GSL Summer of Change | Our Shared Experience

By Charlotte, Jade & Alice

From the 12th-16th and 26th-30th of July, young people from 21 countries worldwide came together to learn, to share and to connect as socially conscious leaders. The five day online GSL Catalyst courses educated and inspired participants to “be the change,” and taught transformative lessons about leadership, wellbeing and sustainable development. They were empowered to take on a 30 day independent social challenge in their own communities and environments.

Ten students from Heathfield Community College in the UK took part in the programme, and three of them jumped at the chance to write a blog post about their experience. It is an excellent piece of writing, which encapsulates everything that GSL really is. Thank you to Charlotte, Jade and Alice for sharing your GSL journey with us.

Click here to read an article written on the schools website: Heathfield Students’ Summer of Social Change

At the start of the summer holidays, we took part in the GSL Summer of Change, which was truly an unforgettable experience. This 5-day programme strengthened our leadership skills as well as opened our eyes to global issues outside of the problems we directly experience in the UK. We spoke to other teenagers across the world about leadership, well-being, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, our own visions for change, what we were going to do to change the world, big or small, and about issues that affect our communities.

It seemed that on the surface, they were all different, but the deeper you dug, the more you noticed almost all of them linked back to mental health, climate change or poverty. These are three of the biggest issues our generation face, and we all wanted to change them, even if it was just a small amount in our local areas.

The first day of the course focused on getting to know the people and what the next five days were going to be about. We met people in Costa Rica, India, Taiwan, China and Kenya as well as the UK! The GSL team was very helpful and prepared, making the signing-in process quick and easy. We all joined a Zoom room with our name and a unique user number. Soon after, we were introduced to the GSL Team. They were very enthusiastic and made us all feel a bit more comfortable -I think doing the course online was a little strange for all of us.

They explained that GSL is all about empowering young people, and these sessions being a platform to speak. We were told that the GSL movement is active in 106 countries and this came with all the incredible cultures and different ideas. We discussed qualities of leaders and possible ways to practice them in our daily lives. The session ended with a very beneficial reflective task about what we had learnt, what we could be doing better and how we felt.

The second day was really enjoyable. It started with two very inspirational guest speakers who talked about the importance of leadership, and the challenges we will face, and how to overcome them. One of the biggest challenges that came up was ‘What if I fail?’. We spoke about the steps we could take to success and how to build courage after something goes wrong. We also spoke about looking at failure as a good thing; mistakes make you stronger.

On the third day, we discussed problems that exist in different countries such as red tide caused by overfishing in Costa Rica, endangerment of elephants in Kenya, pollution in China and the problems caused by the Taliban in India. In breakout rooms, we talked about our interests and how they can help with issues we are passionate about. We made sure we assisted one another and helped form great ideas together.

On the final two days, we planned our 30 days of change. This involved swapping ideas about improving mental health in teens, protecting endangered animals such as elephants, keeping litter off our streets, and helping prevent poverty in our local areas. Everyone we spoke to had amazing ideas, from simply raising awareness to collecting donations and going out into their own communities and making a change. Each person had their own struggles, be that time, motivation, or bad weather, but they still put their mind to the task and made a change, be that big or small.

We really loved seeing at the end how successful everyone was with their own challenges, and how we all supported each other as much as possible. It was interesting to see how each of our ideas were so different but all still linked together, and it’s with this link that even just doing little things can help make a bigger difference.

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“30 days of my summer break were spent picking up litter in and around my local woods and donating over 20 cans of tinned food to a local food bank. I found that after complete if my challenge and putting together my presentation for it, I felt amazing! It made me more aware of the litter everywhere we go and seeing how much difference we made to our little town was incredible.”

“I created a donation point for my local food bank in a local gym. I did this because I had noticed that my local area does not have many collection points for donations to be left. Another reason for making this my independent challenge was that through the COVID-19 lockdowns, many food banks have struggled with the increase in families needing support. I thought my local gym was the perfect place, as the members love helping others and contributing to the community.”

“I decided to do litter picking because I love nature and think its such a shame it is polluted with rubbish. Not only does this do visual damage, it also can ruin habitats. After I had been litter picking, I felt so rewarded by my work and felt like I made a difference. This proves that even just one person can help their community in some way.”

On the 18th of September we had our graduation ceremony, where we were able to share what we had done and see the other outstanding differences that were made by our colleagues. We thanked the team for the experience and said our goodbyes but have stayed in contact with our new-found GSL family.

We really enjoyed the whole process, from joining zoom meetings and meeting other teens from across the world and organizing our 30-day independent challenges, to catching up with the other students from our school about their experiences. Everyone who took part at Heathfield Community College all agreed that it was an amazing opportunity that was totally eye opening, and we would all recommend it to anyone looking to take part in it, or other events GSL run in the future!

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