By Catherine Mai, Year 12 Student

During the last week of Term 3 and over the holidays I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Colombia to partake in the 56^th Round Square International Conference, with this year’s theme being ‘Blooming from the Past’. I joined students from two other Round Square schools in NSW in Sydney, and we travelled to Colombia together.

Upon arrival, we had a couple days to explore the capital city Bogotá. This included visiting some local markets and the Monserrate Sanctuary, which has an elevation of 3,152m. From here, we were able to see the entire city of Bogotá.

Our delegation then made our way to one of the five host schools for the welcome day, where we were emersed in Colombian culture through various activities. We then met our host families and stayed with them for the night before heading back to another one of the host schools for the opening ceremony. Here we heard from a keynote speaker who highlighted Colombia’s rich history, further drawing on this year’s theme.

After the opening ceremony, the Conference split into two different locations and my group made our way to Villa de Leyva which is where we stayed for the next five days and took part in various activities such as hiking, ziplining, basket weaving, scavenger hunts and pottery classes. During these few days we heard from more keynote speakers and on the final night we had a cultural evening where students from different schools from around the world performed something from their culture.

We returned to Bogotá for the closing ceremony and spent a final night with our host families before boarding a flight to Chile. There we toured Santiago, visiting landmarks such as San Cristóbal Hill and the Chilian Museum of Pre-Columbian Art. Afterwards we explored the coastal town of Valparaíso where we were fortunate enough to undertake a graffiti session and a cooking class before heading back to Santiago from where we flew home to Australia.

During this trip I was able to experience the rich culture of Colombia and Chile, learn about the diverse ecosystems, history and culture, and meet lifelong friends from all around the world.

This Round Square’s Conference film shows highlights from the event.

The 2025 Round Square International Conference – September 2025

Next year’s international Conference will be held in Dubai and will see three Round Square schools share the hosting duties. The theme is ‘Beyond the Dunes’ and students will have the opportunity to engage in a range of exciting activities, have meaningful discussions about issues impacting the world and establish lifelong connections. Radford plans on sending a delegation to this event. Further details will be available shortly. In the meantime, the hosting schools have created this trailer to share their hopes and dreams for the event.