Learning From & Acting With Community Partners in Uganda
Download MP3Scott Jamieson: Welcome to the Empathy to impact. Podcast
Scott Jamieson: I'm your host, Scott Jameson and I am very excited to be visiting the International School of Uganda and I have 6 students who just finish up byp exhibition
Scott Jamieson: for those who don't know. The Pip exhibition is really the big, culminating event of the Pip program where students have an opportunity to use some of the skills they've learned throughout their pip experience to design their own inquiry
Scott Jamieson: and
Scott Jamieson: in investigate something that they care about
Scott Jamieson: and take action to have a positive impact in their community.
Scott Jamieson: So I'm gonna pass things over to my guest today to do some quick introductions.
dhollis: Hi. My name is Lila.
dhollis: Hi. My name is Ariel.
dhollis: My name is Leah.
dhollis: Hi. My name is Maya
dhollis: Hi. My name is Regan. Hi, my name is Phil.
Scott Jamieson: Alright. I'm so excited to have all of you on the podcast
Scott Jamieson: I wonder if we can start right at the beginning
Scott Jamieson: and go back to. We did something called heart mapping when we were trying to think about what our topic was going to be for exhibition.
Scott Jamieson: Can you tell us a little bit about that heart mapping activity, and how that helped you kind of connect to your topic.
dhollis: Hi!
dhollis: Well, the
dhollis: did the heart map about like things we loved, and then we kind of used it to
dhollis: help us decide our inquiry by matching it with a
dhollis: SDG
dhollis: or a good life goal
dhollis: and
dhollis: we tried to mix this together, using a Venn diagram to have like
dhollis: ideas for what our inquiry was about.
Scott Jamieson: Can you tell me a little bit about how that worked for each of you like? What were some of the things that you care about. And how did you make those connections to the different good life goals that are based on the Sdgs.
dhollis: So for me. I really love
dhollis: animals, so
dhollis: looked into my homeland, and I was looking into endangered animals.
dhollis: I wanted to make it a bit local to Uganda.
dhollis: So I chose a specific animal to work on, and I chose chimpanzees
dhollis: for me, and
dhollis: I also really love animals in the planet. And so I wanted to do something to do with animals and pollution. So I decided to go more local and fresh water pollution.
dhollis: Some fact on animals. So then we can work with like Victoria
dhollis: and
dhollis: I I I my passion is like also really animals as well. So I match Adam? I matched
dhollis: a few with good life goals.
dhollis: and we'll do it with you.
dhollis: I picked like I picked my topic to be endanger animals cause I really like to help.
dhollis: No, I'm cool.
dhollis: I
dhollis: I wanted to do something about information because I barely knew anything about it, and I knew it was like a pretty big problem, but I didn't anything.
dhollis: and so I decided to research them
dhollis: alright. We've been both in
dhollis: both did total reach.
dhollis: and for me to
dhollis: the reason we both chose flurries, for our topic is, I mean, we both kind of liked marine animals and had slight fascination with the ocean outage of all animals today.
Scott Jamieson: Those sound like some fantastic topics.
Scott Jamieson: And I like how some of you are connecting those issues, something in your local community.
Scott Jamieson: But I think it's really amazing how we're able to
Scott Jamieson: look at such a broad range of topics and think about how we can connect what we're passionate about with our work towards exhibition.
Scott Jamieson: Now a big part of inquiry, learning is being able to investigate and kind of dig deeper and learn more about some of these different topics.
