Challenges or Problem Identification

“Young people are able to do many things that were never done before in  history”.  Over the past few months we have learnt a lot of new skills. For the most of us the Youth Social Entrepreneurship programme was something completely new, so we had to start from scratch. Before we actually started to work on the projects, we identified our weaknesses and strengths. This was done mainly to identify our strengths to help us improvise while we are working on our projects.

We also had a lot of fun games which helped to built trust and co-operation among the peers. The interactive sessions and the discussions were mainly for brainstorming purposes. Instead of approaching the problems directly, we looked at the situations that surrounded us. At first we identified a problem that we might have observed or experienced in the community and then we deconstructed the problem. We looked at the causes and the consequences of the problems and tried to get to the grassroot level. Therefore, our first step was to look at the problems rather than actually looking for the solutions. This was done to analyze the problems in a critical manner.

 

 

Having a look at the impacts of the problem on the community was also an essential part of the course in order to get a clear picture of what the actual problem was. So, basically we dissolved the problems and chose the problems that were realistic and doable. During this term we also had guest speakers: Michal Steyn from ‘Serve the City’ and Vincent Frenken from ‘Trajekt’ who are working with the local community through a volunteering NGO and Maastricht’s Social Services. Their talks were not only inspiring but also helped us get equipped with knowledge about challenges in the city of Maastricht or the region, that made us look at social entrepreneurship from a completely different dimension.

 

YSE is definitely one of the programmes that can solve many of the problems present in the community and also helps young students to develop into independent and creative people.

Dechen Zangmo (Bhutan)

A dialogue with Abraham Keita - Children´s Peace Prize laureate 2015

Last Friday, 11^th December, my friend Praise and I attended an event in Leiden, the Netherlands.   The event was organized by Defense for Children and we got to meet Abraham Keita who won the Children’s Peace Prize in November 2015.  Abraham Keita is an amazing youngster from Liberia who has done countless things to help his and others’ communities.  He is also an inspiring person who believes that children have the right to do what they believe is best for them.  When he was 9 years old he heard a story of a random girl who was raped, tortured, and killed.  The story made him realize that this time it happened to a girl whom he did not know at all but it could soon happen to his friends, cousins, and sisters if this issue was not stopped.  This whole incident inspired him to start a campaign against this problem and there were 500 children who joined him.  As a child he was always very passionate and he believes that everyone (especially children) can make a difference in the world.

[caption id="attachment_203" align="alignnone" width="300"] Defense for Children[/caption]

 

I had some really inspiring moments talking to some young university students who were social entrepreneurs with extreme passion to help others and to work towards their dreams.  Most of them are quite young but they all work really hard hoping to change and make the world a better place. They are people who see problems in their society as something that needs to be solved and they take initiative to show the world what they want to happen.  This really inspires me to live my life fully and to serve others with what I have. It also shows me that if these people can make a difference in life, so can I.

I realized that somehow some of us don’t think our YSE class is useful but I come to really appreciate what it has taught me and how important it is to everyone and the society we live in.  I am really grateful to have this opportunity to remind myself of what I have taken for granted.

Ahai Vang (Laos)

Human Rights

Three of our sessions have been dedicated to understanding better the concept of Human Rights.

Last 2nd December, three members of the UWCM Amnesty International group joined us to present the 16 Days of Activism for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls.

The three DP1 students (Mathilde Barland, Nusret Yildirim and Emi Lee Ai Yen) talked about AI's efforts wordwide and then proposed and interactive activity for the MYP5 students.

 

 

Students picked different roles of a variety of individuals in many different countries and situations and they had to answer to several statements in relation to how much their rights were being fulfilled or not. A very interesting exercise which made us think outside the box and reflect once again about how privileged we are for the comforts we have...

Serious Request 2015 - Supporting the Red Cross for the Right to Education of children and youth in conflict areas

UWC Maastricht decided to embark in the Serious Request of the Red Cross this year to raise awareness about the challenges to the Right of Education of thousands of children and youth around the world who are also experiencing war or conflict in their countries.

This was an excellent opportunity as well for MYP5 students to design their own actions to fundraise for the Red Cross and other MYP students and staff also came up with their own ideas to raise awareness while having fun: UWC Maastricht with Serious Request 2015

 



Their learning outcomes have been that working as a team is not always easy because self-management requires planning and effort, that lower number of members in the team help to manage it better, that internal communication is something important which needs to be taken seriously to inform all aspects of the process and finally, that the will and commitment to a project is more than 50% of the success of that project.

 

Children's Peace Prize in The Hague

On 9th November, eight MYP5 students were invited by the Kids Rights Foundation and UWC Nederland to attend the Children's Peace Prize awarding ceremony in The Hague.

