by Shruti Chandrasekhar
Some smile, a few wave, a couple greet with one kiss, others two, occasionally three -polite civility, grace and the critical eye configure the room. The scene: YES July 2003 35 young people from 24 countries A little village in the Swiss Alps One common goal
- A Sustainable Future.
The Youth Encounter on Sustainability, better known as YES, is organized by the AGS in its effort to increase sustainability education. YES is a two week seminar for students from across world to come together and dip their feet in sustainability and help take it further.
I had the privilege of attending the YES in July this year where we had 35 students from 25 different countries as far wide as Fiji and Costa Rica to Switzerland and Germany. The students were not only diverse in their national identities but also in their fields of study, their areas of interest and their experience. This definitely made the two weeks that much richer as YES is a very discussion oriented seminar.
The seminar was sub-divided into modules with a two-day focus on each module. Along with these modules we jointly worked on projects through the course of our two weeks producing papers and presentations which were the final garnish to the seminar. The modules were discussion and team-work oriented. This kept the course interactive, encouraging equal participation from professors, facilitators and students alike. The modules we had concentrated on social issues, energy & climate, food & water and technology. The diverse selection of modules tried to accommodate the participants’ interests. As an electrical engineering student, the energy module most appealed to me. One the first day of the module we would be given a cursory introduction to the field, this would be followed with one or two group activities that day. The following day would invariably consist of some form of a field trip and perhaps one group activity if time permit. A module running for two days would generally follow such a structure.
The dialogues that the group activities elicited were eye-opening ever so often. I definitely learnt a lot from them. A discussion on energy efficiency was near perfect, water privatization led to an extremely heated debate leading to some friction, debating parts of the agenda 21 showed us the different interests of people with different backgrounds, varied academic interests and so forth, analyzing Vivendi’s annual reports brought out the professionals in us – the list is endless. The field trips were oodles of fun. We visited a dam and toured the hydro-electric power plant which was all the more fascinating as we had to walk through a three kilometer long tunnel in the Alps to get to the dam. Being as diverse a group as we were did not limit our attention to local issues -an afternoon at the state legislative house, a hike to an alpine farm, added the local flavor to the seminar while keeping the global touch.
Alongside the modules, we worked on group projects. We were given the option of working on one of the following four topics – Sustainable Product Design, MBTA contamination of groundwater, Chemical weapons control and elimination, and the relation between war, peace and sustainability. Both in-depth and comprehensive, the quality of the final papers and presentations on all the topics was beyond my expectations. I appreciated and enjoyed the thought and work that led to the formation of the ideas in the paper.
Besides these technical details, being located in the Swiss Alps brought a whole new dimension to the program. We were located in Braunwald, a little village two hours away from Zurich, where no fuel-run vehicles are used. The forms of transport are either electric or human-empowered. Their energy used for other purposes is predominantly hydro-electric. Looking at and living in such a comfortable, sustainable community did have its impact.
The seminar was organized really well keeping time for work, play and rest, which made the experience a lot of fun. Above all, living for two weeks with people from 25 different countries and spending all my wake-hours with them made the seminar incredible. Understanding different personalities, customs and traditions and trying to explain your lifestyle to someone as different from you as you can get made many a memorable moment. Above all the ties and friendships that developed in those two intense weeks leave a beautiful picture in my mind. At the close of those two enriching weeks, tears, hugs, “keep in touch”, “ciao”, “tschuss”, dotted the air as we set out as more developed individuals on our journey towards a better world
Wed, Sep 3, 2003
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