This summer, I had the opportunity to travel to the Netherlands to participate in an International Baccalaureate Student Conference at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. I have wanted to travel outside the United States for quite some time now, so I decided to arrive in the Netherlands a few days before the conference in order to do some sightseeing by myself.

The Netherlands is a very tourist friendly country and I had very little trouble operating independently for the few days I was solo. In that time I saw the sites of Amsterdam, stumbled across the filming of a Dutch television show, biked through several World War Two battlefields and kayaked through the canals of Utrecht with another IB student from Vancouver.

The conference itself was also incredibly interesting. This year's theme was “Vital Cities and Vital Citizen” and was focused on brainstorming and designing cities of the future that will benefit everyone in society.

The conference included speakers from the University, field trips, creative sessions, workshops and much more. The whole thing is very well planned and organized and is a great way to meet people from all over the world in a somewhat familiar setting. There were people from all over the world at the conference. The largest contingents were from Mexico, Texas and California. There was one other student from Minnesota, but everyone there was very open and IB does a good job of mixing the groups in such a way where it’s easy to meet new people.

There are three conferences that take place every summer in locations all over the world. If you are interested, you can check out the website that IB has set up for this program. These conferences are only available to 11th grade students who are working towards the full IB Diploma. Scholarships are also available for students through several local IB organizations if you apply early in the year.

I would highly recommend this opportunity to every student in the IB Diploma program, especially those that are interested in seeing the world in an accessible and comparatively affordable way. If you have any questions feel free to email me at carn1901@gmail.com.