Empathy to Impact: Student Voices on Global Citizenship Education & Community Engagement

Scott Jamieson: welcome to the empathy, to impact, podcast.

Scott Jamieson: Abigail, Alia and Arna, and they are joining me today to talk about a project they were involved in, and something that they got some recognition internationally for. So I'm gonna pass over to them for some quick introductions, and we're going to dive into our conversation.

Aarna: So good morning. My name is Abigail. I study in Class 11, and I'm from Hyderabad public school Begum Gate.

Aarna: Yeah. So I'm alia same thing. I study in Hbs, and I'm from Grade 11, too.

Aarna: My! My name is Arna, and I'm from Grade 11, too, and I study in HP.

Scott Jamieson: So excited to have you 3 on the podcast today. Because and a big shout out to our friends at Sema Academy, if you're not familiar with Sema Academy. They are like the netflix of social change. It's an amazing

Scott Jamieson: documentary library that you can kind of browse through, that's all linked to sustainable development goals and some really powerful media to kind of launch students into some changemaker projects. I'm going to drop a link to that in the show notes if you want to learn more and some context, if you think this might be a good resource for your school. But these students were recognized as

Scott Jamieson: the 2024 Sema change maker award recipients. And

Scott Jamieson: I want to talk a little bit about the project that led to that.

Scott Jamieson: So how did this all get started at your school. How did you get involved in a changemaker project?

Aarna: Okay. So the project had many verticals as part of it. But our 1st vertical was the Braille project which I headed.

Aarna: and the entire project started out with. So I was going in my car one day, and then I realized that I had a lot of time in my hands. So I thought, you know what? Let's try learning brave. And so I sat down, and I spent like 2 h, and I realized that it was really easy like. Within 2 HI was able to get a hang of the basics, and I thought, you know, there might be a lot more children in my school who are willing to take up such an opportunity.

Aarna: and when I looked around I was so happy to see. We got, I think, 22 participants from Grade 11, and they were all interested. And then we decided there was the Devnat Foundation, which is very close to our school, and so we paid a visit there, and they told us that they had this one audiobook in mind which they wanted to create, and we thought that it would be a perfect opportunity

Aarna: to get a lot of students involved. And so that's how the project started. And then it moved on to something else.

Aarna: So yeah, I headed the Sustainability Development fashion show part of it.

Aarna: So it actually was a show for Children's Day in our school. We celebrate that every single year

Aarna: we just dressed up teachers in costumes.

Aarna: I think Greek mythology characters

Aarna: and the costumes are like made out of

Aarna: things we could find around the house. We didn't buy anything, we didn't stitch anything. Everything was pinned up. So that was the whole project.

Aarna: And then the next one was during our school exhibition. Actually, it was open to many visitors, and the whole project was about natural products used for beauty. So we initially thought it would just be like an internal project like just for the classes. But then we realized that the exhibition was coming up. So we put it open to many visitors, and it was really nice to know all the

Aarna: varieties of descriptions people have of beauty.

Scott Jamieson: Sorry. I'm just taking some notes over on the side. I'm not checking my Instagram.

Aarna: Yeah. We realized it suddenly became silent.

Scott Jamieson: So many questions. I have listening to those really cool projects.

Scott Jamieson: But I want to kind of back things up a little bit.

Scott Jamieson: Where does this fit in your school day like? How do you have space amongst your other studies to get involved with these really cool change maker projects? Is that part of teaching and learning at your school? Or is this something that's part of a club? How does this fit at Hyderabad? Public school.

Aarna: Yeah. So I think it's really inculcated to our daily life, because we have our subject, which is supw and the entire. It's headed by Pratiba, ma'am, and she does an amazing job like immersing us into different things.

Aarna: Something I really appreciate is that she takes up the initiative like anytime. We bring forth an idea, and it's not just us. There are a lot of students who bring ideas to her, and she's so active in bringing it up and like not just our grade, but like, if someone brings a certain idea, she decides like she makes it part of the curriculum, and not just for our grade for younger grades to make sure that

Aarna: you know it becomes a part of your day to day life. And there's so much learning that happens throughout the entire process.

