Armed with our metro cards, we boarded the subway and headed for Ketchum Public Relations. For someone who has never boarded the subway, the trains got me fascinated for a while. We had breakfast at Ketchum too. As we gobbled down our bagels, yogurt and breakfast cereals in a meeting room, we listened to the Ketchum Team delivering an introduction of the stuff they do as well as an overview of what we’re going to learn for the day.

The GTLs were divided into 3 groups.  We first headed down to another conference room to learn about marketing and branding from Ray Edmondson. Similar to the previous day, we were exposed to both traditional and social forms of media and the presenter gave us ideas on how we could promote and spread news regarding our project to our target audience.

Lunch was mainly pizza – really delicious pizza, though it turned out to be really unfriendly to my tummy later. We headed to our next venue to learn more about developing our creative thinking abilities and without doubt, the presenter, Marc Levy, turned out to be a creative, unconventional dude. His style of presenting, frankness, and even his personality totally made our day. Almost all the GTLs concurred that his talk was awesome and we enjoyed the content he delivered. He also proved us wrong when some of us told him we couldn’t be creative. There were some thought-provoking moments and tips to develop our creativity further.

Too much pizza hurts. The lunch I had earlier grew into a diarrhea after that fantastic talk. I lost count of the number of trips I made to the washroom for the rest of our time at Ketchum. Because of my diarrhea, I missed the third session too, which was quite a pity because that session was probably supposed to be the biggest takeaway for the GTLs at Ketchum. Apart from me, each GTL was given advice on how to structure his or her project stories and took part in an interview role-play. Each interview was videotaped and reviewed by the host, Tom Barritt, who also gave additional feedback to each GTL. My stomach became slightly better after taking a couple of pills provided by WAFF members. They were really caring too and I felt not just grateful but guilty for not spending time more fruitfully at Ketchum too.

At the end, all the GTLs gathered together in the main conference room again and each of us gave his or her 1 minute pitch to the audience. I was really afraid to give my pitch initially since I’ve always been the quiet, introverted type with a lack of eloquence, but the GTLs were a super encouraging family. After some positive urging by Jessica, I finally mustered enough courage to deliver a pitch that didn’t turn out to be too terrible as I thought. A round of applause and positive nods, thumps-up from Anna, Peshwas, Emily, Mama Kim, Ziyad and many others almost made me tear, because I’ve never been in such a friendly and non-judgmental group before the summit. This was a moment that didn’t need a camera or even written words to be recorded, because it was already captured by my heart for the next many decades of my life. I’ve never delivered a speech in front of a group of more than 10 people and I rarely speak up. This is a moment, however, that will continue to remind me to be more confident in facing an audience on top of being thankful towards my loving family.

At night, we travelled to Eyebeam and had a great time with the Tribeca Film Fellows. We split into groups again. Ben and I were grouped with a Film Fellow, Allegresse Omari. We shared about each other’s projects and Omari gave us tips on film-making for crafting our project’s PSA (public service announcement). We had Mexican food for dinner as we joked and gave each other feedback. I definitely love it when we chat and bond over food.

The trip back to the hotel seemed long but spending time together walking and taking the subway from one learning venue to another made some of us hope for a longer trip as we had an awesome time chatting, goofing and singing along the streets as we  journeyed together as a family.

We began the day with (really healthy) breakfast at the summit, an energizer, followed by another inspirational Mattie’s Message from Mama Peace. Later on, we brought along the photographs we printed last night and split into smaller groups and headed for our next workshop. It was about story-telling through photography, which taught us how photographs can help communicate the importance of our projects and evoke an emotional response to our stories. When used in tandem with words (or captions), a photograph can convey deeper understanding of its subject as well as create a sense of time, space and emotion to the viewer, who is transported to the world presented by that photograph during that short moment.

There was a mini photo contest too. Each GTL placed a copy of his/her best photograph that most strongly conveyed love on a table. We had a difficult time casting our votes using coloured marbles as there were many equally impressive shots. 

