William is one of the 2018 Student Ambassadors from Trenton, New Jersey. While representing his community at ABTS in Lisbon, Portugal, William learned about Intercultural Fluency and earned a badge in the subject. Here’s what he had to say about BTE and ABTS:

My Favorite BTE memory is…

My favorite BTE memory is when we went on a camping trip to Princeton and Blairstown. We got to do a lot of different things—it’s been my favorite camping trip.

To me, BTE has meant…

BTE has meant everything to me. It changed everything about my life. I’m very passionate about this program and the Bonner Scholars [note: student volunteers from a local community college] that volunteer to help us with everything and to keep the program going.

The most important thing I will take away from BTE is…

The most important things I will take away from BTE are the experiences I had with this program, mainly my memories of all our big trips and workshops. These really broadened my horizons.

I wanted to come to ABTS because…

I was interested in attending ABTS because I saw it as an opportunity to learn and grow from more than just an educational standpoint. I wanted to see what type of fun educational activities they might have in store. I wanted to know more about the world than I knew then.

Thanks to my time in BTE and at ABTS, in the future I will…

Thanks to my time in BTE, I will be more experienced with everything. I walk away from this opportunity able to say I went to a different country. I will be able to say I’ve been a million different places and done things from climbing and repelling down a wall, to being in college and career-building workshops. My future will be brighter and better because a lot of people my age didn’t have this type of opportunity.

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We are proud to award William a digital badge in Intercultural Fluency at ABTS 2018. He showed improvement in skills allowing one to work with people from other cultures. These are:

1. Show Curiosity
2. Recognize and challenge one’s own cultural biases
3. Appreciate Diverse Perspectives
4. Demonstrate Self Awareness