
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 26, 1992                   TAG: 9203260384
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: W-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Charles Stebbins
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SALEM HIGH STUDENTS JOIN U.N. ENVIRONMENTAL TALKS

A group of Salem High School students recently went into an area usually reserved for international diplomats and had their say on the global environment.

They were in the auditorium and backstage area of the United Nations in New York, participating in a United Nations International School student conference.

They were among 500 students, mostly from the United States and Canada.

The program on March 5 and 6 involved speakers who discussed various aspects of the global environment. Part of the program included discussion groups and a student forum for participants to give feedback on points made by the speakers.

Material from this conference will be presented at another session in South America in June.

John Hall, principal of Salem High, said his school was invited to join the program by the United Nations International School in New York City. That school, for children of diplomats and staff members at the U.N., arranged the program.

Salem High and the U.N. school got together because they are members of the International Baccalaureate Organizations, which has headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Hall said.

Two of the students who attended the program from Salem High said they were impressed by the speakers and the many cultures represented in the gathering.

Amy Woodward, 18, and Henry Tien, 16, both had been to New York City before, but it was a first visit for many of the others.

Woodward said the U.N. program was "really a great experience," and she hopes what was done there will have some impact on the world's environmental problems.

Tien said that being in New York and seeing many urban problems firsthand made him realize how much is taken for granted by people in places such as the Roanoke Valley, where crime, poverty and many other urban problems are on a much smaller scale.

The other Salem High students attending were Donna Albano, Dreama Towe, Selena Colvin, Lesley Davis, Jack Miller, Colby Warr, Shane Miles, Steven Magenbauer, Todd Gleeson and Luqman Wade.

They were accompanied to New York by Hall and Terry LaRocco, head of the social studies department at Salem High.

by CNB