With 30 international delegations from around the world, the Loudoun International Youth Leadership Summit holds its eighth annual summit

This year, the Global Ambassadors team is hosting the Loudoun International Youth Leadership Summit (LIYLS), where they will gather people from around the world in Loudoun County to discuss issues occurring throughout the world such as climate change. The 10-day summit will last from March 31 to April 9. The goal of this summit is to give students an opportunity to interact with and view the perspectives of people from different countries.

Junior Brigitte Ileyv, Global Ambassadors, hopes to learn more about the ways students from different countries view problems facing the world.

“[LIYLS] is great because it makes you realize that even though everyone is from a different country, you’re not that different from each other. It’s really eye opening because you can learn things about other countries and people that you wouldn’t normally think about,” said IIeyv.

Not only does it take almost a year to prepare for the event, but the cost of LIYLS can be expensive. To prepare for the funds, Global Ambassadors fundraises as much as possible through bake sales, spirit nights at sky zone, popcorn sales, and flower sales.

Junior Jeremy Kazmi, Global Ambassadors, raises money for the funds by selling flowers during his lunch shifts. He is also hosting a student from the Netherlands named Robin Nazareno.

“I’m hosting because it’s fun being able to interact with a person from another country. Overall, it’s fun sometimes. [I believe that] global ambassadors is a unique club because it allows students to be able to develop a deeper understanding of the world around them,” said Kazmi.

In order to prepare to host someone from a foreign country, hosts talk to the foreign exchange student that they will be hosting months before the event in order to get to know the person before they begin to live under their roof.

Senior Kim Snyder has been hosting international students for two years. Her first year, she hosted two students from South Korea and Norway. Last year, she hosted two students from Norway and the Netherlands.

“It’s really exciting [having a student live under her roof]. It’s kind of intimidating at first because they have different experiences and they know more about certain things than we do, but it’s really fun. I think overall, it’s exciting.

Besides discussing issues concerning the world, the summit also gives students the opportunity of coming up with solutions to deal with issues such as mental health awareness.

Junior Fatima Awan, the social media manager for Global Ambassadors who has been a member of the club for two years, hopes to engage in discussions concerning the world and finding plans to solve the issues.

“It’s an amazing feeling, especially when we manage to get all in one room. It’s all the joy and curiosity that really makes me want to continue with this summit,” said Awan.