Three Staples juniors are about to take their studies far beyond the classroom. This November, Kate Bulkeley ’26, Olivia Cohn ’26 and Olivia Saw ’26 will represent their school at the Normandy International Youth Leadership Summit (NIYLS) in Le Havre, France. They will be joined by students hailing from 22 schools and over 15 different countries to discuss, debate and theorize solutions to real-world topics ranging from science and politics to culture and diplomacy. Math teacher Sarah White will accompany the students to the summit as their chaperone.
NIYLS is a week-long conference hosted and facilitated by student groups and faculty at the Institution Saint Joseph, a privatized K-12 school in Le Havre. During the summit, delegates stay with a host student at St. Joseph and their family. When they are not actively engaging in the conference, participants have the opportunity to accompany their host sibling to their various classes and activities at St. Joseph and explore the city of Le Havre.
“I’m really looking forward to going to classes with my host sister,” Cohn said. “I don’t speak French or anything, so I don’t know how much I’ll be able to understand, but it’ll still be cool to see what school is like in another country and how different it is.”
This year marks the 11th edition of NIYLS. Like the representatives from Staples before them, Bulkeley, Cohn and Saw were each selected from a competitive applicant process and pool. After being identified by the school for demonstrating academic excellence, they were invited to fill out an application form that was reviewed by a panel of teachers and administrators.
“I was shocked when I found out [I’d been chosen]. I remember Olivia [Cohn] got the email, and texted me immediately ‘Did you get in?’ and I hadn’t gotten it yet, so I initially thought, ‘Oh my gosh, no, I didn’t get in,’ but then I refreshed my inbox and there it was, and I was just so excited,” Bulkeley said. “I was tentative to apply at first […] but I’m glad I decided to take the risk because it obviously paid off in the end.”
In addition to participating in the summit and immersing themselves in French culture, Bulkley, Cohn and Saw are excited to make new friends with teenagers from all over the world.
“I really hope this program will help me develop my leadership skills,” Saw said. “It’s also going to be nice to collaborate with and get to know people from around the world because there aren’t many opportunities to do that living in such a small community like Westport, so I think it will just be a really, like eye-opening experience.”
