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Worthy causes at heart of scavenger hunt
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ABOUT 140 students from five local universities raced through Shanghai last weekend on a fun-filled scavenger hunt aimed at promoting cross-cultural understanding and raising awareness about sustainable development.
These youngsters were taking part in the AIESEC Race, an event organized by the Shanghai chapter of AIESEC, an international NGO made up of more than 100,000 members from all over the world.
Since first conceived in 1938, the goal of AIESEC (an acronym based on the group’s French name, which in English translates to International Association of Students in Economic and Commercial Sciences) is to provide its student members with leadership development opportunities, cross-cultural internships and volunteer exchange experiences. Through these and other activities and incentives, the group hopes to empower young people to make a positive impact on society.
The AIESEC Race, initiated last year, is an event that members hope will spread the group’s influence in Shanghai.
“We wanted to arrange something fun to interest young members, while at the same time we tried to draw their attention to something we believed to be important and let the world hear their opinions,” says Liu Yizhou, a 20-year-old AIESEC member and one of the organizers of the Shanghai event.
Seeing the popularity of reality shows like “Running Man” and “X-Challenge,” the Shanghai chapter of AIESEC decided to organize a similar game-like activity packed with valuable messages.
“We racked our brains to combine games with the values we wanted to promote,” says Liu Jinming, a 20-year-old AIESEC member.
As part of the event’s focus on cross-cultural understanding, participants were asked to sample a foreign food and try on a traditional costume from another country. Additionally, they were asked to learn simple phrases in a foreign language, as well as some basic sign language.
The event also focused on more timely issues facing the world at large.
Inspired by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set last year by the United Nations, participants were asked to find specimens of particular animals nearing extinction at a local museum and encourage at least two people to compress their plastic bottles before throwing them away.
“We had great fun completing all the tasks. It was just like beating all the challenges in a video game. At the same time, the game also reminded us about things we’ve neglected in daily life,” says Qin Jiawei, a 22-year-old participant.
Last year, the inaugural AIESCEC Race drew about 60 participants and 40 volunteers. This year, the number has grown with the inclusion of students from Shanghai Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, East China Normal University, Shanghai International Studies University and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.
Foreign students studying in Shanghai were also encouraged to participate to enrich the event’s opportunities from cultural exchange.
Ahsan Mohammed from Bahrain now studies at Tongji University. This year, he was also a volunteer to teach the racers Bahraini language.
“Frankly speaking, not many people in the world would like to learn the Bahraini language as it is such a small country. But when I heard the Chinese students speaking my mother tongue, I felt amazingly proud as my native culture was being recognized,” says Mohammed.
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