think we should have more conferences like this throughout the world, where students of all faiths and backgrounds can meet, talk with each other and collaborate on solutions to issues facing our communities. We have the power to spread peace in diversity. The only thing that matters is we are all human. I’m so grateful to the US State Department, CECF, and my placement organization, AFS-USA. Thank you for giving us this excellent opportunity.

In the end, I learned that we are the leaders of tomorrow. We built friendships together, learned about our different nations, cultures, and beliefs, and broke down lines that separated us. Being different is okay, it is valuable for society and shouldn’t be used as a reason to fight. With courage, intelligence, and this experience, we hope that we can change the world, for a better future among the beautiful diversity of people across the globe.

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(19/6) – Dengan slogan KEEP SCHOOL STAY COOL, X-presi party 2014 yang dilaksanakan pada tanggal 16-17 juni 2014 yang bertempat di Manado town square berhasil membakar semangat dan euforia pelajar yang berada di manado  khususnya sekolah kita yang tercinta SMA 9 MANADO, terbukti dari peserta-peserta yang antusias mengikuti lomba, diantaranya ada jurnalis, modeling, mading, speech competition, dan x-presi challenge. SMA 9 MANADO di tahun ini mengutus banyak peserta. Kemeriahan juga sangat dirasakan,apalagi dengan kedatangan artis kebanggaan ibu kota yaitu TULUS, ini tentu saja sangat membakar euforia sekolah kita yag tercinta ini. Dengan banyaknya kontribusi dari sekolah kita akhirnya sekolah kita SMA NEGERI 9 MANADO dapat meraih kembali gelar sebagai sekolah yang terbaik atau juara umum di ajang bergengsi untuk pelajar kota manado ini,dan sekolah kita juga meraih keberhasilan, diantaranya: Juara 2 modeling putra diraih oleh Virkinando Lengkey, Best social media act diraih oleh Nadine Voges, Juara 1 mading diraih oleh tim  mading Binsus all star, Juara 1 jurnalis diraih oleh tim dari Acnaf djamal, dan Almitra ointoe, dan Best photographer diraih oleh Rejeane Kalatiku,dan Juara 1 X-presi challenge diraih oleh Bryan Rengkung, Febrian Malomba dan Haratdzul Jushar.

Dengan banyaknya prestasi yang dicapai,diharapkan SMA NEGERI 9 MANADO dapat mempertahankan bahkan meningkatkan prestasi yang ada. WE ARE PROUD TO BE BINIX MANADO.

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