Empowering Tomorrow's Leaders: DMECC Youth Summit 2024

On September 21, DMECC hosted the Youth Summit at Dalian American International School and Dalian Huamei School, welcoming students from Grade 7 to Grade 11 across Dalian and nearby regions.

DMECC is a youth-led service learning Social Enterprise focused on empowering teens to develop their leadership abilities through volunteerism. The organization provides teens with the opportunity to become mentor of primary school children, who lack adequate access to education, thereby fostering a sense of responsibility and community engagement among the youth.

The summit focused on helping young leaders develop essential skills for navigating a rapidly changing world characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). Through interactive sessions, students explored topics such as leadership, teamwork, conflict resolution, and public speaking. They walked away with practical tips on getting ready for internships, building up their resumes, and using their leadership skills to make a real difference in their communities.

How did it go? Let’s ask the student attendees and the DMECC leaders who organized the Summit!

Dennis Luo, DAIS Grade 10, DMECC Program Leader: "For me, leading the Youth Summit was both a challenging and rewarding experience. Stepping outside my comfort zone and presenting had startled me at first, but they actually turned out to be fun and interesting on the day of the summit (l especially enjoyed the audience interactions).

Though I was initially a bit frightened, overcoming these "challenges" gave me a genuine feeling of accomplishment - like winning a game - that I found impossible to describe completely with words but was deeply motivated by it. As we all may know, skills are shaped and strengthened through practice, The Youth Summit offered me a great opportunity to challenge and improve myself."

Lucas Barretto, DAIS Alumnus, DMECC Global Ambassador: "Hosting the 2024 level one Youth summit was truly a remarkable experience. As this was my first time leading a full-day event for DMECC, it challenged my skills in new ways and taught me very useful lessons. My team of youth ambassadors and executives worked tirelessly for this event, and I greatly appreciate the work they put in to create such a comprehensive event for our new mentors and attendees of the youth summit.

Being able to observe high school students as a recent graduate, challenge themselves in new ways, showing the initiative to come up with innovative solutions for programs and world issues strongly points to the great potential of youth. Furthermore, as an alumnus, understanding the future of DMECC will be left in good hands. Overall, it was a very inspiring experience and I’m excited to facilitate more of these events in the future for the next generation of the mentors."

Curtis Yang, DHS Grade 10, Summit Photographer: "Hi guys, I’m Curtis, a 10th-grade member of the Student Government, and I served as the photographer for this year’s Youth Summit. During my five years at DAIS, I have gained a lot of experience, and this summit helped me realize the importance of teamwork even more. As a photographer, I not only had to capture every great moment, but I also had to work closely with other team members to ensure everything went smoothly.

Through this event, I learned new ways to solve problems, such as making quick and effective decisions under tight time limits. This experience made us understand how crucial cooperation and communication are to successfully running an event."

Dennis Luo: "I think the event went very well overall. I really appreciated the NGO and SDG presentations. Each team was able to produce wonderful and insightful contents under limited time. The teamwork was fascinating. And lastly, thanks to everyone who had participated, led, and helped during the event; it was a wonderful learning experience!"

Curtis Yang: "Once again, congratulations on the success of the summit!"