The Chadwick International GSL Catalyst was a virtual leadership development programme that took place over three days, from the 17th to the 19th of March 2021. The programme was organised in partnership with Chadwick International School in Incheon, South Korea, as part of the prize awarded to one of the schools resident social action projects, Greener Is Cleaner, for their winning submission in the GSL Global Goals Competition 2019-20.
In true GSL fashion, Chadwick International School gifted places to it’s partner schools in the Philippines, and opened the programme up to young people around the world aged 11-14 passionate about making a change, to further share the opportunity. In total 75 young people from seven schools and four countries – South Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Qatar – took part in the course. This gave the participants the opportunity to create international connections, sharing and discussing like-minded topics with others from diverse backgrounds.
The GSL Catalyst is designed to support participants enhance their leadership skills, develop the right mindset, gain greater understanding of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, connect with other young people around the world, and either begin or improve an existing social action project. The programme also focuses on the themes of well-being and mental health, as now more than ever we need to learn to navigate ourselves to changing contexts.
Two guest speakers attended the programme to inspire, empower and motivate the students on day one and day three. Dami Omole gave an insight into her social action journey, drawing on themes of leadership and perseverance, and Cherry Sung (leader of Greener is Cleaner) spoke about her experience of starting a social action project and all that comes with it.
As part of the Catalyst, participants wrote two collective poems under the themes ‘kindness’ and the ‘power of the flock.’ Please see below! Note that the poems are verbatims – meaning they have been written in the same words as were used originally.
Participants also created vision statements during the programme – either to use in their day-to-day lives or for their social action projects. Please see some examples created by GSL projects from Chadwick International below!