Aarna: And honestly, we're quite privileged that our school takes us up on these different opportunities, and it really is a part of our day to day life. We have a lot of seminars with people coming in and talking about sustainability, and then we have showcases.

Aarna: and I think it's just a part of our school holistically.

Scott Jamieson: I love that I love that. It's part of your school program. You have a course dedicated

Scott Jamieson: to having a space to be able to be change makers and be able to come up with your own ideas, and to have an amazing teacher like Pratib, who is there to kind of support you and help you with these ideas. I think that's so inspiring, and I love hearing your gratitude for your teacher, and you know what you're able to do as a school community. I think that's really amazing.

Scott Jamieson: How did Sema Academy fit into this? You guys watch some of their documentaries, I believe. Can you tell me about how that experience

Scott Jamieson: inspired you to be involved in different changemaker projects.

Aarna: I think.

Aarna: Okay. So my project, which was based on beauty, was majorly inspired by one of Seema's documentaries. I find it gave me such a broad view of how people perceive beauty. We have normalized and like Westernized this this concept of beauty, that your fair skin is, what beauty is. That is not true. Like in many cultures, in

Aarna: in many cultures the natural skin was never white. It is the Westernized notion that white skin is what we raise like in in the documentary itself. There were many kids from various ages like, I'm talking 12 year old child, who

Aarna: who is looking up at these Western models, and and saying that that is what I want to be while knowing that she can never be that because of her skin color. And and I think it is a big part of my project to

Aarna: to promote natural beauty as as like how you see yourself. The way you are is beautiful like that is what my main idea was, and I find really helped me be inspired.

Aarna: And yeah, so my project, it's wholly based on sustainability development.

Aarna: like making the best out of even rush

Aarna: so it wasn't necessarily inspired. But it did help

Aarna: this. There was this documentary called Brighter on it.

Aarna: It's wholly based on women empowerment.

Aarna: But there was a part of it. It's like a company established for women to well persevere.

Aarna: But yeah, so the whole company was based on sustainability development. They used to take, used away cloths or

Aarna: waste items and turn it into beautiful things like handbags, shoes, many things.

Aarna: It was very pretty, and I actually wanted to give it a try. And Prati Bhadar Mang was like, Let's do it. So we did it. Yeah. And I feel like

Aarna: each video is made from such a unique perspective, like one of my favorites is vibrations where, like the entire film, is shot for the 1st few seconds, and then towards the ending, we finally hear a voice, and I think it's all the films are done so incredibly, and there's some like it not? It's not just. You're watching the film. But you're feeling the actual emotion when you're watching it.

Aarna: It's just really inspiring. Watching those films. That is true like. I can watch for that because I had tears in my eyes, and I was physically shaking and crying. By the end of my documentary I find

Aarna: yes.

Scott Jamieson: Media can be so powerful that way we do a lot of media projects with schools. And these are great mentor examples to kind of show how we get that emotional response from our audience and how we kind of use some different filmmaking techniques to be impactful. And I love how these were able to inspire you to design your own changemaker projects, and really kind of diverse mix of projects from these different ideas.

Scott Jamieson: So I want to zoom in a little bit on some of these projects individually, and learn a bit more about them. And one of the things that Abigail said was that really kind of stood out to me. As I'm taking my notes here

Scott Jamieson: I had a little bit of time, so I decided to learn, braille. It just made me smile right like how many people are just maybe stuck in traffic. Well, I'm just wasting my time. What if I learn a new language, but not a language, but something I have to read with my fingers, and I think that's so cool. And the fact that you said, Hey, other people might be able to learn this, too. And there's this community, the

Scott Jamieson: Devnar school.

Scott Jamieson: Am I seeing that right.

Aarna: He is not funny.

Scott Jamieson: Yeah, the Devnair foundation right there in your neighborhood, who supports people with

Scott Jamieson: visual challenges and thought about all right. So I just had this idea. I'm watching some films thinking about being a change maker. I've got some time. And then, hey, what if we collaborated with them?

Scott Jamieson: Can you tell me a little bit about your visit to the Devnair Foundation.

