By Vicky Wong
Vicky Wong who originally heralds from Hong Kong, was born and raised in South East London, England, and is a second year Politics and International Relations student at the University of Reading. Having caught the travel bug in the summer of 2008 during a World Challenge expedition to China and Vietnam, she went on to find more opportunities to go abroad and eventually stumbled upon the 19th IYLC, which she now cites as a life-changing experience. Outside her degree, Wong is also a musician (playing both violin and piano), a journalist for her university newspaper, and also enjoys learning to speak several languages including Mandarin, Cantonese, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Russian.

The annual International Youth Leadership Conference brings together a diverse group of young people from all over the world. United by the questions that even the leaders of today cannot answer, these fledgling leaders come together to participate in a weeklong forum in the backdrop of Prague, where they learn and challenge ideas of justice, culture, international decorum, and leadership. Including a series of workshops, presentations and simulations, the IYLC promises and guarantees its participants that they will not only leave with a new base of knowledge, but a collection of memories and friendship circles that arch across the world. With at least 100 participants of over 30 different countries, the cultural interchange of ideas is what makes the conference markedly different to any classroom environment or school.

Simulations in the conference take the form of a UN Security Council meeting, an International Criminal Court Pre-Trial and a European Parliament session. The UN Security Council simulation pits group members against each other in a discussion over pressing and complex international issues such as nuclear proliferation, human rights and so on. But whilst proving the difficulty of coming to an international consensus, it also demonstrates the recognition by all for international co-operation, and how sometimes, decisions need time to materialize.

The International Criminal Court Simulation demonstrates how the justice system works, how humanitarian issues are a lot more complex than what they appear at face value,  how lawyers (as leaders of justice) must have nerves of steel in order to think quickly to defend their cause, but also illustrates how even a criminal can escape unscathed from the justice system. The run-up to the European Parliament session provides participants with a medium to vent their creative capabilities through lobbying and campaigning, but also proves that even at an international level, co-operation is still possible, and that even a leader needs a strong team to help them. The conference encourages individuals to pursue the best that they can be through responsible, caring, pragmatic and wise leadership, and inspires participants that in order to become a leader, one must first understand themselves and other cultures, making the IYLC the ideal medium through which to do so.

The objective of the conference is to encourage individuals to challenge themselves by testing themselves in an environment alien to them; an experience which becomes both daunting and exciting. At the same time, the IYLC perfectly epitomises the “work hard play hard” ethic, as all participants, facilitators and observers display both a serious professionalism combined with sharp wit and humour when approaching the simulations, and ultimately becoming a fun educational experience.

Other events in the conference include embassy visits, a culture night, and regional talks; all of which display the importance of culture to people, of the importance of transatlantic relationships and of the confident pride and determination of nations to make a difference in the world. What the IYLC has proven is that in order to become a strong leader, they need mental strength, a caring nature, an empathy and understanding for others regardless of culture, a passion for what is right and an unshakeable bravery.