On 6 March 2024, a delegation of Garneau students travelled to Upper Canada College to attend the World Affairs Conference (WAC). The World Affairs Conference is an annual student-run conference featuring a variety of speakers that discusses current events. It was organized by students from Branksome Hall and Upper Canada College, who have spent months putting together the event. It encourages students to engage in open dialogue with each other and be informed.

Students attending the conference were excited to learn about global affairs. Many of them were heavily involved in Model UN club and other clubs centered around international affairs. As grade 11 attendee Grace Zhu said, “I was very excited to attend and I was interested in the discussion topics around technology and global sustainability.”

This year, Masai Ujiri, President of the Toronto Raptors,opened the conference by discussing the importance of providing conference opportunities to youth to help them engage in open dialogue with respect. The conference featured speakers from politicians to entrepreneurs. Speakers included Bob Rae, Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations; Esko Aho, the former Prime Minister of Finland; and Francisco Sagasti, the former President of Peru. The conference also invited speakers in the technology field, including Alex Cui (Chief Technology Officer at GPTZero) and Roberta Bondar (Canada’s first female astronaut in space). Numerous talks were centered around emerging technologies and promoting sustainability.

Students were given the opportunity to listen to various leaders in government, diplomacy, healthcare, and technology and were given the opportunity to ask questions in those sessions. As Grade 10 attendee Hiba Abassi put it, “the speakers were excellent. All the sessions were extremely informative and engaging. My favourite was Hudson Sullivan’s session on TikTok.”

In the future, Garneau students will hopefully return to the conference annually. Students who are interested in global affairs may explore their interests through Model UN or Debate Club. Both of these clubs offer many lunch activities as well as opportunities to compete in national competitions.