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

Scott Jamieson: Welcome to the empathy to impact. Podcast we are visiting NIST international school in Bangkok today. And I am connecting with some year 6 students to talk about community partners, week

Scott Jamieson: community Partners Week is something that happens. This is the 3rd annual community Partners Week at NIST,

Scott Jamieson: where our high school service leaders connect with students in our elementary school to work together, work with community partners in the community, to really think about how we are having a positive impact as global citizens. This is going to be a 2 part episode where we're going to be working with the students from year 6 today.

Scott Jamieson: and also connecting with some of the high school student leaders to talk a little bit about the behind the scenes of community partners week and check in with them as well. So today we are featuring some year 6 students from NIST, and I'm going to pass over to them to introduce themselves

Hannah: Hi! I'm Vivi! And I'm a year 6 student here at NIST.

Hannah: Hi! My name is Stella, and I'm also a year 6 student at Miss

Hannah: Hi. My name is Charlotte. I'm also a year 6 student analyst. Hi, I'm sorry. And I'm also a year. 6 student analyst

Scott Jamieson: So great to have you guys on the podcast. I want to start big picture.

Scott Jamieson: what is community partners week?

Scott Jamieson: How has that impacted? You know your school community, and maybe just a little bit about the details of what it is for schools that don't have something like this at their school

Scott Jamieson: anything whatever. You guys got this, just start out and we'll kind of feel with someone start and we'll kind of jump in together.

Hannah: Basically community partnership. Week here at NIST basically means all students in all of NIST get to take action in their own way

Hannah: and to help the world. And different year levels work with different part community partnerships, and like Bangkok or Thailand and but in year 6 we did we split into like 8 groups, and we went and did different. Different went to different community

Hannah: places. Some people stayed on campus, and some people went off campus. Like Benji Kitty Park. They went to some students, went to Benji, Kitty Park and picked up like rubbish and other other kids stayed at NIST and like learnt more about their part about their community partnership

Scott Jamieson: So you talk about 8 different opportunities for year 6 students.

Scott Jamieson: How did you choose? Which of those that you were? Gonna be part of

Hannah: Since

Hannah: taking action on something isn't about you. It's about helping someone else. So we didn't get to choose where we went. It was randomized each class

Hannah: split into 8 groups, and then the same groups from different classes got together and met like once. And then they went

Hannah: to their basis places. Yeah.

Scott Jamieson: And were you working with those same groups throughout the week as you're working on your projects?

Hannah: Yes.

Hannah: we were some like we'd have like in each day, normally like maybe not on the very beginning of the week. But further on into the week, like on Tuesday, Wednesday, not Wednesday, because on Wednesday we had, like a whole day, we were just focusing on our community partnerships and like helping and going off campus, or staying on campus, and just really learning about it, and like doing our actions. But after the after that, on like Thursday and Friday and Tuesday we

Hannah: we'd have like a specific time like we call them periods and we'd and we'd go meet up with them and learn about it. Get prepared for like Wednesday, when we'd go off campus or stay on campus, and we'd also and like, and they would be with all the, with all the students in our classes.

Hannah: in like different classes.

Scott Jamieson: When you started this week. How did you kind of get into the flow of the week? How did the High School Service Co students support you with that work at the very beginning, when thinking about that 1st Monday

Hannah: On Monday. We just. We started the day, I think, with an assembly where the high school students presented some some stuff on how the week was going to go.

Hannah: And yeah, okay, thank you.

Hannah: Yeah, we did like. And there was also like, yeah, we we learned about like like, like indirect and direct action. And they they talk to us about that. So like direct action would be like

Hannah: going like the Benji Park, going to Benji Park and picking up the trash, or like at like, or actually going to second chance Bangkok and making stuff out of like

Hannah: like recycle, recycling things and making them into new, but in indirect would be like

Hannah: like in Uzi gooey brownies. We learned about neurodiversity. And but we didn't. And we like put some posters up. But it what we weren't actually going. And like that, they're still both action. But they're direct and indirect.

Hannah: We we just learned about all aspects of service in general. Yeah, yeah.

Hannah: 2 other forms of action are advocacy, which is, for example, making posters for us. A pet house, and research is researching about something, and how you can help

Scott Jamieson: Right. We have all these different ways. We can take action.

Scott Jamieson: and it might be indirect service where we're doing some work, but not directly working with that group. I mean, we're doing something kind of behind the scenes or to support them. We might be doing some research might be doing some advocacy where we raise awareness about some of these amazing community partners and the work they're doing and helping others to understand a little bit more about that.

