Hersheyth Aggarwal traveled to South Korea to attended the URI Korea Youth Peace Camp alongside URI young leaders from around the world. Hersheyth invites us into his experience by sharing his reflections:
The URI Youth Peace Camp in Korea was an amazing experience. The focus of the camp was to discuss the concept of global citizenship and learn about Korean culture. The first couple of days in the camp we went to the Sea of Japan and saw Naksana Temple, the border, and a Korean War Memorial museum. Then we returned to Seoul where we visited the Korean National Museum, a Won Buddhist Temple, a Mormon Temple, and a Cathedral. Almost every day we also broke up into discussion groups in the evening and each discussion group made a presentation to show on the final day.
The goal of the presentations was to describe how, as future leaders, we can promote peace and global citizenship. In my group, we created a movie to illustrate simple ways we can make our society more peaceful. In the first clip, two people are having an argument in a store but they cannot understand one another because they speak different languages. To resolve the conflict, someone who knows both languages clears up the misunderstanding. In another clip, at a party, one person is trying to force his Muslim friend to drink alcohol and does not understand the reason he refuses. So, a hero comes and explains that, in general, most Muslims consider alcohol as taboo. I wanted to highlight how knowledge of different languages, cultures, and customs are crucial to clear up misunderstandings and promote peace.
