On Saturday, February 24th 2024, SENCON 2024, the first student-organised conference of The Junior and Senior School, themed “Empowering the Voters of Tomorrow”, took place at the Senior School Campus in Latsia, Nicosia.
In light of the upcoming euro parliamentary and municipal elections, SENCON was a one-day, debate-focused conference centred around the topics of voting and elections, aiming to raise awareness and spark discussions.
Active citizen participation among younger generations is a highly critical and important issue and misinformation and lack of awareness in electoral processes has been contributing in increasing abstention percentages locally and internationally. The aim of the conference is to raise awareness of the voting process, highlighting the importance of participating in democratic processes.
Students from the school attended the conference, as well as participants from the American Academy Nicosia, Fraco-Cypriot school, Lyceum Dasoupolis, Lyceum Ethnomartyra Kyprianou, Lyceum Paliometoxou, Med High Private English School Larnaca, Pascal English School Larnaca, The English School, The Falcon School, The GC School, The Grammar School, and Xenion High School. The day conference included speeches and presentations in plenary and groups as well as group work.
The conference was addressed by Savia Orphanidou, on behalf of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Professor Niyazi Kızılyürek, Member of the European Parliament, Nektarios Nicolaides, representative of the European Parliament Office in Cyprus, Andri Christofides, Europa Direct, Executive Manager Home4Cooperation and Chrysostomos Kridiotis on behalf of the sponsors, Logicom.
The SENCON Secretariat was Emily Kyriakides, Andriana Dombo, Stephanos Artemis and Fatima Sanjakdar, under the supervision of their teacher Nicholas Shiaxiate.