Scott Jamieson: and it might be working directly with people or animals or nature where we're directly. That was a great example of that going out to do the park cleanup, because sometimes our community partner is not a person. It's a place. And that's kind of okay, too. And so

Scott Jamieson: I think it's really cool when we can kind of understand how service works, and also that it might not fit neatly into one of those boxes. Right? We might be doing some research and direct service or research and advocacy, or indirect service and direct service.

Scott Jamieson: Right? It might be a combination of those, I think, that can be really neat when we can kind of be able to kind of look at those different aspects and see how our skills, you know what we're what our talents were interests, our skills, our hobbies, what we're passionate about, what brings us joy, how that connects with

Scott Jamieson: a need in the community. I think that's kind of where the magic happens, and that's really, I think, connects back to Pypx as well. Thinking about how what we care about it meets the need of the world, and kind of an action that we might take.

Scott Jamieson: So

Scott Jamieson: how does this connect to you guys are working in year 6 to your big Pyp culminating project, the Exhibition.

Scott Jamieson: How did community Partners Week connect to your work as with exhibition?

Hannah: Well in exhibition. We have to obviously research about the topic that we're interested in. But we also another aspect of it is taking creative action

Hannah: towards

Hannah: helping solve the part. The like. Like. The problem that you were like in our pypx. Big central idea is

Hannah: Peaceful coexistence requires people to create creative action towards a reimagined future. And so that helps like that, creative action helps us like, get ready for like pypx. How we can take creative action

Hannah: and like it also helps us know, like like we researched. And so it was getting us prepared for like researching about our topic. And pypx, or like, also told us about, like what types of actions there are, because in pypx will most likely have to take in a creative action on our topic. And so that helped us like, learn like what types of action we can take.

Hannah: And so it was sort of like a like it was sort of getting us ready for qipx, or and as well as helping

Hannah: anyone else, I'm gonna do

Hannah: It was also

Hannah: community partnership week also helped us when we were thinking about our pypx topic, about how can we take meaningful action on something that

Hannah: makes the community community better?

Hannah: Yeah.

Scott Jamieson: Go ahead, baby!

Hannah: Webpx. Because

Hannah: because you might not, you might not think that cleaning up the park is something small, but like it can have a chain reaction.

Hannah: just like how a disappearing species could have a chain reaction. People could start doing it, too. And so I think that's why another. That's why also other schools should do it. Maybe others will, too. It's like it also teaches, like,

Hannah: students and kids like our age and younger levels how to be like a global citizen and how to be like kind and how to look after their community. It's it's like it teaches us in very important things to go on into like life, and like that which will

Hannah: it will. It helps everyone. And so, like, I, I feel like, if what lots

Hannah: most schools. It's a really good thing to do, because it teaches, like students how to like care after they care for their community, how to like, make a change, and like what kind of changes are good, and if you like, because, like not, all change is good, like you may be trying to make a impact, but you might might end up making it worse. So also teaches them that how like, what type of action is good and what type of action you shouldn't do

Hannah: or like how to do it. The right way

Hannah: connecting to that community partnership week

Hannah: also shows us how good, how good action

Hannah: is carried out, and it shows us how we can

Hannah: maybe take the good action and not bad action. During pypx

Scott Jamieson: Beautifully set and so much there that I think is amazing.

Scott Jamieson: And I like how you're talking about this idea of mindsets for the future and thinking about how you know. Even if it is a small action like connecting back to something Vivi said, we might inspire others to take action with us.

Scott Jamieson: I think that's kind of where the magic of exhibition is, because we've gone through this experience ourselves, this self-guided, self-directed inquiry, learning that we're doing as part of exhibition. And then we're sharing that out with our whole community.

Scott Jamieson: And it's amazing work when we can take action. But imagine if we can inspire 10 or 20, or 50 or a hundred other people

Scott Jamieson: to take that action with us all of a sudden. It's a movement like things are happening. We're moving towards that future that we want. And I think that's really exciting.

Scott Jamieson: another thing you guys were talking about, there was kind of making me think a little bit. This was something that Stella said. I think about how you know. Not all change can be is good change. And sometimes we need to really think about action or sorry was that Charlotte who said that? Yeah. And I think that

Scott Jamieson: my friend Zoe, at the Institute for Humane Education. They talk about solution. They have a solutionary framework and to talk about to be a solutionary. There are no perfect solutions. These are complex big issues. And we need to think as solutionaries to

Scott Jamieson: design solutions that do the most good and the least harm, recognizing that there aren't perfect answers for this. But if we can look at small ways that we can have a positive impact.