Scott Jamieson: How are you able to become more deeply aware? Maya, you said that you didn't know a lot about air pollution when you first started? So it was something you had to learn a little bit about. So tell me a little bit from all of you. How did you become more deeply aware of this issue that you cared about.
dhollis: Well, this is how I did this. We first had to do a feature article, and we search enough that
dhollis: something
dhollis: much other things
dhollis: after we have our talking and stuff.
dhollis: And what's I mean? I, one of my things in my feature was, how does it affect
dhollis: humans and animals.
dhollis: and I realize that it affects us way more than we can
dhollis: think of them.
dhollis: Oh.
dhollis: to get rid of me so!
dhollis: And it's true
dhollis: I took like 3
dhollis: I use like the
dhollis: like other beached articles.
dhollis: and that that talked about how evolution was really bad.
dhollis: and I found all about it, and it really helped me
dhollis: learn about it really helped me
dhollis: make my peer. Yeah, this is good as I pass it
dhollis: for me. So
dhollis: after I decided my inquiry
dhollis: like I didn't realize how like
dhollis: how transparencies were super endangered.
dhollis: and I didn't think my inquiry would have a lot of depth, but once I started researching went on. Field trips did a few surveys.
dhollis: and I'm very keen to.
dhollis: I realized that there were 2 that chimpanzees were really really endangered, and we had to do something. So then we moved on to our
dhollis: actions and so and stuff
dhollis: and like
dhollis: overall like I didn't know how big of a problem it was. But now I do
dhollis: so I base my action about the
dhollis: like biggest problems. So I tried to raise awareness. And I did join action with.
dhollis: She's busy with you.
Scott Jamieson: Can you repeat that last part for me just a little bit, and get a little bit quiet.
dhollis: Oh, sorry. So
dhollis: I
dhollis: raised awareness, and I did enjoy action at Gb. And reform Africa with everyone here and few more people.
dhollis: and
dhollis: for me, I I researched about it doing our feature article, and I went on some field trip so I could find out more about like how it's a problem. And like, how are all the different ways it affects animals?
dhollis: And I found out that it also affects humans a lot because some humans don't have clean drinking water just like animals. So they also get sick and they get sicker than animals do. But I also didn't know how sick it like. I didn't think animals got sick. They drink it, but I found out that they can get really sick and die. Second
dhollis: entity sales observation. You need to describe that.
dhollis: And the the way I found out was I researched on a lot of websites
dhollis: on things that you have to look out for when, like
dhollis: when you're like having the animal change for what you have to worry about. And so I researched your like.
dhollis: Like a field trip to a tan pool garden and a tempe where I interviewed.
dhollis: The guide is.
dhollis: and I took on water tests of Lake Victoria.
dhollis: So I wasn't really aware how bad it was for the situation with animals in 2024.
dhollis: So what I did was I really researched and dug in a few websites and found out really how much we were affecting the animals. And so
dhollis: I went on a few field trips to the Zoo to see, to make sure the animals were like in good condition, and they were being fed and watered every day and treated fairly
dhollis: and
dhollis: I also.
Scott Jamieson: That's okay. Take your time.
dhollis: Interview did you interview?
dhollis: I'm thinking.
dhollis: I also interviewed
dhollis: a few
dhollis: employees to see their knowledge of animals, and they also helped me a lot with my research. So I really like, I really found out how much animals were being like mistreated in the wild. But because most of the causations are us.
dhollis: and like pollution, deforestation, many caused by us. So what I decided to do
dhollis: was, I decided to interview
dhollis: a lot of animal experts, and then they told me
dhollis: how much their animals were really like in trouble. So that's why I chose my topic to be endangered. Animals.
dhollis: Did you into think about June.
dhollis: and I also interviewed a professional.
dhollis: a professional in lions.
dhollis: Her name is
dhollis: Jennifer Tolbert, and she really helped me raise more awareness about
dhollis: about how animals are being treated in 2024
dhollis: sort of the
dhollis: her names Colleen Finn.
dhollis: We we at first we didn't know a whole lot about fluoridation and how they were dying.
dhollis: But after a lot of research and and an interview, we got a lot more information.
dhollis: and it was really helpful, particularly
dhollis: sometimes the interview that wasn't easy. How did you get that interview perspective about what's happening to coloration? A lot of the causes of prohibition and other.
dhollis: And the process was we we emailed him about and he wrote back to Sudan and he they talked about it. He finally interviewed him. We
dhollis: a lot of answers to a lot of my questions.
dhollis: Okay, does it happen to marine biologists here from Boston University? How many marine biologists. Did you have to email to? You? Got a response? 5
dhollis: wasn't good.
dhollis: you were afraid. But maybe all of you did 5. And how many of the group.
dhollis: I see. That's pretty fine emails
dhollis: he like said like about 20 back Neli. And then levy Copper is the only one to respond.