These students were selected owing to their great presentations about the Sustainable Development Goals to different audiences within the Active Global Citizenship Programme.

   

It was a privilege to listen to Liberian Nobel Peace Laureate 2011, Leymah Gbowee, handing in the prize to 17 year old Abraham Keita: "Is this the world we want our children to learn from? [...] Can we all make a commitment today to live lives that kids will be proud to emulate?                                         STEP OUT AND DO ONE GOOD THING EVERYDAY THAT EVERYONE ELSE IS SCARED TO DO!"



Our students were very inspired by the life example, leadership, passion and public speaking skills of the 2015 Children's Peace Prize Winner Abraham Keita (17 years old). He comes from the West Point slum in Liberia and is a human rights campaigner against police brutality and violence against women, girls and youth in general.



A memorable evening!

 

What is Youth Social Entrepreneurship at UWC Maastricht?

Youth Social Entrepreneurship (or YSE), is a unique program, where while integrated into the subject package of all DP1 students at UWC Maastricht, is more than just a generic lesson attended once a week. Taking a different approach to learning, looking at how our lives are affected from both internal and external points of view, and encouraging the consideration of our position within, and potential impact on society, YSE aims to cultivate creative, open-minded citizens within the community, aware of their surroundings. This experience shapes the tools and facilitates the empowerment within students to start projects, with the common benefits of the community in mind, with the optimistic goal of eventually reaping social benefits.



[caption id="attachment_160" align="alignnone" width="300"] Our personal attributes make for a very strong "super-molecule" with incredible potential to find and design the greatest ventures![/caption]

During the introductory period, many activities have been introduced to the group in hope of developing aspects within the umbrella of critical thinking - planting the seeds for ideas to grow, and facilitating the development of all-rounded solutions. Beginning with the basics, and area we are most familiar with - ourselves, we reflected upon our life journey and experiences, how these have shaped our outlook on life, and the emotions we associate with specific situations. This encouraged the development of an empathic perspective toward social initiatives, and how we, and others in the community with completely different backgrounds and exposures, respond to our environment.



Then, moving on from internal reflection to external exploration, we began pushing ourselves to look at everyday objects, such as pencils or paperclips, and brainstorm unconventional, and in some cases rather quirky, use cases. Upon completion of these exercises, were then able to see beyond the single story and first impressions of new concepts and prospects, finding solutions that are “out of the box” and original, in hope of spawning more logical, effective, and sustainable solutions. Thought-provoking puzzles and group discussions followed, further reinforcing our application of creative thinking and at the same time, allowing us to view the same scenarios from the perspective of others. This more confident grasp of external perspectives then lead into the topic of understanding third-party user needs, beyond our personal intentions and expectations. Analysing and discussing case studies, such as the sustainability of the automated bicycle parking mechanisms in Japan - gave us the opportunity to reflect on the ideas of others from an objective, unbiased standpoint, and develop stronger critical thinking skills, helping us to judge our own suggestions and potential solutions in the future when it comes to our main projects. To make the ideation process more realistic, we also studied how existing advertising and marketing techniques we are subconsciously exposed to everyday affect our ideation process and judgement, and not only be aware of information being fed to us, but also to understand existing strategies that are currently adopted in the commercial world, and how we can adapt and improve upon these initiatives to create a more compelling product that will have the most positive impact on our local society.

Moving on from this point, more examples from the real world will be looked at, and opportunities for self-reflection, alongside productive brainstorming will be encouraged, in hope of stimulating a well rounded mindset for creative thinking, as we move towards initiating our own ideation and development processes, setting the foundation for impactful solutions.

Marius Lizhi Smits - Singapore

 

Now that the program has started to get more serious, I feel that most of us are becoming more and more engaged with the project and the class. We like having games and activities that will keep us active in our way to learning, activities that will make us know more about each other as a group. This way, we will become a more efficient group, who truly enjoys working together because we all know each other's situation and personality better.

[caption id="attachment_161" align="alignnone" width="169"] Our Social Entrepreneur Idol: what attributes does s/he have?[/caption]

We are looking forward to having a fun and productive Social Entrepreneurship class, and we also hope to make the best out of it with the help of our amazing facilitators.

Victoria Gutierrez Pereira - Bolivia

Vibrant Butterflies

Our group's challenge was to make up a chant or mantra to represent us, including as much of the attributes and values we hold or would like to have as a team:



Marius worked some poetic magic and "voila":

 

VIBRANT BUTTERFLIES

We are the big vibrant butterflies.

Spreading our colourful wings from all over the world,

in hope of achieving perfection.

Our diverse patterns inspiring creativity,

action,

change.