The verdict: Peshwas Farik Saaddon, from Kurdistan, was crowned the winner. He was awarded with one of Mr Voeten's photograph that was signed too. As for me, my photo didn’t score any votes, so it seems that I still have a really long to go as a beginner in photography, heh heh… :P 

In the afternoon, Mr Jamal Joseph, a writer, producer and director, treated us with a collection of narrative and documentary films made by him and his students. He also gave us a preview of some of the story-telling techniques used in films and documentaries, the use of music, the point of views of each subject in the film, captions, narration and other story-telling tools. Mr Joseph is part of the Panther 21 too, so we learned something about the Black Panther Party too.This was probably my most favourite session for the day, since I’m more of a visual learner and I prefer films and moving images to words. 

Another facilitator, Lisa Lucas, joined in to discuss about storyboarding and screened a few thought-provoking and powerful videos we could try making and incorporate into our own projects. The focus was mainly on short films and documentaries with a social message. Just like leaving a handprint on wet cement, films definitely have the power to leave an impression on their viewers when it comes to portraying social issues.

Next, Lisa as well as Natalie Warne from Invisible Children and 2011 – 2012 TEDxTeen’s speaker, shared with us about social media. We explored how stuff goes viral using social media platforms, one example being the KONY 2012 video that has shaken the world recently. We looked at various social media tools, from the overly-popular Facebook and Twitter to the less heard channels like Foursquare. 

We Are Family also invited three external speakers, Rachel Chong from Catchafire, Celeste Bottorff from Coca-Cola and Rose J.Flenorl to present to GTLs the benefits and challenges of partnerships from a grass-roots level to an international branding scale, as well as shared with us more about their organizations’ involvement in the non-profit sector and positive social change.

After a break, we had a workshop on action planning, something that wasn’t too taxing on me as I had already crafted a project proposal for my social project, ITEM (IT Empowering), before the summit. My involvement in the SPROUT e-course last year gave me the much needed experience in drafting my action plan too.

It was definitely a long day and all of us at the summit deserved a hearty dinner together.  That was (most probably) why the summit organizers invited Chef Don Pintabona, to cook us a scrumptous Italian dinner and share with us about his experience in cooking and using common meals to bond people together.  He also introduced us to his book, “The Shared Table: Cooking with Spirit for Family and Friends”. Best of all, he generously gave each GTL a copy of his book and even signed them all! Wow! A fabulous meal at a common table and a written treasure from the great chef was more than what I deserved. It was a beautiful way to complete the day. 

I had to wake up at 6 am in the morning with my roommate, Anna. My morning was initially filled with lethargy. Probably because that bed in the hotel was just too comfortable to get off. Fortunately, the summit organizers had an instant cure prepared for this – by kicking the day off with an “energizer”. In the summit, “energizers” are small warm-ups meant to freshen up the participants. All the youth leaders would gather in a circle and do an activity ranging from physical stretching exercises to playing word or action games. They’re hosted by Robert, who’s now my un-official bro. Energizers take place for 5 to 10 min at the start of each summit day, as well as after lunch and during breaks between each learning session or workshop.  After our energizer, (which also served as sort of an ice-breaker), setting some ground rules, goals & expectations (in a non-stressful way), Mamma Peace (aka Dr Jeni) read to us another of Mattie’s beautiful message of peace followed by an insight of her wisdom. During the summit sessions later, we had guest speakers Betty Cohen and Ann Cooper share with us more on the importance of story-telling and how we can convey our messages and project stories or works to our audience using the written word. After our lunch, we had a workshop on crafting our project statement and pitch convincingly using the written word too. Language isn’t my field, so I had to spend a long while trying to come up with something fluid or provocative. My workshop facilitator, Simon, (the founder of Global Tolerance) was really kind and gave me more-than-deserved help though.