Scott Jamieson: I really admire the perseverance, and I think it's so cool that we're able to connect with some of these experts outside of school. But sometimes you're right. Sometimes it doesn't just take one email. Sometimes we really have to have that resilience and keep trying. And it pays off when we can kinda make those connections and help deepen our learning by connecting to people who are working in this field.
Scott Jamieson: Why is this type of learning so important like thinking about this as students? Why is it so important to all of you to have the opportunity to design your own learning and connect that to something that you care about.
dhollis: I think because
dhollis: it's important that we care about problems, because
dhollis: in the future we're gonna be the adults, and we're gonna be as standard as a future decoration that is taking care of the world.
dhollis: And so we have to have awareness of a lot of wealth
dhollis: and like it should like. It's really important to start young. So that you realize like that there are a lot of
dhollis: problems going on the world. So like when you grow up, you can see what you can do to have. You can even start now like you could probably do more when you're a bit like older something and like realizing. Now raising awareness. As I said, since we're the future generation, and we're the ones that would have to solve all these problems started to learn about it. So you could like, know?
dhollis: I think that it's really important, because I've heard a lot of adults telling me, you should learn about this. You're the future generation. You will be able
dhollis: and like a lot of pain. And yeah, plus Dsm, in the future generation we have.
dhollis: we? If we learn about now, we'll be ready for oh, ready to consult.
dhollis: Yeah, I really think that
dhollis: studying it now will really help us raise an air awareness when we're older, and like
dhollis: to really be able to understand it. Now, as we're still in a young age, I think it'll really
dhollis: help our society when we grow up.
Scott Jamieson: Gentleman in the back anything you'd like to share.
dhollis: You can remind us what the question was.
Scott Jamieson: Of course
Scott Jamieson: I was gonna ask. I was asking for you as students.
Scott Jamieson: Why is it important to have these opportunities to design your own learning, and connect it to something that you care about.
dhollis: It's very important for once again, like everyone else, to learn this at a young age. So you can. So you can help in the future. And maybe
dhollis: maybe in just a few years.
dhollis: it's really
dhollis: because properties are very beautiful and important to an ocean ecosystem. And we would
dhollis: want other people to look at them, and I know
dhollis: and help protect them. Corey's are very important to make for the system, and.
Scott Jamieson: Absolutely, we're investigating some really important topics here. And the more we become aware of that, the more we can think about how we're our actions and how we might inspire others have a positive impact and sort of work towards our aspirational future. The future that we wanna live in that's more sustainable and just, and.
Scott Jamieson: you know, full of joy and happiness, I think it's something we want is something worth working towards.
Scott Jamieson: I wanted to go back a little bit and talk a little bit about some of the people in the community you were able to connect with.
Scott Jamieson: Why is it important to
Scott Jamieson: find people outside of our school to connect with. For a project like this.
dhollis: Because so we wanted to like Ray. We wanted to like, have some action to
dhollis: to our inquiries. So connecting with people outside who have already started
dhollis: solving a few of these problems connecting to them and like helping raise words for them and doing stuff like that could also help in the future.
dhollis: Colleagues
dhollis: like as you did like you asked like, what? So what if like locals do we talk to? May and I went to Gbe, which is for green bio energy.
dhollis: and they make like a cold breakfast for for the locals, who who like they have to use charcoal which isn't good for them, and they sign up for their environment.
dhollis: And so Jamie's trying to fix the problem.
dhollis: And so, yeah, those is some of the Logos that we talk to our people that work at Gb.
dhollis: I think it's really important to like. Try and see if you can connect with the other people.
