Bangkok Prep beams as their students shine at an international school conference

Year 13 student battles with the sharpest minds to receive the Innovate Speaker Award

Over 250 brightest senior students from Thailand’s leading international schools converged at the Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel during November 29^th-20^th 2013 to participate in Innovate, an international school conference where students with the sharpest minds participate in a series of engaging workshops that challenges them to propose innovative solutions to real-world 21st century issues affecting Thailand.  

The theme for the workshops this year was on Thailand’s position within ASEAN and the pending ASEAN Economic Community. Students were challenged to think about ‘old problems’ such as traffic, but from a new and forward-thinking perspective. Students discussed on the topics of economics, environmental sustainability, transportation and communication, and social divide and income inequality.

Tharm Smuthranond, a Year 13 student at Bangkok Prep, won the Innovative Speaker Award at the conference, demonstrating that Thailand can look forward to a bright future as a leading member of the ASEAN community. 

 “It was an amazing experience to be surrounded by students from leading international schools of Thailand formulating innovative ideas to improve the problems that Thailand is currently facing: income inequality, impact of tourism on the environment and metropolitan transportation issues.

“Through the different workshops, we had to brainstorm within our groups to suggest innovative but realistic and practical solutions. It was a very intellectually challenging activity and equally fascinating to see the diversity of ideas from people with different philosophies and coming from different schools,” said Tharm.

Marisa Opdal, a Year 12 student, also participated in Innovate and together with Tharm, won the Innovative Group Award for their contribution in a group workshop comprising of students from different international schools.  

“The Innovate conference was a great experience for me as I got to practice important skills which I am sure will benefit me in the future. These included problem solving, communication, resourcefulness and efficiency,” said Marisa.

“Having to work with a group of strangers was a great experience as I learned from my group members, the different ways of interpreting ideas, solving problems and overall, I was able to see things from many different perspectives. I believe this is what led us to coming up with our solutions to the problems related to Thailand and ASEAN,” she added.

For more details of the Innovate awards, visit http://www.innovate-conference.org/

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About Bangkok Prep

Bangkok International Preparatory and Secondary School (Bangkok Prep) is a private co-educational mid-size school located adjacent to the Thonglor BTS station, making it the most accessible and conveniently located international school in Bangkok.

The programme of study is based on the National Curriculum of England providing quality education to students from Nursery to Year 13.  The school offers a rigorous ‘IGCSE’ programme to Year 10 and 11 students as a precursor to the Cambridge-approved ‘A’ Levels studied in Years 12 and 13, thereby PREParing students for acceptance to leading Universities throughout the world.

Bangkok Prep is proud of its holistic international approach to education and with more than 35 nationalities represented the school celebrates its cultural diversity.  Students develop their own sense of identity whilst recognising and empathising with other cultures, traditions and beliefs.

A school-wide celebration is being held in 2013 to mark the school’s 10^th anniversary.

Bangkok Prep:  PREParing students for life.

For further details, visit www.bkkprep.ac.th