Aarna: I think actually, my visit might be my favorite part of the entire project.

Aarna: So we, when we visited so 1st we had the entire process, and we took permission from our school.

Aarna: and I think it was just the 3 of us, 2 other children and Pratiba, ma'am, who visited the place.

Aarna: and it's such a small school like when you go in. It seems like, you know, it's almost like a secluded area, and there's not much there. But then, as you keep going inside, there are so many classrooms, and they have like a technology center, and they have like printers for printing braille books, and the person that we met a person over there who was the head of the foundation.

Aarna: Speak! He spoke to us for half an hour, and it was incredible, like

Aarna: the way he like. He told me something which will really stick with me.

Aarna: He knows that for every year for each student they require one lakh Indian rupees to not be able to course them, and for giving them all the different privileges.

Aarna: They had only about like 2 lakhs in their account, but they were still going. He told me that if I think about those 2 lakhs that will not allow me to go further and bring in more students and expand.

Aarna: And I was just so inspired. And you know, the 1st time we entered for the project was that we assumed that we would make real books.

Aarna: And then when we reached there, we realized that they had this amazing system where they printed out new books, and they had all types of books. They had educational books to Harry Potter, to Ennett Blyton, and it was amazing.

Aarna: And so when we talked to him, he said, Is there something we could help you out with. He gave us this book, and the book was the most perfect thing, because the content of the book is not. It's not just the like making the book, but the content was how you educate children with visual disabilities. So just by, you know, going through the book and reading every page we could learn so much about the experience itself.

Aarna: And the second visit we got to kind of take a tour of the entire place when we were handing over the audio. And it's just incredible how they've created this system. And I remember another incident was, I was walking down the steps.

Aarna: and I could see a child. He was visually disabled, and he was walking up. And so I decided, you know, let's move to one side so that he could use the railing, and as I moved he also. I don't know how he was able like it's incredible. He knew I was walking down. He knew where I was and he was shifting. And it was amazing, the entire experience

Aarna: and the foundation also makes products. We actually got a few candles. It was incredible, and they do seasonal activities with like every season, like during Christmas, they make candles, and then I think they make diyas during diwali, and all made by the students, and they sell it. And then what profits they make selling. It goes right back into the foundation.

Aarna: and it helps them. And I just love the entire system they had in place, and I love that the people who worked there were so passionate, like students with visual disabilities went forward. They got their masters in teaching, and they came back, and they thought, in the same school. And I think the system is amazing.

Aarna: like everyone should probably visit it once.

Scott Jamieson: It does sound absolutely amazing. I want to highlight something you said that, I think, is so so important

Scott Jamieson: when you identified this as a potential community partner. You had an idea of a service you wanted to do. You thought about creating braille books, but you went in there and had a conversation with that community partner and learned that that wasn't really something they needed. And you were able to, through that collaboration

Scott Jamieson: shift to a project that was really meaningful for you and also really meaningful for them. And I think that's so important when we're thinking about community engagement.

Scott Jamieson: how do we design a project that's reciprocal, that's beneficial to us as learners, but also beneficial to our community partner. I think this is such a beautiful example of that. Just how you were able to kind of have those multiple points of contact

Scott Jamieson: go in and be listeners, be able to say, Hey, we've got ideas. What do you think what would be a good way for us to have a positive impact here and be able to work together to design that solution with the audiobook. I think that's so cool. And I think that's such a great way to kind of highlight a really important aspect of service learning.

Scott Jamieson: I want to shift over to our upcycling fashion show, and

Scott Jamieson: I'm just kind of picturing as you're telling me this story of your teachers kind of dressed in these fabulous outfits. I've seen some pictures, actually, which I'll link in the show notes your teachers dressed based on these fashion ideas that

Scott Jamieson: you create out of entirely upcycled material.

Scott Jamieson: How I'm going to rephrase that.

Scott Jamieson: What was the reaction of your audience when you had your big showcase to this? When people came in? What was kind of the vibe. What did it look like? What did it sound like and feel like you've done all this work? You've kind of put all this into it?

Scott Jamieson: Tell me about the day when that happened? Where? How did that all come together?

