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Empathy to Impact is a podcast designed for educators dedicated to global citizenship education. We explore themes of sustainability, service learning, student leadership, and community engagement, empowering students to create a more just, equitable, and sustainable future.
While educators grasp the “why” and “what” of global citizenship, this podcast delves into the “how”. Through engaging storytelling and student voices, we provide authentic connections to curriculum, and showcase practical tools and frameworks that you can implement in your classroom.
By viewing learning experiences through the lens of Empathy to Impact, we can inspire students to take meaningful steps toward becoming global citizens and transform the culture of education in our schools.
Join us as we amplify the voices and stories of students who take ownership of their learning and make a difference in their communities.
This podcast is brought to you by Inspire Citizens.
Scott Jamieson: Welcome to the Empathy to Impact podcast.
Scott Jamieson: Today, we are visiting Brisbane in Queensland, Australia, and we are at Yeronga State High School.
Scott Jamieson: And I am very excited to be joined by a Year 9 student, Alejandra, who is going to share a little bit about her journey as a leader, and a big event that she was involved in called Yoronga Celebrates. Before we get started, I'm going to pass over to her to say hello.
azava0 YSHS: Hi, my name is Alejandra, I am a junior school captain at Yoronga State High School. Yeah, I'm in Year 9, it's…
azava0 YSHS: around 15 years old, and unfortunately, our other junior school captain, Tony, isn't here today for, reasons, but…
azava0 YSHS: I'm sure that, you know, he'll be excited to listening… to listen to this podcast along with the rest of you, y'all, and… yeah.
Scott Jamieson: So, Alejandra, you mentioned that you're a junior school captain.
Scott Jamieson: What does that mean in terms of being a leader, and why did you choose to be a leader in your school?
azava0 YSHS: Well, as you know, like, in America, for example, there is middle school and high school, which is split into 3 years each.
azava0 YSHS: In Australia, Brisbane, there would be… it's one high school, so there's only… there's 6 years, instead of just 3 years each for middle school and high school, there'll be 6 years total. So, year 9 is the senior of the middle school, so of the top for the first 3 years, so…
azava0 YSHS: As a junior school captain, if you get elected, you will be the, like, like, you know, junior school captain, so instead of school captain, you'll be the school captain for the junior years.
azava0 YSHS: Before you go into senior school. So…
azava0 YSHS: Yeah, I… I decided to, you know, nominate myself, because I really liked leadership since Year 7. I joined the Student Representative Council in Year 7, and just continued on until…
azava0 YSHS: my teacher told me, hey, do you want to be junior school captain? I'm sure you'll do great. And I was like, okay, I'll just go for it, and I got it. So, I'm just really excited to, you know.
azava0 YSHS: bring all my, like, I don't know, cool ideas to improve the junior school, and hope everyone had a great time.
Scott Jamieson: I am sure that they benefited from your experience, and just talking off the mic, I think you've got a lot of really cool ideas that you're bringing to help support your fellow students.
Scott Jamieson: That leads me to my next question. Why do you think it's important, from your perspective as a Year 9 student, why is it important to have student leaders and these leadership opportunities in school for students?
azava0 YSHS: I feel like it's really… reason… one reason why it's really important for…
azava0 YSHS: students to have, like, student leaders is because
azava0 YSHS: if you have, like… again, I'm just using my own experience as a…
azava0 YSHS: As a scene as a junior school captain.
azava0 YSHS: For, like, Year 7ers, where they're, like, they just got into high school, and having… and just meeting with the school captains.
azava0 YSHS: which will be… they will be in year 12, that would be a huge stretch. They feel like they can't relate too much about them, because they are taller, older, and, you know, probably more busier, so…
azava0 YSHS: They won't be able to… Ugh, you know.
azava0 YSHS: relate much, learn much, they might not look… they might look up to them a lot, but they won't be able to, like, feel maybe comfortable to talk to someone 6 years older than them than just someone 3 years.
azava0 YSHS: So… I think, also, leadership, like.
azava0 YSHS: in the workforce, and just, like, once you graduate high school and maybe go to uni, leadership is a really important quality, because it not only helps you learn how to work together with all sorts of people in the future, but it also just teaches you, you know, confidence, like.
azava0 YSHS: Just self-reliability, and also learning to, you know, work with others, and that's just one really beautiful thing about being a leader.