With every possible problem,

we bring motivational solutions.

All special in our own ways,

we are fabulous as one.

Marius Lizhi Smits - Singapore

 

This new school year we, as DP1 students were very lucky to have the privilege of having Social Entrepreneurship as a part of our timetable. At our young age, we are starting to think about the process behind success in original projects, and to actually understand the hard work and commitment this comes with. As a group, we have already developed a certain bond, even agreeing in being called the “Vibrant Butterflies”.

 

Victoria Gutierrez Pereira - Bolivia

The Team

The success of this pioneering programme at UWC Maastricht relies to a great extent in the inspiring team of 12 Secondary and Primary staff who decided to embark in this project already last year. In June 2015 we all attended an intense 3-day training with Lorena Silvestri (UWC Adriatic alumna), who is an experienced youth social entrepreneurship facilitator and coach and has collaborated with Ashoka Spain for many years developing and testing methodologies to engage youth in dreaming the impossible and turning their ideas into real projects.



We all have differing degrees of previous experience with social entrepreneurship and the reasons to join the team where different too but we had in common the excitement of wanting to try something new at UWC Maastricht which, we believe, will have a great positive impact in our students and the local community in the near future.

Encouraged by the Student Life & Experiential Education Director, Tian Bersey and the Head of College, Peter Howe, we began our journey of discoveries and trials on 9th September 2015.

This is the first time a programme delivered to students, facilitates a process integrating both Secondary and Primary at UWC Maastricht, thus even in this regard, this Youth Social Entrepreneurship (YSE) programme is innovative and promising.

 

Thanks to the pioneering YSE Facilitators Team at UWC Maastricht for making it possible: Ajay Hirani, Anita Broer, Annemarie Oomes, Carla Robinson, Colin Hogan, David Hart, Edward Omondi, Iva Horejsi, Joey in 't Panhuis, Katinka Mastboom, Olaya García and Ulrike Jongen.

Olaya García - YSE Programme Coordinator

Critical Engagement Programme

Our Introduction Weeks for all DP1 students ended at the beginning of September with 3 days of intensive workshops and presentations around three key themes: Identity, Diversity and Social Responsibility. This took place as an introduction to our new pioneering Youth Social Entrepreneurship Programme at UWC Maastricht.

   

Critical Engagement (C.E.) is an outreach programme developed originally by UWC Atlantic College alumni as a way to "give back" to their former college. It aims to "put students at the centre of a forum for open, constructive discussion and collaboration on a range of crucial global and local issues." Emerging out of this dynamic forum, it is hoped that students will develop, "lasting transferable skills (which) serve as a foundation for active roles and sustained impact in varied personal, professional and academic settings."

   

This opportunity to exercise critical thinking in a non-conventional setting did surely
enable a very pro-active approach when we started looking at ideas, creativity, innovation
and social entrepreneurship from 9 September onwards.Over the years, new team members have joined and it is now run by a diverse pool of UWC alumni who have adapted and further developed the CE contents and methodology to different settings and age groups.

Students had also the opportunity to attend action workshops on: Mindfulness, Play in Education, Non-violent Communication, Campaigning or Start-ups: values, mission & viability.

The programme was delivered by a group of experienced CE facilitators (all UWC Atlantic College and UWC Costa Rica alumni:Ari Cantwell, Mika Pasanen, Faima Ramírez Hirschauer, Adam Cantwell, Joe Llewellyn and Jhader Aguad) and staff from UWC Maastricht who are UWC alumni themselves (UWC Mahindra College: Olaya García, Ajay Hirani and Dasha LIs and UWC Adriatic: Iva Horejsi) or have worked at different UWCs for many years  (Annemarie Oomes).

Bulgaria II. - CMDR COE

October 2015

Rumen and Saul volunteered for the Crisis Management and Disaster Response Centre of Excellence what is a branch of NATO, stationed in Sofia, Bulgaria. The Centre′s aim is to pool expertise in order to improve interoperability, development and enhancement of NATO standards in building capacities for crisis management and disaster response; to provide assistance for the effective use of joint experience and capabilities of NATO, Nations, Partners and international organizations in the field of crisis management and disaster response; to provide education and training of military personnel, government officials and civilians, and organizational structures in the field of crisis management and disaster response.

We chose this project because we could relate the UWC mission and values to the concepts of this NATO course since it teaches you how to prevent and if needed respond, to a natural or manmade disaster. We believe that these skills could be applied in many difficult situations that have become a daily reality of our world, such as the Syrian refugee crisis.

