A New Beginning - ISKL Goes Green (Flag, that is!)

This past Wednesday ISKL hosted Malaysia's first Eco-Schools Green Flag award ceremony. As the recipients of the award is it difficult not to get caught up in the elation of the moment and it's easy to mistake that feeling, and the flag itself, as the final goal. But as the co-coordinators of the Green Council Tunku Alysha Azizan ('14) and Deanna Anuar ('14) stated, really this flag is just the beginning of something bigger than us. 

Part of their speech was spent highlighting the future plans for the Green Council and our participation in Eco-Schools programming. A recurring theme was our intent to expand beyond the borders of our campus walls, to engage with our community more, with our host country in a positive and meaningful way and to use student initiative as the starting point for big things. 

Our visitors were duly impressed with our students (how could they not be?), the program, the campus and the ceremony itself. A big thank you goes out to Hilda Alposilva and the Marketing Office staff for doing such a wonderful job with organizing things, but also to the facilities crew and the theater staff for all they do so well. 

As the adrenaline slowly dies off, and we recognize that a flag does not change our direction, we hope that our participation on the Eco-Schools program will allow us to start a new, to create a blueprint for school-community interactions and mutual goals. We move on, waving our new Green Flag!

P.S.

It is important to recognize the contributions of those who went before us, and whose decisions and efforts have led us to where we are today. Most notably, we would like to thank Mr. Paul Chmelik for his request of the -then - Green Team for "bold thoughts" in moving forward. We would also like to thank Mr. Angus Carmichael (my predecessor) for his vision in joining the Eco-Schools program and for setting the path for us to follow. Similarly, a big thank you also goes out to our previous Environmental Officers who played pivotal roles in our Eco-Schools initiatives and programming: Nathaniel Zacharias ('12) and Samantha Lee ('13). To those few, and the countless others who added their parts, thank you!