Millfield Sixth Formers receive Universities Award on visit to Geneva

16 Aug 2017

As term ended for most, a new journey began for 18 Sixth Formers, who set off to Geneva for 5 days. The visit was part of the new Sixth Form EAGLES programme, in which the ‘G’ stands for Global Awareness. All the pupils who attended the trip also received the ASDAN Universities Award, which endorses the educational benefits of the Global Action programme.

The purpose of the visit was to learn more about many of the international agencies based in Geneva, and to challenge, inspire and prepare the pupils to make a difference in the world.

The pupils visited 9 agencies for tours and workshops, including the United Nations, The World Trade Organisation and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The pupils were inspired by the efforts of agencies such as Medecins Sans Frontieres, The Red Cross and the High Commissioner for Refugees in working to alleviate suffering in the most desperate situations.

They also found time to climb Mont Saleve for breath-taking views of the city, and on the final day, the pupils visited CERN to be awed by the scale of the research that takes place there, including in the 27km long Large Hadron Collider. The last afternoon was spent touring the old town of Geneva before cooling off by the jet d’Eau.

Head of Upper Sixth, Mr Neil Whiskerd said: “It was a privilege for Mrs Gray and myself to accompany 18 pupils to Geneva to experience the political, economic and scientific developments associated with various UN agencies, whilst visiting the amazing scientific research at CERN. All pupils behaved appropriately and learned a great deal about the complexity of problems in the world today, and the immense difficulties facing those who are at the forefront in attempting to find solutions.”