Scott Jamieson: I think that's pretty huge.

Scott Jamieson: And I think that's why, like having that call to action

Scott Jamieson: to our audience at exhibition can be so important to, you know, we found something we really care about. We're passionate about this. How do we inspire others make them more aware of this issue. Help them care about this with us, and help them be part of their action, and we create this belonging and unity around this issue. And I think that's so cool.

Scott Jamieson: We talked about this a little bit. Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

Hannah: Nice

Scott Jamieson: We have talked about this a little already, but there were so many different community partners and opportunities to connect during this week. I wonder if you could highlight maybe your own personal experience with the community partner you are working with, or just share some of the other opportunities

Scott Jamieson: at school, because each year level in elementary all the way down to Ey was working with community partners that week. And I think that's so amazing. Just the diverse groups that your school has to work with and are working with at different levels in your school that are making positive impact in the world and having an opportunity for you to work directly with them. We talked about those different aspects of service

Scott Jamieson: in a lot of cases. This is an opportunity to directly connect. I think that's really powerful. So I wonder if you could share, maybe your own personal experience, or just some of the other opportunities that were going on during that week.

Hannah: My personal experience, I went to Benjaquitty Park to clean up trash.

Hannah: We also learned about what how harmful that could be to all the animals and their habitats the ecosystem in that park.

Hannah: That park is a break of like the city air. It gives us oxygen and a space to be and be ourselves, and the animals help us. And that trash really doesn't. It does the opposite. So we cleaned it up. And we also learned about the concepts of wabi-sabi. This Japanese concept about how

Hannah: natural things are beautiful. They're not perfect things with old age are simply beautiful. Yeah.

Hannah: So there were a lot of community partners that we worked with, but the one that I worked with was Bangkok Community Health Foundation, where we

Hannah: packed and distributed 500 meals to the homeless people in the community.

Hannah: Bangkok community help foundation does this every day, twice a day, 500 meals to different locations, and I thought it was really special, because most of the people that work there are volunteer. They volunteer to work there. So they

Hannah: know that what they're doing is helping, and they're sacrificing some of their own time to go and work there. And I thought it was really special.

Hannah: So

Hannah: like, still said there were so many community partnerships. But the one I was working with was Uzigoi Brownies. So it's created by a secondary student called Astrid.

Hannah: and she has autism and

Hannah: And so she she create, create. She bakes brownies and sells them, and donates the money that she gets to soy dogs.

Hannah: And so we learned a little bit about that, and we but we and we baked brownies.

Hannah: and that that they sell that we sell sold at the community partnership market and

Hannah: but and we learned a lot about how about neurodiversity? And we learned how like it can be so hard for kids with neurodiversity to like fit in and stuff, and how there's lots of like discrimination during to it, and how like it must be, how hard it is. For, like maybe, like homeless people, to have a neurodiversity and still make a living because most of them are unemployed. Heaps of neurodiverse people are unemployed.

Hannah: And so we learned a lot about that.

Hannah: We also made posters

Hannah: and to put around the school to make to help neurodiverse people feel more fit in. And we. I think it was pretty cool that a group because I didn't. I hadn't even I didn't know what neurodiversity was before that I had no idea that there was people like that that were struggling so much. And so I feel I feel really glad that I was. I learned about that, and I learned how I can help.

Hannah: Yeah, I worked with a group called 99 hives.

Hannah: which basically what they do is they

Hannah: they work with bees. They put hives in different places, and they promote like urban beekeeping as a whole.

Hannah: And so what we did is they came to put some bees in a garden we have at school.

Hannah: and what we did was, we learned about the bees 1st of all, and then we painted some hives

Hannah: and decorated them so they could like.

Hannah: be up in the garden that we have

Hannah: come. Do you want to say something about how they're actually gonna be here today that these will come and live.

Hannah: You could share that part. Yeah.

Hannah: the bees are currently working on moving in to their new hives.

Hannah: and they'll come on Earth day you said, Yeah.

Hannah: and help pollinate a bunch of them

Hannah: crops and plants we have in the garden

Scott Jamieson: That's so cool. And I think that's sometimes a challenge with some of our community gardens at schools. There's a school I work with in Singapore who were working on self pollinating because they don't have a bee population up there, so they have to kind of go around and do the bees work themselves and being able to have bees on campus, I think it's so cool, and if I remember correctly, there's something interesting about these particular bees

Hannah: Yeah, they're stainless.