Scott Jamieson: I think that's really well said. I think there's a lot of transferable skills that if we can learn as leaders in school, that we can transfer into whatever those next steps might be for us beyond high school.
Scott Jamieson: I also like how you're talking about building connections, and how our young year 7 students might be a little intimidated going up to a year 13 student, a senior, whereas a year 9 student is a little bit closer
Scott Jamieson: To them in age and size, and experience, and it might be a little easier to connect.
Scott Jamieson: So, I think that's really important, and I'm glad you brought that up.
Scott Jamieson: You also talked a little bit about skills that leaders need, and I want to zoom in on that a little bit.
Scott Jamieson: What are some of the skills you feel that student leaders
Scott Jamieson: Need to be successful in school.
azava0 YSHS: Well, I think you don't need to have a lot of successful skills to be a leader, but in the same time, you kind of also… it'll be really helpful. I remember at the start of the year, I didn't really have much…
azava0 YSHS: as much, like, communication skills with some of my peers. So, one… like, a few skill… a few skills that I think
azava0 YSHS: Would be really helpful is, you know, problem solving, communication.
azava0 YSHS: Just, like, a lot of empathy, because you need to, like, understand and get along with your peers well, and also just being a really, like.
azava0 YSHS: like, encouraging and… Bright person, I guess, or positive, at least.
azava0 YSHS: Like, thinking… if you, like, go up to…
azava0 YSHS: One student, and you're like, hey!
azava0 YSHS: you want to join the SRC, for example, you need to, like.
azava0 YSHS: show it's a positive thing, it's a good thing, and… because if you have, like… if you can bring up the spirits of people, it will… they would most likely want to help out more, and, you know, be more engaged in the school, and that's a really good thing for…
azava0 YSHS: Your high school years, at least.
Scott Jamieson: I 100% agree. I think the world definitely needs more empathy, and people injecting a little bit of positivity into the school day. School can be stressful, and people often come into school with challenges we don't see from outside, and if we can have those positive people who are lifting people up.
Scott Jamieson: And also, being good listeners and having empathy for the people around us, I think those are exactly the kind of people that we need as leaders within our school.
Scott Jamieson: How do we develop those skills? What are some opportunities that you had to… talked about growing as a communicator, and some of the other skills that you mentioned.
Scott Jamieson: How have those developed for you? How have you sought out, like, ways to improve with some of these things as a leader?
azava0 YSHS: For me, I think experience and just, like, engaging with a lot of act… like, going and going out of my way to, you know, help out with activities, engaging with other students when we're collaborating together, and just hosting and organizing activities for the school, because
azava0 YSHS: Since Year 7, I have been…
azava0 YSHS: Like, making up cool ideas, and you know…
azava0 YSHS: organizing events for the school, and for everyone to, you know, like, play or learn about. So, from, you know, collaborating with, like, other subgroups, because we have, like, you know, environmental, sports and recreation, arts and culture, and then just the normal
azava0 YSHS: Student inclusion and exclusion, student inclusion and excellence. And…
azava0 YSHS: I feel… I learned that a lot, that a lot of people are different. So…
azava0 YSHS: Obviously, I might have made a few, like.
