I’ve included the actual precept notes, summarizing the highlights from each of the different precepts, which may be read here.

If you have any questions, please contact me at sstolzen@princeton.edu.

Best regards,

Stephen Stolzenberg
VP of Policy, Ivy Council

The Ivy Council is pleased to announce that our 12th Annual Ivy Leadership Summit will be held at Harvard University from February 24-26, 2012. The Ivy Leadership Summit is the Ivy Council’s largest event of the year, drawing over four hundred students from across the eight Ivy League schools. Past speakers at the Ivy Leadership Summit have included Steve Forbes, Jeffrey Sachs, Theodore Roosevelt IV, and Antonio Villaraigosa. This year, Ivy Council and its partner, the Leadership Institute at Harvard College, have chosen the theme, “The Ivy Lead.” Through this theme, we hope to encourage discussions regarding what students can do to make the most of our education and establish three major goals. 1) Maximize inter-collegiate interaction. 2) Foster ongoing, sustainable exchanges. 3) Encourage delegates to truly reflect on the leaders that they can be. We are confident that all delegates will leave the Ivy Leadership Summit with a renewed sense of community and a better understanding of what it takes to lead the world of tomorrow. We hope to see you there.

To register, please proceed to the following pages::

ILS Application

***Please be advised that we are currently experiencing problems with our payment service and you may not be able to process your registration payment at this time. We appreciate your patience as we resolve this issue.***

The Ivy Council is delighted to announce that the Fall Ivy Policy Conference 2011 is now open for applications. As usual, our conference is open to any undergraduate in the eight Ivy League schools. This year, we are holding the conference at Brown University from October 21st to October 23rd. This will be a wonderful opportunity to meet student leaders from the other Ivy League universities, discuss student issues with your counterparts at the other schools, and discover solutions that may address issues facing your university. Take a look at our gallery for pictures of our past conferences.

Also, here’s a tentative schedule regarding what our conference will look like:

Friday, October 21
6:00pm Arrival of Delegations (Schools can start arriving at this time and have until the beginning of Opening Ceremony to register.)
8:00pm-9:30pm Opening Ceremony

Saturday, October 22
9:30am-11:00am Precept I
11:00am-12:30pm Precept II
12:30pm-2:00pm Lunch
2:00pm-3:30pm Precept III
3:30pm-5:00pm Precept IV
5:00pm-6:30pm Closing Ceremonies
8:00pm-10:00pm Banquet
10:00pm Festivities!

Sunday, October 22
Delegations head back to respective campuses

To register, please fill out the application found here. We’ve received many applications already, so don’t hesitate to get this done and sent:

IPC Application

We look forward to seeing you in Providence!

This past week, 20 Ivy Council delegates returned from Beijing, where they participated in the first session of the All-China Youth Federation’s Research, Mentorship, and Exchange Program. Approximately 100 students participated in the program in total. These students came from Beijing and 10 different provinces and cities across China to engage in this student-to-student educational exchange. The students gathered in Beijing on the first day of the trip to meet each other and receive a brief introduction on each of the ten provinces that students would be visiting. After listening to brief speeches by the program’s planners in the ACYF and a representative from MetLife, a sponsor of the program, students were divided into the ten different provinces and cities. These included Guangdong, Sichuan, Tianjin, Inner Mongolia, Hubei, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Fujian, and Henan. At each province, the ten-person student group explored the cultural, economic, and historical significance of that province for a week, and jointly wrote a presentation and a paper in both English and Chinese describing their findings at that province. Before leaving Beijing, the entire student group also paid a visit to the Great Wall and enjoyed an enormous lunch together.

Each student group described different experiences on their journeys across their respective provinces. Some Ivy Council delegates encountered factories where shoes and instant noodles were created, while others saw the Shaolin Temple, the Shanghai skyline, and giant Buddha statues. All of these sights and sounds brought new understanding to our Ivy Council delegates, many of whom had never stepped foot in China before. After a week at their respective provinces, the Ivy Council delegates and their Chinese counterparts returned to Beijing to present the knowledge they had gathered while away. A detailed account of the Inner Mongolia group, for example, can be found here.