dhollis: I went to
dhollis: like us. And I went to everyone.
dhollis: And I also want to inform Africa. And I learned.
dhollis: yeah, the floods. And
dhollis: that's an air pollution, or even close to each other. But some of the reasons why they happen actually are really similar.
dhollis: and I wouldn't
dhollis: never actually bought that.
dhollis: and if I didn't connect to her I would never.
dhollis: So what I did is with I reached out to a few animal experts, and, as I said before, Miss Miss Jenny Talbord is the is the one I interview. She is a professional
dhollis: yeah, like big cats like lions, sizes, cheetahs.
dhollis: and I learned.
dhollis: and we decided to partner up to erase awareness.
dhollis: for, like the environment, and to try to help save
dhollis: all the endangered animals.
dhollis: and more
dhollis: so
dhollis: I think it's important to connect with experts outside of school, because
dhollis: because people in our school
dhollis: so because they can help just make a couple of things that we don't know about yet, and to include us research.
Scott Jamieson: Absolutely
Scott Jamieson: sir. Go ahead!
dhollis: It's okay.
Scott Jamieson: To be.
dhollis: They're helping 5
dhollis: and.
Scott Jamieson: Sorry. Can you say that again, Fin? Can I get you to start the bit again for me?
dhollis: I have.
dhollis: Is there help! We widened our like research like it's a more of a
dhollis: concerning about the like.
dhollis: like ensuring the full response.
dhollis: like the pros and cons of
dhollis: it's I mean, better to work with that, because we get like these little bit things again. Those are like
dhollis: pay to go. Since there's graduation.
dhollis: You said that it's difficult. So besides the incident, okay.
dhollis: it helps with like better learning, because the Internet might have false information which will trick us into thinking something when it would be wrong.
dhollis: so that you want to be better. She doesn't like
dhollis: change as experts outside of school.
Scott Jamieson: There's definitely some advantages of getting some primary source data. And yeah, sometimes it's challenging. We're looking at our secondary secondary sources to kind of think about reliability there. And we can use kind of our critical media literacy skills to kind of determine whether we're getting good sources of information. But when we can talk to some experts and really understand how we might make a meaningful impact. I think that's really powerful.
Scott Jamieson: And these are big issues like, we gotta. We wanna understand that we're not in this alone. There's other people who are doing some really cool work out there. So I like how some of you are talking about raising awareness or shining a spotlight on some of the really cool work and positive things that give us some hope and give us some good news about things that are happening in our community.
Scott Jamieson: Speaking of this being a big issue, they were tackling. What were some of the strategies that you used to help break down that problem into kind of manageable chunks, and think about
Scott Jamieson: how we can address the root cause of this problem rather than just addressing the symptoms or some tools used? And how are they effective in helping you design your action.
dhollis: One of the ways that we broke it down was we didn't research everything at the same time. And so we were getting all the information on one day, so we got it over time. So it gave us more time to think
dhollis: what action would help the most.
dhollis: and what what what would be the most reasonable to do and what would help the most
dhollis: also to help us plan our action. We did a problem. We did problem trees. So we did 2 big ones for Gbe and re technical hope trees for Gbe and reform Africa to show how they how their
dhollis: okay?
dhollis: And it's in college.
dhollis: Yeah, that they're that. They're early
dhollis: organization connects to all of our different inquiries.
dhollis: Yeah. And like, like, Leah said, we we connected with Gbe to really
dhollis: help break down the problem
dhollis: and reform Africa. So
dhollis: we just so when we decided to partner with them, we partnered with them, cause they are non non governmental organizations, and everything they make is environment friendly, like reform. Africa makes these bands.
dhollis: these shopping bags out of plastic evolution in the lakes
dhollis: and gbe green bio energy makes environment friendly briquettes. So like coal is made out of trees right?
dhollis: So that's one of the
dhollis: having Charles made added cheese. Right? So that's one of the one of the reasons
dhollis: workstation is happening because people need to use charcoal, because as for them. They think it's like
dhollis: no other options, but briquettes are
dhollis: 100
dhollis: which has made that robbery
dhollis: water heisen from agricultural ways.