 We succeeded in creating a project that took place outside of school in a distant foreign country. We worked for an organization that keeps the community safe. As we committed to our project week we improved our organization skills as we had to make contact with people in another country who we had never met and had to meet deadlines to have everything finished on time and we had to find a place of temporary residence which was close to the NATO centre of Excellence to minimize transport costs. I had never been to Bulgaria before, so I was experiencing the culture for the first time. I enjoy seeing new parts of the world, so I was very excited that we would go to Bulgaria. The language barrier was not a problem as I was with Rumen, and I discovered many new things, such as typical Bulgarian food and the Alexander Nevsky Church. One of the key skills that we learned from NATO, was the risk matrix.  The Risk matrix is used in risk assessment to differentiate the size of the threat and ways to tackle it. This risk matrix is used by NATO to assess the levels of risk a country is facing. However, the concept can be applied to the risk assessment of almost anything, a valuable skill we now possess.

Overall, our project week was a great success. We explored parts of Bulgaria Rumen had not been to either, so it was full of new experiences for both of us. When working in the centre, we were not given any training in the field of crisis management in a country. We applied many skills that we had both learned in Geography HL, and used these skills as stepping stones to understand and interpret crisis management. We highly recommend people to go to Bulgaria or Eastern Europe in general, as it is so different from Western Europe and will be a great chance to discover a different side of the world.

Slovakia

October 2015

Our project week consisted of Matej, Frederic, Kathleen, Sara, Aya and Jeremiah. The idea came from Matej’s father, Peter Bilik, who is the head of the parents’ support group in Matej’s previous school: Spojena skola sv.Vincenta de Paul. He had previously highlighted the growing number of school dropouts to Matej and asked for ideas to change this trend. Matej then suggested that a few of us make the trip there in order to have a broader perspective of what the situation is and to then provide ideas on what could be done. Thus, we found ourselves on a train bound for Bratislava.



The rest of us joined this project week for different reasons, but the main idea that resonated among all of us was to have an impact on the education system in the school, to change it for the better. In addition, we also wanted to get to experience different cultures and see a bit of Slovakia and Austria. The cultural background also provided a foundation from which we could understand the attitude of students toward school especially in the light of the communist history of the area. Last but not least, we wanted to get to know each other better, especially since we hardly knew each other before this.



As part of our project week to set for ourselves 10 different learning goals and objectives.

1. Design and pursue a student-led project.


2. Provide a service to an organization/community.


3. Organize activities outside the campus.


4. Explore a new country and culture.


5. Apply and improve the knowledge and skills from lessons and CAS.


6. Improve your organization, communication and collaboration skills.


7. Get to know more about yourself and your group.


8. Share and spread the UWC mission and values.


9. Achieve a positive (social) change.


10. Learn new (practical) skills.

These different goals were definitely achieved through our project week although to different levels in each individual as no two people are the same. Together we designed a student-led project that was meant to provide service to Spojena skola sv.Vincenta de Paul. Part of this service was spreading the UWC mission and values by emphasising the importance of education and the role the students can and should play in building the community. We learnt many things individually and learnt much about each other too. However the one goal that we cannot be fully sure if we achieved is whether we managed to create a positive change in the school. That is something only time will tell.



Our project week was rather straightforward; spend time in Spojena skola sv.Vincenta de Paul each day and observe the programmes and talk to the students. Matej had briefed us that students in the school do learn English but never use it and as such are unable to converse confidently in English. We also had a chance to speak to the school chaplain who wants to change something among the students and we suggested the idea of getting students involved in social service much like CAS in the IB diploma programme.

Sadly, as much as we wanted to do, the person from the school who we were in contact with was not as cooperative as we hoped. After our first day there we were told not to come back into the school again. We had planned initially to spend from about 10am to 3pm each day in the school doing group discussions and providing English help as well as simply making conversation with the students in order to provide encouragement to keep on with school. As such we spent the rest of the project week spending time with Matej’s younger siblings who also attended the same school as well as some children from the neighbourhood.



Our project week to us particularly resonated with our own ideas of education and we felt that we wanted to give others an idea of what education could be like; something that has far greater impacts than merely learning from a textbook. We wanted to use education as a force to empower the students to make a change in their country for a sustainable future - similar to the UWC mission. We also focused on 2 of the UWC values: a sense of idealism and compassion and service. We wanted to show the students in the school that change is possible and that education is something important and we also wanted them to look beyond the walls of the school and to see the needs of their own community.     



At the end, though we could not spend as much time as we would have liked in the school, we still felt that we had made a positive impact on the lives of the few students we had contact with evidenced by the fact that they themselves told us that they wished every class could be like what we had carried out. In addition we also had a continuous opportunity to talk to the children and teens in the neighbourhood and even saw their level of English improve as they made the effort to learn and use the language. Mission accomplished!

Check their video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzBa7ZJhJZA