azava0 YSHS: failures here and there, but I learned how to… I learned how to…
azava0 YSHS: go past that, learn, and think, and make notes about what I can do better next time, and how I can…
azava0 YSHS: Bring together a lot of different people, so we can…
azava0 YSHS: yeah, we can do things together, like problem solving, for example. Some people might be busy, they might have part-time jobs, they might…
azava0 YSHS: have a lot of stuff going on, and… or maybe exams too, so in that case, I'll be like, okay, sure, let's just find a way to…
azava0 YSHS: Like, maybe we could lessen your workload and give it to someone else, and then maybe they'll be happy to do it, or, like, we could figure something out, because…
azava0 YSHS: in the end, like, we really… if we come… if the whole group came together to make a brilliant idea for the school, we would want to see it happening instead of just, oh, we might have to drop it. So…
azava0 YSHS: Yeah. I don't know, for me, though, also, problem solving, I think… I play a lot of, like, puzzle games. I'm not sure if that will help too, but…
azava0 YSHS: It might…
Scott Jamieson: For sure, I think so, just helping us to…
Scott Jamieson: be problem solvers, and having that mindset. So much of what you're talking about connects to having a growth mindset, but also seeking out opportunities. I love how you're talking about just being involved in different things to give you an opportunity to learn. And maybe it doesn't go perfectly all the time. You know, there's been some challenges, but being able to overcome those, and thinking about how we grow through those experiences.
Scott Jamieson: I love the mindset you take into these experiences and how you approach that. I think that's really cool.
Scott Jamieson: I want to shift over to a big event that your school hosts, that your… I'm just gonna pause for a second. Do you guys call it the Student Congress, or is it… what's your SLC? What does that stand for?
azava0 YSHS: Hmm.
azava0 YSHS: SLC, Student Leadership Committee, or Congress?
Scott Jamieson: Alright.
azava0 YSHS: We have a lot of different events.
azava0 YSHS: I'm, like, trying to think, oh, which one?
Scott Jamieson: Alright, I'm gonna jump back in.
Scott Jamieson: So…
Scott Jamieson: I want to look at a big event, or talk… I want to talk about a big event that your school hosts called Yaronga Celebrates, and I've heard a little bit about it from your teachers, and read a little bit about it, but I want to hear your perspective.
Scott Jamieson: This is a whole day event that is connected to celebrating diversity. So, I wonder if you can…
Scott Jamieson: Take us through, like, what does that event look like? Like, tell us about the experience that someone would have coming to your school on that day.
azava0 YSHS: Well, as you know, Australia is a really multicultural country, and especially Yoronga, we have
azava0 YSHS: like, I think we have maybe 51% are just normal Australians, and the rest are from different countries, or, you know, different ethnicities, and…
azava0 YSHS: multi… and Yoronga Celebrates is a once every two-year event, so it's really big. It's to support all the multicultural people in our school, and how we love, like, all their cultures.
azava0 YSHS: So, we, every, like, 2 years, we'll go around asking all the people in our school, hey, what do you want? What's a stall, what's…
azava0 YSHS: what's something you want to celebrate from your culture, and we'll all put it together into one day. And there's this really cool event that happens every year, not every year, every, you know, at Uronga celebrates. It's called the Parade of Nations, where people from different cultures, they'll bring their flags, and we'll all walk in.
azava0 YSHS: With an anthem, or a song of their choice playing, and then they'll say, hi!
azava0 YSHS: I'm Alejandra from… you know, Singapore or something, and then we'll all celebrate, we'll all have fun.
azava0 YSHS: It really ties people together, because they can learn new things about different cultures that they've never seen before, and if you are…
azava0 YSHS: just a, you know, a random person in the queue that's just stopping by, and they've seen, oh, there's an event at this school at Yoronga, let me check it out, and they might fall in love with a different culture there, and be like, wow, I really… I learned something new that I haven't before.
Scott Jamieson: I love how it's focused on learning. It's also a celebration, and looking at all these different cultures and ethnicities that make up our community, and being able to celebrate that diversity within our community, but also an opportunity to learn.
Scott Jamieson: And connect, and find out more about something we don't know a lot about. I think it's a great way to just build a sense of unity and belonging within our community.