Aarna: The day actually took a lot out of everyone. It was very hectic. We had exactly 2 h to prepare every single teacher, and we had to bring in new students so that they could dress up the teachers, but they didn't know how to PIN up the costumes. So the original team had to spread out, and it was a very hectic thing, and one of the teachers was actually in another show. So we had to bring him back within the span of 5, 10 min and dress him up. And he was the showstopper. Actually.

Aarna: he is like the crowd favorite, like our school, is very enthusiastic about things like this. Our students, too. They're very

Aarna: yelly, very cheering. Yeah, yeah. There was like so much noise coming from the lunch hall where we were having the entire show, like everyone, was like so excited, especially since it's like familiar faces of their teachers and our compere. He's amazing. His name is Ayan. Actually, he speaks

Aarna: like that. Whole electricity will come to you. He'll make you shout, even if you don't want to shout. It's like he made it an arena where introducing the different, he introduces and hears the name, and everyone starts shouting.

Aarna: It was like an amazing experience, but it was very tensing, like, yeah. So.

Scott Jamieson: So working backwards. Now, that sounds absolutely amazing. By the way, I just got the energy in that space when you kind of bring this all together.

Scott Jamieson: How did you get there? Let's imagine you've got this idea as a change maker, to use some. You know, everyday materials that are probably just going to end up in the trash, turn that into fashion and to host this big event. So we've got this big, amazing event.

Scott Jamieson: How do we get there. Imagine we're kind of helping some younger change makers say, hey, that sounds like a really cool idea. I bet we could do that. Let's talk a little bit about the process to get from idea to event.

Aarna: Okay. So in the beginning, we just thought of it as a joke. To be very honest, we didn't know we were gonna do it exactly. But then we started to think about it, and it was a very possible idea, especially with our resources and teachers available to model for us. It's a children's day, so why not make it a little fun? Right?

Aarna: So we thought about that. And we had 4 weeks after the event, and we like dedicated 3, 4 days for each outfit, and we thought, we'll plan out 10 outfits. And then the time it just went by like that. And it was 2 weeks.

Aarna: Then the actual work started, and I have to be very grateful for these people because I was micromanaging every single thing, stressing out. They had to take me, and we couldn't find material properly, because we used dupatas and blankets from home and candles and everything

Aarna: like and like nets on the gift boxes that we get during festivals, and like one was trash bags like just trash bags, and like snakes made of tinfoil and paper. It was everything was

Aarna: we get like dry fruit gift baskets for Diwali every year, so we had to take out the satin bottom of it to keep. They keep the dry fruits on the satin. So we took out the satin, made it into a corset top to put it onto one of the costumes.

Aarna: and she was so patient, because, like I remember my outfit, it took so long. I think a majority of the outfit I made was done in the last 3 days, and she would call me like every 3 h like, Okay, is this done? And like, is this ready? Is everything. She was such a good leader like she got everything done on time. That's true, I mean, if I didn't it would have been a massive fail. But.

Scott Jamieson: That's amazing thinking about the leadership skills we develop along the way as we're organizing a big event and how we you know, you say you're grateful for your friends who also took on some leadership roles. But we need someone coordinating that right. And so that's a huge amount of leadership that's going to bring something this huge together. So really inspired by your work.

Scott Jamieson: Arna, I want to jump over to your project and think about. I think this is such an important issue. And I think it's really important to everybody. You know, young people, especially when we're, you know, being bombarded with these unrealistic and

Scott Jamieson: frankly kind of owed to lunch beauty standards that we see in the media.

Scott Jamieson: Tell me about your audience's reaction to to your work.

Aarna: For for my project. It was on an exhibition day like on School Exhibition day, so there were many visitors, because during the exhibition. Parents come, friends come. So everyone. I was a part of Stpw. Exhibition, and then beauty was a part of it. We had a variety of natural products that we can use

Aarna: displayed in in sample sizes, so that the visitors could come and and test them out themselves. We had beetroot lip balm, and we had a variety of oils, and we had home available stuff like coffee grounds and lemons, and anything that can be used which will make your skin feel better. Not about just just

Aarna: look better. Okay. And all these things in in my culture, like in in my household.

