We are delighted to share a blog written by Meadow Reece-Morgan, a student at Hanova International School who is part of a team delivering a Global Goals project for the 2018-19 Global Goals Competition.
Their project is among over 800 social action projects currently running as part of the GSL movement and we are excited to be supporting them to design and lead positive social change in their community.
Project Overview
Our city, Xian has high pollution on a daily basis, and our school has the average of 120 PM2.5. We feel that having high pollution doesn’t make our school a safe learning environment, as it can have a detrimental effect for us further on in life. Recently, there has been a trend in media called the “10 -year challenge” this is where people compare photos of themselves 10 years ago vs now. Some people have put a new perspective on this challenge, by turning it a comparison of the earth 10 years ago vs now. In these pictures, we saw heartbreaking changes. 10 years ago, the amazon forest was barely touched, now millions of trees have been cut down. We also saw one about a graph of one China’s pollution. In that graph the pollution levels spiked up rapidly in comparison to 10 years ago.
This competition sparked a passion in us students. We all instantly decided that we needed to do something. We could no longer watch our earth deteriorate around us. When our Humanities teacher introduced the Global Goals UN competition 2018/19, we were thrilled. This was our chance as young students to make a change at our level. In order to fulfill this competition, we as a class discussed what we wanted to focus on in this competition. Without a doubt, everyone agreed on reducing the pollution in Xian, by planting trees. So far, we have spoken to authorities such as the owner of the school, our MYP co-ordinator and PYP co-ordinator about arranging this idea, they approved and have been very supportive. Last week we spoke at assemblies about bringing 5-10 yuan in order for us to buy the trees. Most students were just as passionate about this idea as us, and contributed an unbelievable amount.
An eye-opening experience for taking action for climate change, while organizing, working collaboratively and understanding the value of social responsibility.
Our Journey
This competition has taught our class a numerous amount of lifelong skills, that we will nurture forever. One of the many skills we have learnt is how to collaborate effectively as a team. Obviously, collaboration plays a major role in our day to day lives. We collaborate with people when we speak, when we work and in many more daily scenarios. Since this project requires team-work, collaboration is very necessary and important. During this competition we have also developed exceptional organizational skills.
Before this project, we knew nothing about how to organize materials and time effectively, but now, we have gained the knowledge. Take organizing the money for example. Before this competition, we didn’t know how to gather the money in an effective way, after some help from our teacher, we knew how. Even though our class was heavily organized, we had an issue with where we were planting the trees. Our class took initiative and re-adjusted the plan, by thinking of other areas we could plant our trees. We then remembered that our school was building a new campus that would be open in 2020. We all thought that our new school campus would be a great place to plant our trees and it would be extremely beneficial. Last week, we spoke to students about bringing a 5-10-yuan donation for us to buy the trees. This week, we collected the money and bought the trees.
The Next Chapter
This Sunday, we are planning to plant the trees that we bought in our new school campus. All of our class would definitely recommend participating in this competition or any competitions similar. It is an amazing opportunity to do your part in helping the world around us. Our class has had an amazing time taking part in this competition. It has truly opened our eyes, and shown us that even us, year 9’s can help change the world, even if it means planting a few trees.
The 2018-19 GSL Global Goals Competition is now open and runs until June 2019. If you belong to one of the 700+ teams of students currently delivering a social action project as part of the competition we would love to hear from you and feature your blog and project photos on our website to inspire others.