Scott Jamieson: How are students involved in the organization of this big event?
azava0 YSHS: Hi, Scott.
Scott Jamieson: Good morning. Hey, how are ya?
azava0 YSHS: I'm in the middle of a million other meetings, so I'm just in proximity with Aleadra.
Scott Jamieson: No worries, we're all good, she's doing great.
Scott Jamieson: Alright.
Scott Jamieson: How are students involved in organizing a big event like this?
azava0 YSHS: Well, as you know, the SRC, they are a big collection of students in one council to… that have, like, different subgroups, so everyone goes to, like, whatever subgroup they love to help out in, and from there, we will…
azava0 YSHS: we'll think of something, because Yuronga Celebrates is a fantastic event where people can proudly show off
azava0 YSHS: where they're from. So… and a lot of us do come from different countries, too. So, for…
azava0 YSHS: the… for the student excellence and inclusion, at least, which is the subgroup I'm from, we decided to make a passport hunt, which is…
azava0 YSHS: Just a quick card that you can walk around the school during the day, and there'll be different events in different stalls, and all this…
azava0 YSHS: Cool cultural stuff playing around, and you can just go there, take a stab, look around, you can learn more, engage with the other people.
azava0 YSHS: And just, you know, you'll be tempted to go around, because there might be a prize, you know? So you might be tempted to be like, oh, wow, maybe I've… what if I get the prize? And then you'll just…
azava0 YSHS: go around to check everything out, and then you'll learn something, you'll see, you might enjoy, and yeah, full…
azava0 YSHS: the other subgroups, I heard that one of them did, like, a cultural sport, because in a sport and recreation. So, those students, they would come together, you know, think about it, talk to each other, they might do some research.
azava0 YSHS: Because organizing is fun, at least, for our council. We are really dedicated to our roles, and
azava0 YSHS: we want to do something for the school, so they would come together, do research, they will talk to the teachers and say, hey, could we do this? This seems like a really fun idea, and yeah, they'll organize it for the day.
Scott Jamieson: I wanted to zoom in on your passport idea. I know this is something that you and Tony, who unfortunately wasn't able to join us today, something… an idea… sorry… an idea that you both came up with, and something new to this year's celebration.
Scott Jamieson: How did you come up with that idea, and how did you bring that from idea to action?
azava0 YSHS: Well…
azava0 YSHS: originally, we had an idea of, like, you know, dunking teachers in a tank, a water tank? We originally had an idea where one person will ask the student, hey, like, I don't know, what food is this, what, like.
azava0 YSHS: what's the culture behind this food, and where do you think it's from? And if the student gets it right, you can just throw.
azava0 YSHS: a beanbag and dumped the teacher in, which is… seems like a really… it was a really good idea, because a lot of teachers are very popular at our school, and I think the teachers… the students love to joke around with them, but unfortunately, that…
azava0 YSHS: wasn't possible since it was a bit too late to order a water tank to do it, so we came up with different ideas, and I got the idea from
azava0 YSHS: looking around, so there was… we were in, like, a classroom, and I saw a lot of, like, papers there, and one of them had a task list.
azava0 YSHS: on some… I think it was English adverbs, or, like, a task list of some sort, and I was like, oh, hey!
azava0 YSHS: Back in Japan, like, the train stations, they have an activity where you can… you grab a piece of paper, and then you can stamp the location you are at, and it'll create a small image as you go to each train station. And I got the idea, and I was like, why not we do something for the school?
azava0 YSHS: Because not only can we advertise other events.
azava0 YSHS: during your ungo celebrates, but we can also just make a cool idea, and it's something memorable to bring home, to, you know, remember this iconic or, like, you know, really fun event that happened.
azava0 YSHS: So, yeah, that's… it was…
azava0 YSHS: not as interesting, but it was a pretty good idea that I came up with.