dhollis: and so many people don't know that that's another option and a safer and a safer option. Better option for the environment. And yeah.
dhollis: the hotel's really managed to realize
dhollis: now, all of our priorities really connected.
dhollis: and how? And it really helps and I think everybody and I think everybody, especially after usually started during the what should we do for action during at the end of this? And then, and I think everybody really liked how form Africa, you know, before Africa, like, say, like, took a plastic match from
dhollis: the ground, whichever burned or just left there for to upgrade with us. And how do you export horizon
dhollis: that? And I think everybody really enjoyed hearing about it, and that's
dhollis: embryonite
dhollis: for us. It was difficult to find those people.
dhollis: and for things
dhollis: Vanessa.
dhollis: difficult to find
dhollis: like our so.
Scott Jamieson: Alright. And I'm gonna get you to start again in just a sec. Okay.
Scott Jamieson: can you guys come just a little closer for me in the in the back.
dhollis: Right?
dhollis: Right? You need to think about the.
Scott Jamieson: You guys are good. I've been to France.
dhollis: Yeah, you guys come close to the one.
dhollis: I don't even know what is.
Scott Jamieson: Alright! Break anything when you're ready.
dhollis: We're ready.
dhollis: They make reusable fashion
dhollis: exactly until the
dhollis: I'm
dhollis: for us. It was difficult to find. Like a source of for our action. It was difficult for us to do stuff because we're in a land rock country, and it doesn't have all these.
dhollis: So it's really difficult to fill their format, since they had something to do with us when our inquiry
dhollis: it just popped it from my first from
dhollis: plastic. They think plastic bags from like that people leave, for in the sewage that they applaud us, and they like them, and it makes you make them very use usable plastic bags.
dhollis: Scott. I think I might have to move patience because it's sad to rain, and this the classes coming in. So I might just find a bit of a classification.
Scott Jamieson: Alright. Yeah, I'll pause the recording and we can jump back in. I just get about 2 more questions.
Scott Jamieson: So after all this work.
Scott Jamieson: all your inquiry work, and meeting with community partners and designing your actions and raising awareness.
Scott Jamieson: How did it all feel to finally get to share all this work out at exhibition with your audience.
dhollis: Well, it felt good because we had done like so much work, and it was not an easy process, and like sharing it all kind of felt good, but was also felt good that we had
dhollis: finished it, and we had like accomplish what we wanted to, and we had just like done so much, and it felt good to share it and like finish it
dhollis: for me like like you said it felt really good to know that all that hard work and pressure of not feeling like you're not gonna finish it in time.
dhollis: ended up you making an amazing project
dhollis: and the sharing it with both of people and
dhollis: and share and sharing all these problems are worldwide. It felt like really awesome because
dhollis: we we had, like all that hard work has actually made some people aware of what's going on in the world.
dhollis: For me it felt good, but I was also nervous because we had done all that work. But what if we messed stuff like every time? So then you did all that work? And then you did like a horrible project.
dhollis: So like, like, say, like, so you did all that work. But then, what if you messed up really badly? And everybody noticed. Then you basically did all that work for nothing.
dhollis: Yeah, I had a little bit of that one, too.
dhollis: So for me and Finn, it felt very good to finish, because, like everyone else, said, after all that hard work done, it felt very relieving to finish, and made no mistakes, even though it was a little bit hard to present. It still felt good finishing, and we did accomplish our goal.
Scott Jamieson: And that's a big accomplishment. We did a lot of work leading up to that, and I'm sure it was just a really good feeling. And even if it's not perfect, I think we're doing some really cool work here. That's gonna make a difference. And that sort of leads me to my next question.
Scott Jamieson: what would you say to other students who are listening to this? And maybe they're feeling a little bit overwhelmed by some of these big issues, and they think you know, nothing I could do could really make a difference.