While each group certainly experience different scenes, the general premise of their trips mirrors the events described in the article. Students often visited universities and locals living in their provinces to gather first-hand knowledge on the workings of their area. Many students report being shocked by the rate of  growth, the conditions of rural areas, and the size and scope of some of China’s great landmarks; not to mention the great diversity of Chinese dishes that exist beyond egg rolls, fried rice, and orange chicken.

Nevertheless, at the end of the program, each student considered their time in China to be worthwhile and altogether a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The Ivy Council looks forward to continuing its partnership with the ACYF and its exchanges with students across China.

To view more pictures from the exchange, please click below

see more

On August 10th, the All-China Youth Federation, the Ivy Council’s partners in China, hosted the World University Beach Concert in cooperation with Shenzhen Universiade Executive Bureau and Shenzhen Municipal Youth Federation. The Ivy Council selected Kinetics & One Love (Cornell ’10) to represent the Ivy League at this concert. They shared the stage with students from five continents around the world including performers from Cambridge University, Sydney University, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and University of Cape Town.

Kinetics & One Love met at Cornell in 2006 and signed a publishing deal with Warner Music Group soon after in 2010. They immediately made their commercial debut by writing the chorus to B.o.B’s Grammy-nominated single “Airplanes”. If you would like to learn more about the duo, check out their facebook page here. Below are a number of pictures taken at the concert:

The 2011 Ivy-China Reflection Booklet is finally complete. Read about the Ivy Council delegates’ visit to Wuhan University from the very five students who traveled to China. The reflection booklet is available in both English and in Chinese through the following links. Click on the image or the link underneath the covers.

Special thanks to Frank Wang (Dartmouth ’14) for translating the booklet from English to Chinese.

English Version

Alternate Link

Chinese Version

Alternate Link

Applications for the RME Program have closed. Stay tuned for more news about our twenty Ivy League delegates.

This is the first and only exchange the Ivy Council has done so far that is open to the entire breadth of the Ivy League, and the Ivy Council strongly encourage anyone with the slightest interest to apply for the program. Students begin by ranking the top three provinces or cities they want to research, and the ACYF will separate students into groups based one of their three preferred choices. All students will start at Beijing, but each will depart to conduct research in their select province. Here is a basic schedule of the program.

Day 1: Grouping and Training

Each group is composed of 5 Chinese students, 2 Ivy League delegates and 3 US students studying in China. Training and ice-breaking activities will be organized.

Day 2: Leaving Beijing for Destinations

The research groups will leave for different destinations where they should carry out their projects.

Day 3- Day 9: Implementation

All the groups will conduct investigation in the related provinces and cities.

Day 10-11: Project Review

Participants will come back to Beijing to demonstrate their findings and exchange views. The experts and mentors will give comments and present certificates to the participants. Cultural tour and other exchange activities will also be conducted in Beijing.

Follow-ups:

Each group should submit their detailed reports to the organizers within two weeks after the end of the program.

Instructions and more information about the program can be found here:

RME Info Sheet

RME Application

If you are interested in applying, please send your application form to Irene_nemesio@brown.edu by Aug. 3rd.

If you have any questions, please contact the Ivy Council Vice President — External, irene_nemesio@brown.edu

Irene Nemesio (Brown ’12), Ivy Council Vice President – External

Molly Patterson (Yale ’13), Ivy Council Vice President – Internal

Alexander Tsu (Dartmouth ’14), Ivy Council Vice President – Communications

Senan Ebrahim (Harvard ’12), President of Harvard Undergraduate Council

Alina Jennings (Princeton ’14), Delegate from Princeton

Together, the Ivy Council delegation participated in the International Forum on Development of Student Organizations, represented their respective schools at the opening ceremony, gave speeches at multiple events during the exchange, and enjoyed a lunch with local officials and student leaders. Furthermore, the delegates had the opportunity to sample some of Wuhan’s renowned street food, explore the cultural history of China’s 8^th largest city, and sail down the Yangtze River on a tour of the Three Gorges with students from Angola to Sweden to Nepal.

