By Kaitlyn Foti
Staff Writer

The G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh last week hosted world leaders, national media, global delegates and one Wyncote student.

“Surprisingly, there’s a world outside of Glenside,” said Bill Richter, 17, a senior at Bishop McDevitt High School.

Richter attended the conference with press credentials, covering the event for the “Catholic Standard & Times.” His English teacher, David Horn, set up the excursion and chaperoned Richter during his trip.

The president of McDevitt’s World Affairs Club, Richter set out to go to as many events and hear as many world leaders as possible.

“I wasn’t the huge reporter or anything, but I went to what I thought would take precedence. All the ambassadors arrived Thursday, and Friday was full of events, press conferences and I went where I could,” Richter said.

His itinerary included press conferences with leaders from China, Britain, Brazil, Sweden and the big ticket, President Obama’s press conference. Although he wasn’t able to ask any questions, Richter said being there was impressive enough.

“I wanted to ask Barack Obama a question about education, but maybe I wasn’t pressing enough to get my question answered. I did get on CNN, though. Just in the background,” Richter said.

The whole experience was a bit overwhelming for Richter, who once considered a future career in media. Now, he said, he is planning on pursuing a major in chemical engineering.

“I did some media studies programs. I was interested in media, but after living it firsthand, I’m not sure it’s something I can do. The pressure and the lack of sleep would have killed me,” Richter said.

But through what Richter called the “organized chaos” around the summit, he was able to take in a lot about the world, from the global leaders who have the spotlight, to small nonprofits, protestors and delegates from nonprofit organizations from around the world.

Between sitting in on press conferences, he watched the swirl of press and political leaders and interviewed people on the outskirts of the bedlam.

“I interviewed a woman from Iran. She was with an Iranian women’s rights group. I interviewed and talked with her about a lot of things. Americans sometimes have misconceptions. But she told me Iran was the only country in the Middle East to have a candlelight vigil after Sept. 11,” Richter said.

“It’s something we would never know about, but when some Iranians do crazy things, we stereotype all of them as terrorists, when really a lot of them are pro-America.”

Back in Wyncote, Richter is now focusing on preparing for college. Princeton is his dream school, but he’s also looking at Drexel, Carnegie Mellon, Lehigh and other schools for chemical engineering. But, he said, he’ll never forget the experience of attending the G20 summit in Pittsburgh.

“It took me from Glenside, from my little realm here. It made me see there’s so much going on out there. Not that my life is insignificant, but when they talk about plans, millions of jobs and millions of people’s lives are affected,” Richter said.

“People don’t get a sense of all that on CNN, but millions of people are affected by decisions that are done over a working lunch there.