Scott Jamieson: Stingless, because that's often, you know, people worry about having bees on campus. They worry that students are going to be out and get stung but stingless bees who are going to be pollinating and supporting biodiversity at our school. Amazing

Hannah: And on camp we got to like we went on year 6 camp. We went to we went to a place that works with elephants and bees, and I actually held one of those bees on my hand.

Hannah: and we got to taste some of the honey. Yeah, same, it was really cool experience there. Yeah.

Hannah: And like, I thought it was really cool. How they don't sting, you know.

Scott Jamieson: Very cool. I think that's so exciting. What a great opportunity for you guys in the future! Maybe that's something as a club in the Nyp or Dp. As you're kind of working your way through school, I have more opportunities to kind of work with those bees as they finish their moving in on campus. I think it's so cool. And I also love just the diverse experiences you guys get to have.

Scott Jamieson: whether it's out cleaning up a park or working with a group that's, you know, creating meals for homeless people, looking at bees, thinking about neurodiversity, which is an important topic as well, and the different types of service you guys were able to engage with

Scott Jamieson: what were some new things. You've talked about this a little bit already, and I just want to kind of build on this.

Scott Jamieson: What were some new skills that you learned that you can kind of keep in your back pocket, that you might find useful. Maybe later on.

Hannah: It's not one skill that wait. Can I say that again?

Scott Jamieson: Yeah, first, st

Hannah: A skill that I learned while I was

Hannah: working with Bangkok community help foundation. And just at the start of the community partnership week, was

Hannah: it? Was it really like when we were randomizing? You're like, Oh, I really hope I get this one. But then you think

Hannah: this isn't about you. It's about how you can help other people. So it really

Hannah: taught me that. Some things

Hannah: are for you and some things you're doing to help other people. Not so that you can feel good about yourself

Hannah: and not just to add on, but a plus that normally like basically like 99% of the time when you do something good, you feel good inside as well cause it. You feel like you're making a change. You feel like you're doing actually something that's really like, you're helping people. You know, you're making a change in in like your community

Hannah: and like your community, you you go, you walk through your community every day. You see these problems, and normally, you'd think.

Hannah: I wish I could help them. But I can't. And then, but with community partnership. You're like it. They teach you. And you're like, I can actually help them. I can actually make a difference.

Hannah: Yeah, everyone can make a difference. Once they like, open their eyes and see what you can do to help, instead of just looking at all these things and be like, oh, I wish I could help like looking at them and feeling instead of like, I've learned that like, instead of looking on people who like have lots of challenges in life, or like

Hannah: like people like or like places, instead of feeling. Oh, I'm so sorry! I wish I could do something. I I push that away, and I say, what can I do to help like? What can I do to help them? That will actually make a difference, because me.

Hannah: I hate to say. But me saying just me thinking or saying that. Oh, I wish I could make a difference isn't making a difference. It's not. It's not a job done. You need to actually make a difference. And I feel like that's what most people just do that. But I feel like, if you want to make a difference, you actually need to put yourself out there. You can't wait for the opportunity or like something to come to you. You've got to put yourself out there

Scott Jamieson: Beautifully said. And I, 100% agree. I think it's really easy to kind of feel a bit overwhelmed with some of the issues we're facing, especially, we think about big global issues. And sometimes like looking at, like the Sustainable Development goals, for example, these are big big issues. And sometimes we feel like they're too much. But if we can unpack those and bring those down to a manageable level and think about what does that look like, what does that sound like? What does that feel like? Right in my community?

Scott Jamieson: We might see opportunities. And just like, you guys are saying, this is empowering to feel like. Yes, we can.

Scott Jamieson: We can make a difference. Our actions matter. And we're not just on a bus driving toward the future that's already planned.

Scott Jamieson: We can shape that future through our actions. And these millions and millions of small little actions we inspire others to join us

Scott Jamieson: does have an impact. And I think that's such a powerful mindset.

Scott Jamieson: And I love how you guys are talking about how it's come up a couple of times. Service isn't about us.

Scott Jamieson: And I think that's so so important. You know, we think about whether we're on Instagram or wherever and people are, just, you know. Hey, look at me. I'm doing something good, but you know it's kind of sometimes focused in the wrong place. And if we can kind of think about how you know. What can we do to make a positive impact? I think that's huge.

