In a short week, IELC X2020 has got close to the end before I knew it. Due to the special situation of the epidemic this year, the event was different from that of previous years, adopting the mode of an online meeting, which made the daily ZOOM video call particularly precious. What I benefited the most from this event was the friendship with students from different countries. Even though the six members in our group were in different time zones, our discussion in the chat group was warm from birthdays, horoscopes, hobbies, to cities where we live, interesting things happening around... I felt we were so close to each other at this moment.

Five of my teammates have different charms: Thomas, who comes from the United States, was not only the leader but also the first person I met in the random group discussions. He was warm and enthusiastic. When I didn't understand the tasks or had some communication difficulties, he was always the first one to help me. His contribution to the group made him a reliable leader in my mind. Niamt from Morocco was a smart girl. Her words always enlightened us in design thinking, which made a great contribution to our final product design. Emiliano from Mexico was a humorous person and brought me joy when we felt stressed to complete the task. He often shared his life photos with us and even showed his favorite dance confidently in front of the camera. Mary and Katherine were quiet, responsible, dependable girls who kept our team on task. In addition to meeting new people, I also felt that the possibilities of being young were limitless. Everyone is responsible, creative, and enthusiastic to contribute to the environmental problems that the world is facing today. IELC is not only a simple meeting to me, but also a stage for young people from all over the world to speak, perform, and communicate.

———————— Xu Yifan

　　Due to the epidemic, more and more activities will be held online, so this IELCX is destined to be a new form of communication. Facing students from all continents of the world, even if I had prepared in advance, I was still a little bit nervous, apart from excitement, while sitting in front of the computer in formal clothing. As soon as I entered the online meeting room, the full screen of greetings made me realize their passion immediately. I realized that every student attending the conference was excited and open-minded to communicate with peers from different cultures. At the same time, the various interesting online games and group interactions arranged by the teachers had gradually made us familiar with each other. During the interaction, every delegate shared interesting customs and cultures in their respective countries, which broadened their horizons and deepened the relationship between us. After that, the meeting entered the theme to discuss environmental problems on a global scale, to propose solutions based on the problems, and finally to design the product. Every student can put forward unique insights, and I have benefited a lot from the exchange of ideas. Under the guidance of the teacher, our way of thinking has changed from a designer's perspective to a user's perspective, so that we can focus more on the practicability of the product. As the teacher said, we have been underestimating our creativity and imagination. When we think about problems from multiple angles and "free ourselves", we can often make unexpected discoveries. Time is like water, a week, from the initial acquaintance to the final product display. What we gain is not only knowledge but also a global perspective, and of course friends from different countries.

———————— Wu Zhuolun

Putting my computer in my backpack, taking my backpack, holding an umbrella, meeting my classmates in school during the 3rd day of the National Holiday, I was surely amazed by the experience. I remembered the first time to connect to Zoom. Everybody sat in the same medium meeting room and talked so excitedly to foreign friends that even tremendously interrupted each other. It was really funny that after the first meeting, we quickly “abandoned” our Chinese friends and swore to sit separately to connect to the meeting.

The first time one-on-one chat for students was to share a story with the partner. By accident, I got to talk with the only teacher in this activity, Mr. Lennard from Ghana. We talked casually about games to build a common sense, and then I got to know the COVID-19 in Ghana was serious so that they were still learning remotely. The conference inspired us with a new thinking method, Design Thinking, which was to have the empathy of the victims of the problem by imagining a real story and person to greatly improve the solution to be more successful and user-friendly. Students from nine countries were randomly assigned into nine different groups to solve the environmental problems from various countries by using Design Thinking. I was very lucky to be assigned to Group Nine: intensive livestock farming in Italy.

My team members are all very friendly and fabulous: Adri from France is very talkative, straightforward and insightful to consider herself themselves; Cecilia from Italy is very quiet, cute, and responsible to speak out when she is needed and translate a lot of articles to help the whole group dig deeper into the problem; Rodrigo from Italy is very experienced and creative to come up with the prototype of our final product: baebaealgae (ultrasonic algae cleaner powered by solar energy); Sophia from America is very proactive and cooperative to always try to integrate everyone’s idea into one and become a “yes, and” master; Daniyar from Kazakhstan is wordless but very caring with great programming skills; Rali from Morocco is very kind and artistic to design the visualize of the final product. Everyone only needs to take care of their task and cooperate with others, and then our group would finish all the group work outstandingly.

