National U student represents PH in Asia Pacific Youth Exchange
Never stop learning new things.
This is what the 20-year old National U student Edmar Joseph Flores had in mind when he joined the Asia Pacific Youth Exchange (APYE) program last August 11 to 23, 2017 in Incheon, South Korea.
Flores represented the Philippines in the youth leaders training which focused on developing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that can help the communities they are involved in.
It was an experience Flores considers as one for the books as he was able to banner the Philippine flag and work with different nationalities to provide a sustainable social project for Jeonju Hanok Village in Jeonju City, Jeollabukdo Province. Flores worked with three Koreans, a Taiwanese and Vietnamese national to develop “Finding Hanoki” a trash bin which looked like a traditional Korean house.
“We did some community assessment, surveys with the local people and interviewed some mentors from the local government. After all the surveys and interviews, we summarized the ideas and came up with the project because we discovered that the problem of the community is that they lack trash bins. The bins look like the traditional house to preserve the culture of the village.” Flores shared.
The Dinalupihan, Bataan-native did not only bring pride to NU but also to the Philippines after presenting the idea and receiving an award of excellence for the project.
The 4th year Mathematics major shared that this is a huge accomplishment for National U.
“This will serve as a bridge for National U to let students join and explore other things like APYE. National U will not only be known to be good in sports and academics but also a university that produces global youth leaders of the next generation.”
Flores meanwhile does not plan to keep what he learned to himself as he aims to share the new experience to other NU students.
“I plan to use this experience by sharing what I learned in APYE, share the importance of SDGs and teach them how to make a change. I want other students to be inspired, to step out of their comfort zones, meet other people and be known globally. Flores ended.
