From Ambassador Leaders Summit at Harvard to an international conference in South Africa
A note from Ambassador Leaders: Anannyabrata is one of our alumni students from Côte d'Ivoire in Africa. He attended the Summit at Harvard in 2016 with a group from his school, Morning Glory International School. This is his story:
I was part of the Ambassadors Leaders Summit at Harvard University and it was truly an eye-opening moment. There are several positive ways in which this program has impacted me, and it has influenced many of the actions I am taking right now.
I was in a widely diverse group, with members coming from various backgrounds, continents, cultures, beliefs, financial situations and languages. I got to learn how to be an effective team leader in the process. Also, I gained confidence that physical barriers cannot prevent us from doing something, as long as we believe in our abilities and conquer our mind.
"The Ambassadors Leaders Summit has taught me the meaning of true leadership – you are as good a leader as your team."
The best part of Ambassadors Leaders Summit was the inspiration I got for community work. Our education and life will remain empty if we cannot contribute to the betterment of our community. We must make every place, society, or community better and thereby make our world as a whole, a better place to live. After returning to my country, Côte d’Ivoire, I decided to take part in charity actions more actively than ever before. Every quarter of the year, I collect donations, food materials, clothes, and other basic necessities for orphans whose parents have died from HIV/AIDS.
The following year, in 2017, I was selected for an assignment to develop a plan for Kenya and Africa as a whole, in the science and technology field to be used as future agenda in the Model African Union Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. The task was to find ways to develop entrepreneurship and science in our nations. The suggestions and solutions I presented were well received and ultimately, helped me win the “Best Delegate” award.
Since the Summit, I have been working on a project for harvesting clean drinking water from the air, under the guidance of the Founder & Director of my school. In Africa, especially in the Sub-Saharan countries, getting clean drinking water is a big challenge. While clean drinking water can help the population of our region to overcome many waterborne diseases, availability is negligible and bottled water is not affordable for impoverished people in this zone. We are trying to set up a system in which these people can get clean drinking water at no cost.
I also took part in initiatives to grow completely organic crops in our school and to establish an Environmental Club in our school to keep the environment in the community near our school clean and hygienic. We have even taken up a beautification plan for the local botanical garden.
In short, the Ambassadors Leaders Summit has helped me become a better individual, team member, and most importantly, a better team leader than ever before. The skills and experience that I have gathered from the Summit are precious and I will continuously work on it, in order to become the type of person I aspire to be.
By Anannyabrata Mandal
Anannyabrata is an alum of the 2016 Ambassador Leadership Summit at Harvard University.