Aarna: My parents believe that if you can eat something, then you can apply it on your skin like beetroot potato, and like tomatoes, and all this, even like gives you a glow to your face because of their natural antioxidants. So so our my main

Aarna: goal was was to make everyone realize that they don't need to use chemicals

Aarna: to get their skin in in a certain shape like I wanted them to embrace their own skin like for for many chemicals, people.

Aarna: I see my own friends like teenagers like 1314 year old girls use brightening creams like like it doesn't say that it is a brightening cream, but it it does affect your skin tone right, and and I see them all become so happy with the change in their tone. And and I'm like that is not good for your skin, because over time

Aarna: it's gonna affect your health. It's it's gonna affect how you look like it's it can cause cancer like. For like in in a broader picture. Right? So yeah, like and

Aarna: we had a board set up in which all the visitors could come and write what they thought their definition of beauty was. And that was yeah, like like that was really amazing to see how different people thought about beauty differently. Like many said confidence. Many said knowledge. So it was really amazing to look at that. Yeah, my my main objective was that you should

Aarna: try to use as many natural products as possible. It it does not only makes your skin feel good, but it's also

Aarna: nourishes your skin in a way like.

Aarna: and I think, like the younger kids like we saw smaller girls and stuff like, I think they were like, probably 3, rd 4th graders. They came over and they tried our product. And they were so interested in learning, and not just that I feel like it also starts with a healthy diet. So we also had like raw materials over there, which we talked to them about and just interacting with them. And you know the sharing knowledge with them was really good.

Aarna: and that was actually a Vietroot clipper that was very effective. Actually, it was very popular among kids and adults because they were trying it on, and it looked good on them. It's a natural tint.

Scott Jamieson: So many things I love about that project I love how you become so deeply aware of that issue through, I'm sure a lot of research and finding out. You know, things to make us be well, you know, we talked about healthy eating, but also the products we use are directly connected to our well-being. I love how interactive it was. You're trying to get people's definition of beauty and having them kind of articulate that. But I think it's such an important message

Scott Jamieson: for everybody to really understand that. No, the definition of beauty we see in the media is not

Scott Jamieson: what you know. It's not what we want. It's not what it should be, and

Scott Jamieson: I just lost my train of thought. This is this is why we're not live.

Scott Jamieson: It was right there.

Scott Jamieson: I also love how you didn't just say, don't use this. Don't use this, you said. This is how these things are a little bit harmful for you, or in some cases a lot harmful, you said. What if?

Scott Jamieson: And you had some alternatives for people to be able to say, you know, let's you know it's up to you. Make your choices. You could use this, or you could use this, this organic and good for your skin. And maybe, like some students are passionate about like animals, but these products are not tested on animals, and all these different kind of aspects that we often don't know as consumers. We don't take that deep dive. So.

Scott Jamieson: helping our audience be more deeply aware of this issue, giving them some alternative choices to some of the things they're going to use all the time and giving them a choice, you know, when they're out as consumers

Scott Jamieson: and as consumers, we're it's like the vote right? If we choose to buy

Scott Jamieson: more healthy, more natural, more organic, more safe, better for us products, then eventually, those are the products that we're going to see in the marketplace, you know, when we when we decide, you know, we're not going to use the chemicals anymore, we're not going to use the stuff that's going to cause problems and cause cancer. And, you know.

Scott Jamieson: artificially change our skin towards the unrealistic beauty standard. So I think so many things I really love about that project. I think it's absolutely amazing. So congratulations on how that came together also really love, how like it was part of that exhibition. So you had that big audience coming in all different age levels and being able to kind of share your work. I think that's so important as change makers to be able to

Scott Jamieson: find that audience, maybe through a podcast say to

Scott Jamieson: to showcase, though I think this is important work, and we want to inspire others to be part of this journey with care about what we care about, and to take action and be part of that bigger solution as we work towards a more sustainable future.

Scott Jamieson: What's something that you've learned as part of this experience that you feel is gonna be valuable for you as you continue your education.

