“It’s everything but a debate or a classroom setting; it’s fun— a lot of fun”, said Remy Stevenson. GAIL stands for the Global Alliance for Innovative Learning and to me it’s been the gateway to global perspective serving as a constant reminder that a world beyond Woodstock exists, one that is filled with unique individuals each with their own story to tell. People ask me “so, what exactly even is GAIL?” Every time I have a different answer and sometimes I blank out. It’s not because GAIL is insignificant, but more about how rich and diverse it really is. There’s no single definition for what GAIL is because it’s an individualized journey. Every individual involved with GAIL draws something unique from their own experience, and the 10 of us experienced this first hand in the 2023 GAIL Conference. 

GAIL Conferences take place annually, in either one of the eight schools that are a part of the alliance. The previous one was held back in 2019 by the Western International School of Shanghai (WISS) and the one before that was hosted by the Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire, United States. Woodstock represented India in these two conferences and the one hosted this year, by Kristin School two weeks back, in Albany on Auckland’s North Shore. 

The theme of this year’s conference was “diversity”. According to Kristin, the goal set by them was to help us foster an understanding of diversity in this extremely globalized world and teach us to foster ways in which we learn to thrive in this environment. We did so many activities like crate stacking, skeet shooting, the Haka dance, rock climbing, zip lining and even knitting with their native plant Harakeke. The conference itself took place over a span of seven days, with each day being different. From masterclasses on various topics by Kristin teachers and exposure to New Zealand’s biodiversity and their highly cherished Mauri culture, it was all aimed to understand diversity in terms of culture and nature. 

Something that we prepare for prior to the conference are the cultural offerings. It is a chance where each school gets an opportunity to showcase their culture to the rest of the other seven schools. 

Prestige from South Africa was filled with culture and presented multiple traditional dances with live music. While we did ceilidh dancing with the Scots (Robert Gorden) for a straight hour, the Australians (Scotch College) treated us with tim-tams! WISS taught us how to make Chinese lanterns and Peru organized a dance competition, after we learnt some Spanish moves! However, just like the previous GAIL team in 2019 we knew Woodstock had to take our Desi side with us! While planning for our offering, something we had decided from day one was a ‘Bollywood dance.’ 

“The few highlights of our cultural offering was definitely the ‘Year in life at Woodstock’ video that we made, the Bollywood dance in traditional clothing, followed with diya decorating and lighting. We also invited all GAIL members to Bollywood music with us”, Naveli said. 

With this the conference came to an end and when I asked Devyani Rathore what it meant to her and what she learnt, she said “there is so much to say, can’t find the words…” This is also exactly why summing up the purpose of this conference in a few lines is almost impossible, because what we all took away from it was so different and unique. “We knew we might never see each other again, but the GAIL connect website will definitely make it easier to stay in touch!” said Kairav. 

We stayed an extra week in New Zealand as a tradition that all GAIL conference trips follow. Mr Ady, Woodstock’s GAIL Champion, says, “with the conference happening in the first week, you really don’t get a chance to see anything outside. Any student who was a party of this trip can confirm that their world was confided in the conference vicinity.”  In this week the first day we were in Auckland, the next day at Tauranga, then Rotorua and spent our last two days in the Tongariro national park where we did the Alpine Crossing Hike. Over this week we saw the Hobbiton set from the Lord of the Rings movies, experienced the Hukka Falls Jet boat and took part in a traditional Mauri evening. 

Something that all 10 of us got out of the second week was, how it’s not just another travel trip abroad. It is so much different than when you travel with your parents. Mr Ady emphasized the idea about how when traveling with parents, we all travel in a closed bubble, not being exposed to the outside world. Compared to a setting like this week, the only bubble we were ever in was the one we formed, to stay with each other, 

We went to this conference, without any idea of what to expect out of it. While some of us thought of it as like a formal event while few considered it to be a trip, turns out it was neither of those. It was an opportunity to meet people, learn from them and collaborate with them. It was also a huge privilege to simply know people from other countries. Each one of us landed in Delhi with with our own unique experiences, eager to give back to Woodstock and already looking for ways to continue our journey with GAIL! 

So, one note from Remy to the students going to Peru next year; “be ready to do a LOT of dance… a lot.” 

Priyanshi is a staff writer.

Edited by Asha.