Scott Jamieson: What could you say
Scott Jamieson: to these students about
Scott Jamieson: the impact they might be able to have through their actions.
dhollis: I would say that if they were stressed I'd say, don't think about it too much.
dhollis: and just work hard enough, and get it, get it done so you can. You can relax a little more.
dhollis: So yeah. And I would say that all their hard work would pay off, and then maybe wouldn't have to worry that much because after it's all done, it wouldn't seem like that. But a big of a of a problem anymore. And once you start once you start doing it, it's not. Gonna it's not really gonna be like as.
Scott Jamieson: Can I pause you there, Finn? I'm just gonna clarify my question. I'm thinking about the impact, not necessarily getting our work done for exhibition. But thinking about the impact we can have to our actions in our community like that kind of positive change that we're working towards.
Scott Jamieson: So I just wanna clarify my question just a little bit.
Scott Jamieson: Ray can go ahead
Scott Jamieson: orphan me
Scott Jamieson: up to you guys.
dhollis: Okay, your first video, can I go?
dhollis: I'd say that like
dhollis: it would have, no matter what you do, even if you make a really small change. It will. Some. Someday it will seem like a really big change.
dhollis: And also
dhollis: like, it's okay, like, you will have help on the way, and like it's like the small like, she said. The smallest thing can make the biggest difference. And like we did. You could also do like a joint action, but like the action isn't really stressful, neither is the pipx, if you like. Manage your time well and like. Don't be worried, cause you will have help along the way, but
dhollis: there are like things to guide you through it.
dhollis: And I'm like, just if you feel a bit overwhelmed at first like, just know it's gonna be. It's gonna be fine in the end. And you're gonna feel amazing cause of
dhollis: what it's about like he means like it's only about it'll be okay, like, what if you feel overwhelmed about a problem?
dhollis: M,
dhollis: well, don't worry, because in the end it's gonna be
dhollis: fine, and you're gonna feel great about what you've accomplished. I think.
dhollis: I would say no one can do all of it alone, but every every person doing one thing helps and so just do what you can to help fix the problem. But just know you're not gonna get it all done here alone.
Scott Jamieson: I think that sounds amazing. And I'm just gonna or sorry. Gentlemen, do you wanna jump in.
dhollis: And then and also maybe no matter like, like, how slow you're getting through. All the steps you're taking is is, gonna get you close to your to your goal.
dhollis: You should not be worried.
dhollis: My escape.
Scott Jamieson: I love what I'm hearing. I think it's so empowering and inspiring to listen to all of you and the work you've been doing, and I think you're absolutely right, something that I really believe, too. It comes back to what Lila said. If all of us kind of work towards some of these small positive changes. Imagine the impact we could have, and also imagine how we might be able to inspire others
Scott Jamieson: to join us and connect with us with what we care about and join us in. Our action is so empowering. And this is really how change starts.
Scott Jamieson: So I'm so impressed with all the work you did. I'm so inspired, and I just wanna say thank you to all of you, to Leah and Lila and Maya Ariel, Regan and Finn. It's been so great to meet you and listen to some of your stories about your learning through these projects, how you're able to connect with community partners and design actions together collaboratively to have that positive impact in your community.
Scott Jamieson: I am really grateful that all of you were able to take some time to chat with me today on the Podcast and thank you for being such fabulous guests.
dhollis: Thank you.
Scott Jamieson: Alright, I got one more thing for you guys to do alright. I'm gonna I'm gonna get Mr. Dan to count you in.
Scott Jamieson: and I'm gonna get you guys to say together for me, thank you for listening to the empathy to impact podcasts.
Scott Jamieson: Alright. So let me say, one more time. Thank you for listening to the empathy to impact. Podcast so Mr. Dan's gonna count you in, we're gonna try to see it altogether. We cool.
dhollis: To impact.
Scott Jamieson: In one take. You guys were fantastic, alright, that was awesome. I'm gonna turn off our recording here.
dhollis: Then.