Scott Jamieson: I want to circle back to something that Charlotte mentioned a few moments ago. Talk about a market. What were we talking about there

Hannah: Thank you.

Hannah: In the market.

Hannah: I think year 5 and 6, maybe all the year levels. They presented what they did, some sorts of stuff. Some just like showed what they did.

Hannah: So I think there was like, yeah, as Charlotte mentioned, there was Brownie selling some

Hannah: places just like presented what they did with posters or like

Hannah: artwork. And there's photos of what they did.

Hannah: and also there was secondhand stuff that you could donate, and everything that you bought there went towards a good cause

Scott Jamieson: Anything else to add anyone else

Hannah: Also, do you remember how much our market raised? Yeah, it was like like a thousand or something like from 35,000 for all of our community partners. Maybe you can speak to that part.

Hannah: Or if you're not comfortable, someone else can. It's okay.

Hannah: In the so in the market, we raised in total

Hannah: 35,000 bot to help our community partners to

Hannah: so like donate, donate to them, help them keep doing the good things that they're doing.

Scott Jamieson: Right. So we've got that cool mix of direct service when working directly with our community partners, also a little bit of indirect service at the end of the week, as we celebrate our learning with our marketplace, and be able to raise a little bit of money and be able to help support them that way as well. I remember when I was on campus during Pinktober a year ago, and there was a big marketplace happening there a lot of the High School service groups.

Scott Jamieson: We're showcasing some of the work and selling some products from their work with community partners. And I think it's so cool. And we're able to do that because not only are we, you know, raising some money for our community partners, but also raising awareness about some of these different groups that we're working with.

Scott Jamieson: and some of the good work that they're doing in the community as well, because a lot of times people just don't know. There's a lot of really cool things happening in our community, and we're just not aware of all of them. So the more we can kind of raise that up through our work. I think that's really exciting.

Scott Jamieson: Coming back to exhibition.

Scott Jamieson: How has this maybe changed your thinking or inspired some aspect of your project moving forward. Maybe you can share a little bit about the direction that your exhibition project is going and how community partnership week has impacted your project

Hannah: Right.

Hannah: So Miree partnership week influenced specifically the topic choices

Hannah: in an exhibition like for example, how we we not only work with bees. But we also work with how urban beekeeping can help reduce poverty.

Hannah: and that really influenced my decision to have a big idea

Hannah: in specifically my exhibition on poverty, and

Hannah: how big of an effect that is. And so for my for my

Hannah: my project. I think for neurodiversity. I hadn't realized how many people like have neurodiversity and are in in poverty, and and they can't get the help they need. And so that enforced mine. I'm I also. So, my pypx. I'm leaning towards doing people in poverty's basic needs, like health care, access to free water, access to food and shelter.

Hannah: I think community partnership, adding on to those 2,

Hannah: a community partnership we helped me realize that these actions weren't actually capable of, and in previous years I was looking up at like the Pypx students, I'm like, how did you do this like? Is this even possible? You're just students. But now I realize that, like anything is possible.

Hannah: See, like small actions can lead to big actions. Right? Yeah. And community partnership rate

Hannah: influenced my thinking throughout this process like.

Hannah: I know what I want to do my topic about. But can I really take action on that? How do I figure out what needs help? My community and what I need myself can help with, so

Hannah: yeah,

Scott Jamieson: If we think about sustainable development goal target 4.7, it's education for sustainable development and global citizenship.

Scott Jamieson: And we think about our school mission at NIST, developing global citizens who flourish and make a positive impact in the world. This is what that is.

Scott Jamieson: This is what the world needs. Right now, this kind of work that you are doing, that you are bringing to life through your exhibition work, through your participation in events like community Partners week through the work you're going to continue to do because you're feeling inspired from this as your next steps with community engagement and services action in the Nyp.

Scott Jamieson: you all of a sudden have this

Scott Jamieson: work that you can take with you. We're just planting the seeds now, and imagine, as this plant grows as we kind of work continue to work through on your journey of a change maker at NIST. I am so excited for what's happening right now, and also for what's going to happen in the future. I am feeling so inspired about the work you guys have done, and I can't wait to hear about your exhibition projects as those come together in the next few weeks.

Scott Jamieson: Thank you so much for being such fabulous guests on our podcast it's really great to connect with all of you, and thank you for sharing your stories with our audience.

Hannah: You, bye.

Scott Jamieson: And