With the theme of 'Recovering from the pandemic', Frances Summer Dale V. Dy, from the Philippines, is currently a 2nd year student at SMi, excellently won the Grand Prize in the 2021 Global Leaders Competition in Vietnam with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. 

Student Frances Summer Dale V. Dy (Filipino) studying at SMI won the Top Prize in the UN Global Leaders Competition 2021
The Global Leaders Competition is run by the Hope to the Future Association. It is a UN educational NGO that organizes academic conferences on the UN and has hosted this competition on the UN agenda and global issues since 2012, with cooperation of UN agencies including UN DGC, UNAI and UNDP Viet Nam. Global Leaders is an English-language speech competition for young people around the world on the topic of the UN and other international issues.

Participating in the 2021 contest in Vietnam, there were hundreds of contestants from Vietnam, the US, Korea, Japan, India, Indonesia, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand,... The contestants were divided into 4 different test groups: Elementary, Middle School, High School, and University.

Each competition group approaches different topics based on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. From the topic received, the candidates analyse global problems, point out the current situation and propose solutions from their personal point of view. Candidates can form concrete ideas on how to deal with global challenges and develop their own critical thinking.

As a person who is very interested in social issues, especially during the current pandemic, where many urgent issues need to be resolved, Frances Summer Dale V. Dy did not hesitate to enrol the contest with the desire to express opinions and offer supportive solutions.

The contest is held online, so the contestants record their own files according to the topics given by the Organizing Committee. Participating in the Undergraduate category, Summer spoke on the topic of "Pandemic Recovery" and was awarded the Top Prize for her confident and convincing presentation and critique.

Summer said: “In her rhetoric, she talked about how recovering from the COVID-19 Pandemic means re-examining energy policies – which falls under the 13th goal 'Protection Action' in the overall 17 sustainable development goals of the United Nations Climate must be a core issue in the formulation of new economic policies.

If economic policies focus on climate and environmental issues, our health and well-being will improve. I put a lot of effort into my presentation when participating in this contest. In which, I searched for information, read books, newspapers and watched documentaries on many different topics and fields to get the most comprehensive and in-depth view of the problem I presented.

As a student of SMi, being able to always hone soft skills, critical thinking, presentation skills, etc. throughout the course of my studies has given me the confidence to complete the competition well. This award really means a lot to me. This has partly shown my success in spreading my views and messages to people around me.

"The Organizing Committee has awarded 93 awards to candidates from different countries. Particularly for the group of University Students, specific awards for students from universities include:
The Grand Prize includes:

• Duy Tan University (Vietnam)

The Excellence Award includes:

• Seoul National University (Korea)
• Thang Long University (Vietnam)

The OutstandingAward has:

• Seoul National University (Korea)
• Thang Long University (Vietnam)

The Distinguished Award has:

• Seoul National University (Korea)
• Thang Long University (Vietnam)
• Hanoi University (Vietnam)
• Naresuan University (Thailand)
• Tohoku University (Japan)

Before coming to the Global Leaders Competition 2021 in Vietnam, Summer is one of the very active and outstanding students in the SMi Debate Club.