Scott Jamieson: I think it is a pretty good idea, and I think it's really cool how we get a lot of these big ideas on the table. We look at what's realistic and feasible, you talk about how the dunk tank
Scott Jamieson: We just didn't have enough time to make that happen, so we were able to pivot and think of a new idea, and just so funny that just a piece of paper sitting in the classroom where you were working was the inspiration for that. I think that's so cool.
Scott Jamieson: What are you most proud of? After all your work going into organizing this big event, having to expe…
Scott Jamieson: Being able to experience this event with a whole community.
Scott Jamieson: What's something that really stands out to you, something you're most proud of as a student leader?
azava0 YSHS: One thing I'm really proud of was the…
azava0 YSHS: What's a word that you could say? Like, the… Engagement?
azava0 YSHS: With the school, because the students, originally, we thought we wouldn't print out too much passport cards, and mainly of maybe, like, 200 cards for the community instead of just the students, because we would… we genuinely thought that the students from our school would probably…
azava0 YSHS: not interact too much with this activity, because it's more like a kid activity instead, but…
azava0 YSHS: One thing I was really surprised with, as well, was how many people came to get a passport.
azava0 YSHS: for the Yoronga celebrates, because we advertised it a bit later than we…
azava0 YSHS: than we planned to, so we were like, oh no, no, not a lot of people will know. Even if we put up signs, maybe just a couple handful, but surprisingly, on the day, a lot of people lined up to get the first card.
azava0 YSHS: Mainly because they heard there was a prize, but it was good enough, and by the end of the day, a lot of them were holding a completed passport card, and it was really…
azava0 YSHS: nice, and I was pretty happy to see that it was quite successful.
Scott Jamieson: That's really awesome, and I think it's so cool when you get an idea, you're not quite sure how it's gonna land, and you get a response like that with so many people participating and signing up, and helping to add to that experience of the day with all the other fun stuff that's going on.
Scott Jamieson: Your school, and this is a bit of a conversation for some of the educators who are listening to our podcast, is working with Melbourne University with the new metrics. And your school is focusing on learner agency.
Scott Jamieson: Collaboration, and active citizenship.
Scott Jamieson: Those are some pretty big terms. When you think about agency, you think about collaboration, we talked a little bit about collaboration already, and… but also active citizenship, and getting students actively engaged in our community.
Scott Jamieson: How does an event like this showcase some of those things?
azava0 YSHS: Well, for Learner Agency, we actually have it every Tuesday.
azava0 YSHS: one of the free periods we get, we would actually come together in our homeroom classes, and our homeroom teacher will teach us something new every time. Like, one time, it's about finance, another part, it's another time it was…
azava0 YSHS: About, like, what behaviors, like, what's empathy, what could we do, and all these little, like, these little…
azava0 YSHS: teachings that we only learn maybe a few times, because it's once every week. It really builds on
azava0 YSHS: our character, what we learn, what we do, what's our behavior, and it shows a lot at Yoronga Celebrates, because beforehand, there was a lot of littering, I could say, but once Lerner Agency came in.
azava0 YSHS: I think we had maybe one or two lessons about the environment, and then it's slowly… there is… there's still a lot, because we're a… it's a high school, but it's getting less now, and I'm quite happy to see
azava0 YSHS: that at least some of the learning agencies working for younger celebrates, at least. But, yeah, and, active citizenship, a lot of people are learning a lot more about Australian culture, and just other people's cultures, and
azava0 YSHS: They will, like, they'll be more knowledgeable when the once-every-two-year event comes along, and they'll want to learn something new.
Scott Jamieson: Well said. I think giving students agency, helping them to take ownership of their learning in their community, working together through collaboration.
Scott Jamieson: And being actively involved in our community, you know, not just thinking about, but actually doing, I think is so, so important for students. Taking some of these things we're learning in the classroom and applying those in a real-world situation, I think can be such powerful learning. So thank you for sharing those experiences with us.
