International Convention Recap (ICON)
What is International Convention (ICON)?
ICON is Key Club’s International Convention! This year's convention was in San Antonio, Texas! Over 1,000 students worldwide gathered together to celebrate another outstanding year of service. Key Clubbers have the opportunity to attend workshops led by servant leader Key Clubbers, have awesome convention sessions, and elect the new international officers for the upcoming year. The Capital District was very excited to bring over 30 members to ICON this summer! Scroll down to see pictures from our trip!
ICON is Key Club’s International Convention! This year's convention was in San Antonio, Texas! Over 1,000 students worldwide gathered together to celebrate another outstanding year of service. Key Clubbers have the opportunity to attend workshops led by servant leader Key Clubbers, have awesome convention sessions, and elect the new international officers for the upcoming year. The Capital District was very excited to bring over 30 members to ICON this summer! Scroll down to see pictures from our trip!
International Convention Recap!
ICON was an awesome experience filled with pin trading, workshops, and dances. When Capital arrived in San Antonio, we knew that we had an adventured filled week! We started are first day off by exploring the San Antonio River Walk and even got to take a boat tour. Soon after we set off to explore the beautiful city and found many hidden treasures! The next day was Fourth of July and we kicked off the celebration by visiting some of the historic sights in San Antonio. While the day was sweltering hot, we finished it off with some shaved ice and a laser show. We were so excited to be able to visit the San Antonio Zoo and get to know the Min-Dak district while we were on the bus with them.
However the real fun came that night with opening ceremony for ICON! Capital was dressed and ready to represent! We heard the opening speeches from Past International President Devin Sun as well as got to cheer on Governor Maegan when she crossed the stage with the other District Governors. We soon rushed to the Meet and Greet and began the hunt for pins! Meet and Greet was a great way for us to chat with other districts and have fun! However, we all had to sleep early in order to be ready for the next convention filled day.
Day 2 of convention was packed schedule! We started the morning off by attending Courage to Engage and were taught awesome points about what Key Club and volunteering is about. After this session we broke out into several workshops that ranged from Public Speaking 101 to Swing Dancing! Soon we had a break before another Courage to Engage Session where we had a special guest speaker talking to us about Authentic Confidence. She had so many awesome stories to share that made the audience laugh and cry, but she finished off the night with a huge dance party on stage!
Day 3 began with another large group session, but this one had a different twist. Key Clubbers gathered once again to discuss what is their Call to Lead. We had International Children's Peace Prize recipient, Neha Gupta, speak about answering the Call to Lead and how making a difference begin with one person. She discusses the hardships she faced as well as the opportunities she has been granted that allow her to extend her foundations aid across the globe. Soon after we attended workshops until it was time for caucusing. Caucusing was a great experience that allowed Capital to hear the voices of the candidates running for the International Board. The day was wrapped up with our Recognition Session where we watched the crafting of a large caricature, were awed by the talent acts, and lastly recognized for our districts outstanding work! Capital received:
ICON was an awesome experience filled with pin trading, workshops, and dances. When Capital arrived in San Antonio, we knew that we had an adventured filled week! We started are first day off by exploring the San Antonio River Walk and even got to take a boat tour. Soon after we set off to explore the beautiful city and found many hidden treasures! The next day was Fourth of July and we kicked off the celebration by visiting some of the historic sights in San Antonio. While the day was sweltering hot, we finished it off with some shaved ice and a laser show. We were so excited to be able to visit the San Antonio Zoo and get to know the Min-Dak district while we were on the bus with them.
However the real fun came that night with opening ceremony for ICON! Capital was dressed and ready to represent! We heard the opening speeches from Past International President Devin Sun as well as got to cheer on Governor Maegan when she crossed the stage with the other District Governors. We soon rushed to the Meet and Greet and began the hunt for pins! Meet and Greet was a great way for us to chat with other districts and have fun! However, we all had to sleep early in order to be ready for the next convention filled day.
Day 2 of convention was packed schedule! We started the morning off by attending Courage to Engage and were taught awesome points about what Key Club and volunteering is about. After this session we broke out into several workshops that ranged from Public Speaking 101 to Swing Dancing! Soon we had a break before another Courage to Engage Session where we had a special guest speaker talking to us about Authentic Confidence. She had so many awesome stories to share that made the audience laugh and cry, but she finished off the night with a huge dance party on stage!
Day 3 began with another large group session, but this one had a different twist. Key Clubbers gathered once again to discuss what is their Call to Lead. We had International Children's Peace Prize recipient, Neha Gupta, speak about answering the Call to Lead and how making a difference begin with one person. She discusses the hardships she faced as well as the opportunities she has been granted that allow her to extend her foundations aid across the globe. Soon after we attended workshops until it was time for caucusing. Caucusing was a great experience that allowed Capital to hear the voices of the candidates running for the International Board. The day was wrapped up with our Recognition Session where we watched the crafting of a large caricature, were awed by the talent acts, and lastly recognized for our districts outstanding work! Capital received:
- 3rd Place - Non-Traditional Scrapbook - Southampton High School (Division 14A)
- 3rd Place - Traditional Scrapbook - James Wood High School (Division 8)
- 3rd Place - Single Service Award - Silver Division - Southampton High School (Division 14A)
- 2nd Place - Major Emphasis Project - Meade High School (Division 4B)!
- 2 of our clubs were recognized as Distinguished Club Diamond Level clubs:
- Meade High School (Division 4B)
- Southampton High School (Division 14A)
- 10 of our immediate past lt. governors were recognized with the Robert F. Lucas Outstanding Lt. Governor Awards: Johyun Kim (2C), An Dinh (2D), Tea Le (2E), Alexa Putka (2F), Saad Fakhar (6B), Anna Sepanic (7A), Manasha Bhetwal (11A), Christopher Bratcher (13), Maegan Richards (15A), Norah Mulinda (15B)
- 1 of our students was recognized as a Distinguished District Officer – Danny Inglis (Division 7B) as Distinguished Governor!
It was a successful year for Capital! While we were ecstatic that we received that much recognition, we still had one more day of convention left!
Day 4 of convention was truly bittersweet. We began the day with our last group session in which we discussed having the Heart to Serve. Our guest speaker, Jessica Ekstrom brought to light what it truly means to have the Heart to Serve. She talks about her business of making headbands and how it is more than an online store but also a project where each headband sold means a headband is given to a girl with cancer. The intent of her project is to make each and every girl feel special with these headbands and her speech was truly inspiring. In the afternoon we attended House of Delegates in which each International Board candidate delivered a speech. We soon voted on who would become part of this board and would discover the results later that night. At Closing Session, many new surprises were in store! They showed the first glimpse of the new Key Club International website and revealed the location of the next ICON. They also revealed the result of the election and the new International Board was installed. The Immediate Past International President, Devin Sun, gave his closing remarks and passed on the Presidents sword to William Sim! That marked the end of International Convention. See you all next year in Chicago!