The best was saved for the last. We had a professional war photographer, Teun Voeten, who brought some of his amazing works and shared about his experience shooting in war-zone countries. I would have liked him, but he gave us an unkind field assignment later on – to shoot a photo in the streets of Manhattan that best represents love. It doesn’t necessarily have to be romantic love though, but that was what came to everyone’s mind when we tried to capture images of love as we roamed Union Square and other streets near the summit venue. I wasn’t good with a camera, but this field assignment is more than just about getting a good shot. It taught me to be more observant to the seemingly minor yet beautiful details of my surroundings. At the same time, I had a great time bonding with my fellow GTLs during the photo walk. We laughed, praised and helped each other take shots. It was definitely a good way to make an assignment all the more fun.

We returned to the summit venue for dinner and printed out our best shots. We were all hungry but satisfied with our works. Without doubt, I ended up not liking Mr. Voeten. Instead, I loved and respected him all the more. All thanks to his love-themed homework for us. 

I finally got to meet more GTLs. Ashif from Bangladesh and Slater from Canada were the two I chatted with on Facebook prior to the summit and I was looking forward to seeing them in person. All of us were in our cocktail attires during the opening ceremony and everyone looked so gorgeous. I regretted not putting up makeup, but that’s not important. Each GTL and their project was introduced briefly to the audience and it was this moment that allowed me to peer into the lives of many other outstanding teens I’m going to learn from throughout the summit. It was the first day and we only got to learn about each other on surface level, but I’m sure we’ll be like siblings together towards the end of the summit.

The founder of We Are Family Foundation (WAFF), Neil Rodgers, and president, Nancy Hunt, gave really insightful speeches and their expectations of youth leaders too. I also love our host, Nick Stuart, an award-winning television host with a great sense of humor.

We also had a few amazing guest speakers during the ceremony. Among them was Dr Jeni Stepanek. She shared about the works of her prodigal son, Mattie, who was a poet, peace activist and philosopher who published a best-selling series of poetry and messages of peace called “Heartsongs” before dying from a muscular disease at the age of 13. His inspirational works are the bedrock of the Just Peace Summit too. Dr Jeni, or also fondly known as Mama Peace, would also become a wonderful support for the GTLs later on throughout the summit. She shared more about peace and her son’s life messages and challenges with us each morning.

Two other special guests, Molly Katchpole and Tara Suri, shared with us about social activism – an increasingly common phenomenon that’s shaping our world online. They introduced us to such a  platform known as change.org too. This really testifies the power of online mediums as tools for outreach, sharing, learning, revolution and whatever you name it. 

The opening ceremony had a perfect duration. It wasn’t long and draggy, and it wasn’t too short either. We were introduced to not just the GTLs, facilitators and the people who started it all, but also a picture of what the rest of the days in the summit would be like, warm welcomes and the reality of youth empowerment today. 

My journey from Singapore to New York was a rather long one –first  a 5.5hr plane ride to Beijing Capital Airport, followed by a 6 hr transit time before flying to New York for the next 14 hrs. It was my longest flight in my life. Fortunately, time flew alongside. It seemed like just a brief lapse of time when I finally landed. I was really excited for the summit and the environment around me – the airport, the car ride to the hotel and the streets just seemed so surreal… probably because it was my first time in the States. Previously, Asia was the only continent I’ve ever resided and travelled in. America is a different world and the people & culture in NYC offered a different kind of vibrancy and liveliness.

The summit only begins on the next day, and arriving a day earlier gave me the opportunity to wander around the nearby streets from the hotel with my roommate, Anna, from Russia. J As if New York wasn’t amazing enough, the nightlife and city lights transported visitors to a different level of dazzle. Didn’t buy much though – just a fruit juice from Starbucks. We headed back to the hotel within an hour. My roommate and I were both tired after our long plane rides to the States and our energy of anticipation for NYC and the summit could not sustain us further for the day.