Aarna: Yeah. So for me, I think,

Aarna: 2 of the most valuable lessons was number one, like leadership, like

Aarna: learning how to, you know. Divide your time with your academics and learning. You know how to manage a large group of people, and how to make sure that deadlines are met, and you know everything. I think a big problem which I faced in my project personally was time, management and meeting deadlines, and I feel like now when I go forward, and maybe if I try a different project, I'll know how to make sure to get the best use of my time.

Aarna: and the second was to just that. Sometimes what I think a person needs is not what they actually need like

Aarna: by keeping, like.

Aarna: as you said, like, just by listening and understanding what they need. You can understand how to help them better.

Aarna: because at the end of the day the end goal is to make sure that you are helping them, and sometimes what you think might help them may not actually be helping them.

Aarna: So in my project, the main thing I got out of it was patience.

Aarna: I do not have it. I am a very short, tempered person, but dealing with 20 people working on 10 different outfits. It

Aarna: oh, my God. Okay, I micromanage a lot. I cannot have one thing going out of order. It's like, I have. Ocd, but I don't.

Aarna: So yeah. And one day, actually, it was pretty close to the actually, you know, the event day and I had some work, so I couldn't come to school. But there was work yet to be done. So I had to go complete the work. It was actually a blood test, and I came back to school, and I didn't eat anything since the morning.

Aarna: I was feeling fainty, and Prati Bajar Mom literally pulled me aside and gave me a whole ton of food to eat, and was like, if you keep continuing like this, you will faint. Work is important, or you have to take care of yourself. You have to take a step back. Yeah. So that was a huge thing like Patience, and taking care of myself and

Aarna: and for me, like in my project, I really got to understand how children are affected more by their peers and by their seniors than their parents like in my project. Most of the home

Aarna: recipes that we got out of were from 7th graders. 7th and 8th graders, like all of these, were from their home and from their parents, and many kids that that visited the stall were interested because it was being taught by a senior like, you know, when when you're a kid, and you look up to seniors in a way that you cannot really explain, but you really look up to them like

Aarna: like whatever they do you. You feel like you want to pursue it like that. I have understood. And like, yeah, like, kids really came up and were really interested, like they. They spoke to us.

Aarna: And even adults like, I have seen many adults. They they had a sense of their like, a sense of

Aarna: nostalgia from their childhood, because all these remedies were actually like olden times, actually all graders. So and also, I think, like just taking the time to enjoy the process of what you're doing because you're getting to interact with people. And you know we shared so so many of my good memories come from doing these projects.

Aarna: I like just interacting with my peers or my juniors, or with different people.

Aarna: and even the fact that I used to throw away so much

Aarna: everything I used to waste food. I used to like, throw away my used clothes, even my books, and if I'm done I'm done.

Aarna: But now I'm like, Okay, you know what I can use this. I make something out of it. I still have the top that I made out of the satin cloth. Yeah, although it's almost turned. But yeah.

Scott Jamieson: Beautiful. Yeah, we've got all sorts of great stuff there, thinking about time, management, leadership.

Scott Jamieson: patience being a good listener, peer-to-peer learning, and how valuable that can be

Scott Jamieson: so many great things you've highlighted there.

Scott Jamieson: I'm gonna say it wrong again, Alia.

Aarna: Yes.

Scott Jamieson: Alright. I'm good.

Scott Jamieson: Alright.

Scott Jamieson: Abigail Alia and Arna. It's been such a pleasure, having the 3 of you on the podcast. You are so inspiring with your work, and just your energy and enthusiasm for this work is so contagious, so I am so grateful to my friend Veeri at Sema Academy for introducing me to you and highlighting your changemaker, award and helping us to make a connection, to share your story with our podcast listeners.

Scott Jamieson: I'm feeling so inspired by all the work you do and can't wait to hear where this goes next. You guys are still students. There's lots of work left to do. So really, really impressed with your work and

Scott Jamieson: proud of the amazing things you're doing. So thank you so much for being, such great guest on the podcast.

Aarna: Thank you so much for having us.

Scott Jamieson: And it's gonna pop the recording on.