By Alec Lautanen
Opinion Editor
Travelling abroad is an exciting experience for any student, but Mira Costa junior Adam Gerard took his vacation a step further by participating in the Korea Council of Overseas Schools’ annual International Education Conference.
Gerard served as the lead of three keynote speakers at the conference, and spent 7 days in South Korea talking to international students about youth leadership and Tree Musketeers, a local environmental organization that Gerard is youth director of.
“It went beyond Tree Musketeers because I wanted to give them the chance to make their own organization as well,” Gerard said. “Whether it was something similar and environmental or not, we just wanted to give them the chance to become leaders and make their own types of organizations.”
The KORCOS conference, which took place from March 5 to March 10, was held in Incheon, South Korea. During the week, Gerard travelled around the country, speaking to local Korean students about youth leadership and Tree Musketeers.
“That was the first speech I ever gave where the students asked for my autograph after the speech,” Gerard said. “I had no idea they’d want something like that, I actually ripped up my speech and signed the back of it for them.”
Gerard also got the opportunity to have dinner with Incheon Mayor Song Young-gil and introduce him to Tree Musketeers and other environmental programs.
“I got to tell him a little bit about Tree Musketeers and then the students there and I planted a tree,” Gerard said. “[Tree Musketeers] has never been to Korea, but we’ve communicated with students there, so it was great to actually represent the organization in person.”
Chadwick International School Director of Admissions Soleiman Dias invited Gerard to become involved with the conference. Dias taught an International Affairs summer course at Johns Hopkins University’s Centers for Talented Youth program, in which Gerard was a student.
“Dias is actually working on translating Tree Musketeers’ book, Marcy the Marvelous Tree, into Portuguese so I may be going to Brazil to speak to schools as well,” Gerard said. “Another teacher at the conference is moving the Middle East soon, I could also get the chance to speak in Qatar.”
Along with his speech at KORCOS’s International Education Conference, Gerard has also served as a panelist for the Los Angeles’ Environmental Youth Conference and a member of Manhattan Beach’s Environmental Task Force Climate Action Subcommittee.
At Mira Costa, Gerard is president of Tree Musketeer’s Partners for the Planet Club as well as an officer of Young Democrats club and an active member of Costa’s Model United Nations program.
“Having Adam discuss leadership to this group of select Korean students showed them opportunities for youth leadership and how kids can serve in a leadership position at any age,” said Marc Gerard, Adam’s father. “I believe this inspired the students since a number have already began making Partners for the Planet clubs at their schools.”
“I definitely plan on going back to South Korea for the follow-up conference in 2014,” Gerard said. “It’s a great program and I really enjoyed being involved with it.”
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