International Day is a traditional event that occurs every year at Zhuhai International School (ZIS), which is my current school. Due to the “international” nature of my school, the ZIS community is culturally diverse, and it is only right that everyone gets a chance to display the unique traits of their nation and celebrate their country. International Day provides such an opportunity, for it is a day where representatives from all nationalities constituting our school are invited to show-off their country on campus, so that the entire ZIS community may learn about and enjoy the special traits of each nation.

Obviously, International Day is quite important for the school, because it is an event where the values of ZIS are showcased. Furthermore, the ZIS community and any friends of the school, including those not employed or enrolled in the school, are cordially invited to the event. This results in the event hosting up to 500 guests every year, making International Day one of the biggest events at ZIS.

Naturally an event of this size would be organized by the school, and that has been the case for 12 years. However, this year, the event was to be organized by students, and not just by any class, but by my class. I was chosen to be the leader of a small 6-person team that would spearhead the organization of the event, while the rest of the class and any volunteers from the school helped set up the event in the way that we envision it. After we were given the task, the next few months became some of the busiest in my life, and surely some of the busiest in the lives of my teammates too.

To begin with, the six of us brainstormed and settled a theme for the event, for in past years there never was an overall theme that underlied the event. After that, we had to contact leaders of all of the nationalities of our school, and inform them of the event we were organizing. We asked them if they would design and organize their own booths or tents in representation of they country, and almost 20 countries answered our call and agreed to help. At that point, we knew this event was going to be a big and fun one.

At the opening ceremony, event attenders and representatives alike came to enjoy the festives.

This year, we also wanted an opening ceremony, for in past years there rarely was one and even if we had one it was kinda boring. This year, we wanted a short but exciting opening ceremony that would showcase the countries that had taken part of the event, and that was difficult to organize but I think we did alright.

After the opening ceremony, we decided to parade around the front track of the school with each country holding up banners depicting their nation. This had always been an International Day tradition, and so we decided to keep this part of the event the same as always:

Team America walking down the track.

After all of that, everyone was given time to visit each tent or booth of the different countries in order to collect stamps for the "Around the World in 80 Minutes" challenge, which was derived from the book and event theme Around the World in 80 Days, by Jules Verne.

Cover of the booklet I designed for the "Around the World in 80 Minutes" challenge. We got these printed and gave everyone at the event one so they could try the challenge and get the prizes at the end if they succeeded.

The entire event was very busy and yet chill at the same time, with people chatting, playing sports, having fun, and just enjoying the beautiful day in general. It was an incredibly successful endeavor, and certainly one of the proudest products of my life.