On the first day of the exchange, Molly Patterson (Yale ’13) opened with a speech about the importance of communications between student organizations. Then, each student arrived on stage with a sign that proudly displayed the name of his or her respective school. The opening ceremony was followed by a banquet lunch at which Alexander Tsu (Dartmouth ’14) spoke about the growing interconnectedness of the world. In the afternoon, delegates took a tour of the Hubei Provincial Museum, which culminated with a musical performance that employed a gamut of ancient Chinese instruments. In the evening, delegates took part in one of four Chinese cultural workshops that included paper cutting, calligraphy, martial arts, and tea ceremony.

The second day of the exchange consisted of a tour of the city of Wuhan by student volunteers. The Ivy Council delegates had the opportunity to stroll through the bustling Wuhan city center, try a few local street food specialties, and sing a bit of karaoke with the Wuhan University volunteers. Some famous Wuhan street foods include Re-gan Mien (hot and dry noodles) and Sanxian Doupi (stuffed soybean skins). The Ivy Council delegates had the opportunity to try to both.

The next day began with a tour of Wuhan’s serene East Lake and was followed by the International Forum on Development of Student Organizations. During the forum, the Ivy Council delegates had the chance to present their perspectives on creativity in student organizations and listen to representatives from other top universities in China describe the structure of student organizations at their own schools.

The exchange then concluded with a closing ceremony during which Irene Nemesio (Brown ’12) presented powerful words to the audience about the necessity of true leadership. Then, all five of the Ivy Council delegates were invited on stage to sing the 1988 Olympics anthem, “Hand in Hand.”

Next, the Ivy Council delegates, participants of the exchange, and Wuhan University student volunteers left Wuhan on a four-hour bus ride west to the city of Yichang on the banks of the Yangtze River. From there, the students boarded a cruise ship that sailed for two days along the Yangtze River. The Ivy Council delegates enjoyed the majestic scenery of the Three Gorges and stood at the precise location where the image on the back of the 10 RMB bill was taken. The trip along the Yangtze concluded with a tour of the enormous Three Gorges Dam.

From translating materials into English to leading the Ivy Council delegates to the right place to by jade souvenirs, the Wuhan University student volunteers worked tirelessly on the Ivy Council delegate’s behalf, and these students made a significant contribution to the experience that the delegates received. The Ivy Council would like to thank all of the student volunteers who took time out of their summer to make the 2^nd Wuhan University International Exchange Camp of Student Organizations such a success. We would also like to thank the organizations and institutions that helped finance this exchange. Without your contributions, this wonderful exchange would not have been possible.

The Ivy Council looks forward to continuing its exchanges with student leaders in China. In August, we will be sending Ivy Council representatives to a music exchange in Shenzhen, China. Participants will include former Cornell Head Delegate Chauncey Jenkins (Cornell ’11) and the duo Kinetics & One Love (Cornell ’10) who wrote the chorus to B.o.B.’s hit song, “Airplanes.” We will update you with more information soon!

To see more photos from the trip, click below:

see more photos

President

Kathy Bui, Brown ’12

Vice President for Internal

Molly Patterson, Yale ’13

Vice President for Policy

Stephen Stolzenberg, Princeton ’13

Vice President for Finance

Nick Judson, Dartmouth ’14

Vice Presidents for Communications

Alex Tsu, Dartmouth ’14
Jen Zhu, Harvard ’14

Thanks to all those who participated in elections, including candidates, steering board members, and voting delegates. We are extremely proud of our new executive board officers and look forward to the upcoming year!