A week is short but long enough to make intimate friends. The best part of the conference was to make friends from diverse countries, comprehend more about other countries, and get a sense of connectedness from the global perspective. Although it was a huge pity that we were unable to participate in the live conference, it was amazing to hold the conference online successfully.  It would become one of the unforgettable memories of my life. If there’s a chance for you, the reader, to participate in the activity in the future, the chance is definitely worth your time and energy, and don’t miss it!

———————— Wang Jingjing

My group’s topic is how to provide a feasible solution to California’s wildfire. It is known that wildfires used to occur on their own in nature.However, it has intensified to a much larger scale in recent years , resulting from human causes,which not only threats human lives but also destroys natural habitats of plants and animals. My group is composed of Betty and Emily from the US, Victor from France, Saania from Ghana, Tommy from Spain, Dilnaz from Kazakhstan, and me from China. Because of the huge difference in environment,culture and education background, our ideas varied a lot in the very beginning. However,our group discussion was also benefit from it . Through brainstorming, we came up with many distinct thoughts.We combined ideas and eventually created a robot prototype, Amber.Amber can be deployed into forest areas to help firefighters with their work and send signals to warn adjacent residents.

It was very joyful to see how our design thinking process worked out, which also enriched my insight about discovery learning. We also used Instagram Direct to share our ideas and work assignment, which was a new experience for me.

———————— Liu Zhenghao

In this one-week activity, what I was most impressed with was cooperation and mutual understanding. Of course, the cultural differences behind each member are fascinating: Like high school students in America, their school time is from 8 A.M. to 3 P.M.. And student can apportion the rest of time to academic study or extra curriculum as they want. people in Mexico and Morocco consider Corona virus as a FLU, not as critical as we believe. In the team work, no matter how our English is, we all expressed their ideas actively without any embarrassment. If someone’s devices or internet didn’t work, he or she could receive “Never mind” with a smile and patience to wait. Everyone did what he or she was supposed to do. Through a week, we changed from stranger to friendly teammate fighting for the same. This amazing chemical reaction is unforgettable.

———————— Liu Shen

Friendship Through Network

Although IELCX has taught me so many skills that I could take advantage of for the rest of my life, what touches me the most deeply is the lovely and delightful smiles from my team members. Yasmine, a Russian “Queen” in our team, always embraced us every meeting with a sweetest smile and “hi, my beautiful”. Thanks to the delightful atmosphere she brought to our “room”, even the “nerdiest” American saxophonist, Chase Conquest, joined our chitchat and even told us all kinds of his awkward moments during school time. Of course, I cannot forget about Santiago del Castillo, the Wikipedia in our team, who has the ability to send us several links leading to information that we need every day. Despite the fact that he is the “councilor” for our presentation, he is also the kind who cares for the others. For instance, during Saturday, the meeting would last from eight at night until midnight here in China so that I had well-prepared with coffee by my side and was full of faith in fighting until the sunrise. However, as soon as I went to the separate room to work on the presentation with my group members, Santiago said “Penelope, I know it is very late in China. Go get some sleep if you want, we can take care of this presentation.” I was astonished that he even remembers the time zone here in China but also felt extremely pleased when he said this. “No, I have been preparing for this for days. I don’t want to waste my coffee.” Even though I was indeed tired by then, my energy suddenly woke up by his thoughtfulness. And as for me, I was a little bit introvert at the beginning of our meeting. But soon, the shyness within me melted by Jasmine’s smile, Chase’s funny little jokes, and Santiago’s warmth. I then, revealed my true nature and even became the “executioner” and DJ player of the team. Although the rest of the three girls, Regan from America, Anna from Italy, and Carla from Spain, are all shy by nature and often muted themselves. On the last day of our conference, they joined us and joked around with the group. If I have to admit one point that I feel disappointed about this conference, then it must be the inability to meet my group members in reality. Hopefully one day in the future, we could have the opportunity to reunite again somewhere in one corner of the world.

———————— Jiang Yiqing