Yaroslav Ovcharenko, Uzbekistan

The Celebration of Teaching and Learning demonstrated new ways of development and offered new opportunities for the visiting PEARL Reporters. They learned more about each other’s cultures and values, which helped them develop as “global citizens” as well.

The PEARL World Youth News project has united young people interested in journalism from different cultures,  lifestyles, beliefs and attitudes. They have their own reasons to be part of this project. Some students have joined PEARL because they are interested in a career in journalism. Ann Morin (US) has a dream to work for the New York Times newspaper. Anam Baig (US) and Long Nguyen (Vietnam) would also like to become professional journalists.

Lorna Nickson-Brown (UK) joined the project out of respect for Daniel Pearl. She “wanted to contribute to his wish of communication and cross-cultural understanding." Heather Vale (US) was interested in communicating with people from other cultures. Others like David Mc Guinness (Ireland) joined the PEARL project because he wanted to be aware of what was happening in the world. Sultan Mehmood (Pakistan) wanted to make others aware "of what they don’t know and something that they might want to know." Mr. Mehmood is an exchange student from Pakistan and wants to write about education in his country.

The conference was an extremely useful step for the PEARL Reporters to achieve their aims and see the project from a fresh perspective. This was the first time that the youth reporters met their peers. Mr. Nguyen said, "It was a great chance for PEARL Reporters to meet each other and to increase our mutual understanding. It is now more fun to write as there is a friendly link between reporters and editors, and among all other people concerned too."
 
During their conference presentations, the reporters shared information about the PEARL project. They introduced various activities, including the online training course and the editing process, provided examples of their reporting work and spoke about how the project had made an impact on their personal development. They also discussed some of the challenges they’d faced, like time management and maintaining communication.

After the conference, Ms. Nickson-Brown said, "I am now inspired to take my interest in journalism and help motivate other young people in England to get involved in the project." Mr. Mehmood added: "It helped to advertize the PEARL project. We met so many teachers and some students who came to know what we are doing. Many
of them were interested in journalism and did not know about the PEARL project. They said that they will try to do this project. I think this conference will help to enhance the activities we are doing."

The PEARL Reporters spent almost a week together communicating formally and informally. They learned some amazing information about each other’s traditional dishes, clothes, holidays, local attractions and actual problems. Mr. Nguyen shared, "I got a better sense of the world, which is an improvement in global awareness. I hadn’t meet anyone from Central Asia or Ireland before the conference. As you meet more people, you learn more."

The young journalists demonstrated that people on our planet are closer to each other than people often think. "I met so many people from different countries. It was really a great feeling to be around them. The most exciting part for me was that we all are very similar  to each other. We can ignore the little differences between us that do not let us live peacefully," mentioned Mr. Mehmood.

Many of the PEARL Reporters emphasized the importance of the conference toward their personal growth. Ms. Nickson-Brown gave her opinion: "The conference, for me personally, was fantastic for developing my interest in journalism and understanding its importance in the world we live in today. I met so many amazing people with whom I am sure I will write articles in the future."

The PEARL Reporters were also able to relate to the theme of global awareness. As Mr. Mehmood said, “It helped me to become more of a global citizen. I am now looking more globally at the problems being faced by the entire planet like global warming and education."