Bangkok Service Summit Connects and Inspires

This story comes from KIS communications intern Jiwon. 
 

At the start of this semester, eighteen KIS students attended the second annual Service Summit at the International School Bangkok (ISB) with Nate Samuelson and Phoebe Charrier. This year there were over 150 participants at the summit, and students were given opportunities to connect with and befriend new people from different parts of Asia. Participant Joanna says, “It helped me learn a lot about service. It opened my eyes to a lot of service projects that I never considered before.” 

The Service Summit is an interscholastic conference with international schools from around the world. It is an outlet for student-led workshops and seminars; students participate in seminars and discussions, give presentations on their projects, and collaborate with people from other schools to find solutions for widespread issues. Mr. Samuelson says, “We want to create an experience that brings changemakers together to grow their network and subsequently their impact in the projects that they're doing.”

Ms. Charrier says that the goal of the summit is “to expose students to new and exciting ideas and perspectives and to spur them on in their own service efforts.” She says the most rewarding part of organizing service opportunities is “seeing students come up with solutions I had never considered, and getting a glimpse of what the world could become in the future!”

Students from all over Asia gave speeches on their meaningful service projects including trafficking aid, animal rights, and environmentally sustainable products addressing the Ukraine electricity shortage. Guest speakers also joined to talk about what they have learned through their service experience. One thing I learned was the importance of persistence and reaching out to people who could be involved in a project. 

ISB passed the conference on to KIS with a small celebration. We’re looking forward to hosting the Service Summit in January 2026! Mr. Samuelson says, “This is a project I've been working on for five years, and so to finally get to this point where we're gonna be the ones that host it and bring everybody to our school is super exciting. I think it's gonna be wonderful for the students. It's kind of an exciting time to see everything come to fruition.” 

If you want to participate in service in a different way, you can also check out something called the Snapshots Project, an online platform where international students upload their projects.