Scott Jamieson: If there are some folks listening to our podcast thinking that an event like this to celebrate the diversity and create more of a sense of belonging in our community might be a really cool thing for their school.
Scott Jamieson: What is some advice, as someone who's been involved in organizing an event like this? What's some advice you might give to another school thinking about starting up an event like Uronga Celebrates?
azava0 YSHS: Well… The first thing is maybe you could ask the students about
azava0 YSHS: an event like this, you could ask them, like, send out a survey, or just ask, hey, does anyone…
azava0 YSHS: What does anyone think about…
azava0 YSHS: what was it, an event like this? It could happen once every three years, once every 2 years, every year, if you want to, but you should first see if the students are
azava0 YSHS: interested in an event like this, and also if some are willing to participate, because if the school organizes everything, they won't have too much views of the student, and it might not be as fun as maybe some students that are the same age as the other one, that other students
azava0 YSHS: Might have for…
azava0 YSHS: the school. Like, if we didn't have either the passport, or, like, these fun little activities, or just
azava0 YSHS: random kids volunteering to put their stall up to show more of their own pride in culture and all of this. It might not be as fun for other students to learn or just look around and have fun playing around with it.
Scott Jamieson: Absolutely. Find opportunities to…
Scott Jamieson: allow students to have a voice in the organization of this, and also have the opportunity for students to lead, and take charge of some of these pieces, because you're absolutely right. Who knows better how to make a fun event for students and for our community than the students?
Scott Jamieson: So the more we can get students involved in every aspect of our school, I think it really adds to
Scott Jamieson: the engagement and just that ownership and that agency, exactly what we were talking about, right? Having that agency by allowing students some space to…
Scott Jamieson: have a say when we're thinking about maybe strategic planning, maybe it's designing learning, maybe it is big community events like this. There's so many opportunities to take advantage of
Scott Jamieson: the amazing students that we have, and help them to develop as leaders the same way that Alejandra has had this experience at her school.
Scott Jamieson: Alejandro, is there anything else that you'd like to share with our listeners that I haven't asked the right question to allow you to share yet?
azava0 YSHS: Hmm, well… One thing I could also kind of forgot to…
azava0 YSHS: share about was how the school also, you know, since they interact with every part of the student body, every time they do, your younger celebrates, they would ask… they would hold an art competition.
azava0 YSHS: To engage with the art kids at the school, to design.
azava0 YSHS: like, something to put on a t-shirt, which you can sell for younger celebrates. It's a good design opportunity for a lot of them, and people out of the school, so in the community, they can also buy one, too.
azava0 YSHS: Yeah, apart from that, I'm not sure. I think you asked a lot of fantastic questions, and I was really happy to answer them as much as I could.
azava0 YSHS: So…
Scott Jamieson: Thank you so much, and thank you for being such a fabulous guest on our podcast.
Scott Jamieson: It is leaders like you who continue to inspire me as I get to meet some amazing people from around the world.
Scott Jamieson: I think there are some amazing young people, and I am so happy to be able to share your story as a leader, and excited for what might come next on your leadership journey as you continue
Scott Jamieson: at Uronga State High School. So, thanks so much for being on the Empty to Impact podcast, and enjoy your summer holiday coming up.
azava0 YSHS: Thank you so much, and… For anyone that's listening, I really hope, you know.
azava0 YSHS: Leadership is a great position to apply for, or just try to play. You can be a leader in your classroom, you can just go out of your way to talk to random people that you might not know, you could be good friends with them, you could…
azava0 YSHS: Just, you know, make someone's day, and all of these little things is what make you a leader, whether you have a badge or not, and it will help so much in the future.
azava0 YSHS: So, yeah, thank you again for inviting me, and yeah, really hope.
azava0 YSHS: We could meet each other again.
Scott Jamieson: Beautifully said. Thanks, Alejandra.