ISC24: Taking Heart - Finding our way together
by Gabriele Nys
International Students’ Conference at the Goetheanum - April 10 - 14, 2024
The International Students’ Conferences at the Goetheanum, organised by the Youth Section at the Goetheanum in collaboration with the Waldorf SV, connect hundreds of Waldorf students in their last years of high school. Held bi-annually since 2015, these conferences bring focus to a current theme: What connects us? (2015), Challenges of our time - Seeking for a global consciousness by facing myself (2017), Courage (2019), Trust (2021).
The last ISC in 2021 was one with many firsts: a fully online conference, as it was not possible to travel to Switzerland. Exploring the possibilities that modern technologies brought us, as well as the barriers that were still posed. As the team of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum went through a transition, with co-workers moving on to other sections and Nathaniel Williams stepping in the leadership position in January 2023, the International Students’ Conference, set to be in April 2023, was deferred till April 2024. This gave the time for the new team to settle in and then take on the responsibility for the ISC24.
In March 2023 we had the first in-person team weekend for the ISC24 in Dornach! Who are the individuals that would be taking on the task of organising this event? Who is the team that will make this event a reality in just little over a year preparation time? How do we find our way of working together, recognising each person’s strengths and shape this event collectively?
We are excited to share with you the theme and visual of the International Students’ Conference 2024: Taking Heart - Finding our way together through this conference, we wish to inspire courage in young students to work together and face the future with the strength that comes from a diverse and collaborative group. When we learn from each other in an open way, we see where we can combine our attributes to fill in for another, and by doing so can discover new ways to go about the issues our world is facing, ways we wouldn’t be able to find each on our own. As a bundle of arrows is unsnappable whereas a single arrow is weak, so much stronger are we as a team compared to separate individuals. But in order to find our way together, it is required of each member to find independently in themselves the will force to start tackling the immense struggles of our globe.
The conference is organised in collaboration with the Waldorf SV: the board of students’ representatives of Waldorf Schools in Germany. Furthermore, a diverse group of young people coming from the States, Japan, Belgium and Germany had expressed their interest in organising and are a valuable and significant part of the team as well. The Youth Section at the Goetheanum holds the core and overview in organising this event. In the past, for each conference, two young people would take the chance to join the team of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum and work on this conference for eight months. Next to her task at the Youth Section House, Gabriele Nys has been focusing on the students’ conference and will continue to do so. Noël Norbron, former member of the Waldorf SV and part of the ISC21 organising team as well, will move to Dornach to join the team in Dornach from October on. We are very thankful for his support and past experience in shaping events for this momentous conference.
It has been a great pleasure and encouragement to receive emails and calls from teachers and students from all continents. So much gratitude and excitement, eagerness to join in the process and contribute to the program has been coming our way.
This gives ambition and motivation to the ISC24 team to organise this as a worldwide event, for a worldwide group of young people. There are many ways to achieve this, and the team is exploring this creatively, whilst discovering challenges and searching for solutions. The ISC is a wonderful interdependent opportunity for the Youth Section’s worldwide to connect with young people in their area, as it is a way for young people who are searching to connect with the local work in the Youth Section in the region they’re coming from. As we are working with the worldwide network of the Youth Section, we wish to build a space and time to do so in the conference.
In the coming time, we will be sharing more about the people who will contribute to the conference as well as the different formats during the five days of the conference. This will be published on our website and regular updates will follow over Instagram as well. If you have any questions, thoughts or enthusiasm to share, please contact us via mail@isc.international! We are happy to hear from you.
Website: 24.isc.international
Instagram: @int.students.conference