Kim 1

"How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words,"

stated Greta Thunberg at the UN Climate Change Summit in New York, September 2019. Greta

Thunberg is a well-known seventeen-year-old environmental activist teenager from Sweden

who, in the last year, has been successful in generating a universal chain reaction in the attempt

to create a healthier planet, changing millions of obscure and awakening anxieties into a

worldwide movement for urgent change. Although being TIME magazine's 2019 Person of The

Year, being a global learner and citizen now is not about being recognized worldwide; it is about

being aware and understanding the bigger picture of the world and one’s place in it. The

Ambassador School of Global Leadership’s mission is to foster, in every student, an awareness

of how the world works through extensive exposure and participation in international discourse,

concentrating on preparing global leaders. In a similar way, ASGL’s vision is to prepare students

to become college and career ready while also being globally competent. The vital qualities of a

global citizen and learner are being able to investigate the world, recognize perspectives,

communicate ideas, and take action within not only their own community but also globally in

order to promote a more foreseeable future.

Although Greta Thunberg is not the first high school climate activist, she is by far the

only one to have emerged as a global leader throughout the world. Being consistent and clear

with what one wants is a hard task to maintain; however, ever since the age of fifteen she

protested in the face of Swedish parliament and her voice has been heard. From the age of eight,

Greta Thunberg has been aware of climate change, and ever since then, she has harvested the

characteristics of what being a global citizen is while investigating the world, recognizing

perspectives, communicating ideas, and taking action. As a long-established climate change

activist, Thunberg has effectively been communicating ideas and recognizing perspectives by
 Kim 2

taking advantage of the advanced technologies for protests and the overall international

movement for cutting global emissions. In spite of the fact that she is a mere seventeen-year-old,

Thunberg works relentlessly in having her voice heard in restoring nature rather than

governments, firms, and banks subsidizing and investing in fossil fuels, such as coal, gas, and

oil-- investigating the world and taking action by providing the facts and holding international

politicians liable for their absence of action on what other activists, herself, and scientists see as a

climate crisis. Through her impactful protests and speeches at big events like the National

Assembly in Paris of 2019 in order to constitute change, Thunberg has demonstrated that she is a

global citizen.

The process of becoming a global learner and citizen was pivotal to my educational and

day-to-day life because it has permitted me to experience difficult situations, such as the

challenging of my thoughts by someone else. Instead of closing up like a clam, I was able to

think deeper into the picture as to how and why people clench onto their pre-existing

perspectives; overall standing up for what I believed in. Like Greta Thunberg, the experience of

learning the global performance outcomes has aided me in understanding the significance of

allowing my previous knowledge to turn to further investigation, and recognize the diverse

perspectives in and out of the classroom setting with constructive communication between my

peers and me while taking action.

Greta Thunberg has inspired me to keep believing in what I stand for while making sure I

have my voice heard. With her straightforward way of speaking, Thunberg’s activism has

convinced her family to embrace some lifestyles that can reduce their carbon footprint. Like

Thunberg, I think deeply about how much our planet has to go through to inhabit such cruel

people. With Thunberg’s mentality, mission, and the global performance outcomes guiding me
 Kim 3

to becoming a successful global citizen, I believe that I will be able to make a difference.

Whether this be through standing up for what I believe in, doing weekly park cleanups, or

fundraising for a good cause it is unquestionable that without the influence of ASGL’s mission

and vision that I would be achieving the qualities of a global citizen, overall improving myself

daily. I learned that with just simply carrying out the GPOs, I can establish an everlasting impact

even as young as seventeen like Greta Thunberg.

I believe an impactful global citizen such as Greta Thunberg will keep influencing me to

keep contributing to society whether that be with a small gesture of communicating ideas with

peers about religion, cultures, and/or beliefs or even to something of a bigger scale such as taking

use of previous knowledge, investigating the world, and taking action. With this, I believe that a

global learner and citizen is being competently aware of what is going on within the world and

comprehending the greater scheme of the planet and an individual’s position in it. This will keep

influencing me to become a better global citizen to turn the simple thought of change into a

reality, work effortlessly and collaboratively, transform the world into a more sustainable

environment and society. With the demonstration of my global citizen, Greta Thunberg,

becoming a global citizen is vital to all people of the world.