Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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: I am so excited to be back visiting one of my favorite schools, and
Scott Jamieson: We are checking in in Cartagena, Colombia, at Collegio George Washington, and I have a group of seniors with me who are going to be talking about service learning and a project they worked on when they were in grade 11.
Scott Jamieson: And so excited to get into this story and have them talk about their service learning journey as they come up to the end of their high school experience at Kahoa. But before we start, I'm going to pass over to my guests today for some quick introductions.
Jessica Benitez: Okay, so, hi, my name is Dominique, I am a senior here at Kahoa, and I am very excited for you to learn all about our project that we did last year.
Jessica Benitez: Hi, my name is Mariana, and I'm also really happy to show you the insights of our project that we did last year. Hi, my name is Mandilde, I'm a 12th grade student at Kahoa, very excited to be here.
Jessica Benitez: Hi, my name is Sophia, and I'm also really excited to be able to share all the things that we did last year with the project.
Jessica Benitez: Hi, my name is Laura, and I'm also very excited to show you the process of our Project Leslie.
Scott Jamieson: Alright, fantastic.
Scott Jamieson: Just for our listeners, Kohoa has service learning deeply embedded into their school programs. They have a service learning project at all grade levels in the school.
Jessica Benitez: All the way from 3-year-olds, all the way to seniors.
Scott Jamieson: And it's so cool to see these skills and experiences develop over time. These students have been at the school, and their project in grade 11 is what we're going to be talking about today. And I wonder if I could ask if you could give us just a big overview, kind of a high altitude.
Scott Jamieson: What was your project all about? Who were you working with in your community? And what were your aspirations? What did you hope to achieve thinking about service learning?
Jessica Benitez: our project was a little bit different, I think, in what you would think about a service-learning project, because it wasn't, like.
Jessica Benitez: directly connected to, like, a certain vulnerable community or something like that. It was more, like, speaking about the issues in our city, and helping out by doing that, by using, like, the opportunity that we had, because even, like, the…
Jessica Benitez: The major. The major thing, and we were able to speak out about those issues, so I think it was…
Jessica Benitez: Like, our service was using our opportunity to speak out for other people that can't do it.
Jessica Benitez: But, like, in a general way, it was learning about a city, learning about our issues, kind of, like, putting ourselves in communities that we didn't know, per se, like, getting to know their way of life, I don't know how to say it.
Jessica Benitez: And then developing a speech about it, so that we could speak out about it.
Jessica Benitez: Yeah, I think this project was… we did it mainly in two classes, it wasn't in our Spanish class.
Jessica Benitez: in our… in our Columbian social studies class, and it was basically all about, like, what Sophia said. We each had to pick, like, an issue that we saw in our community, and we did that through field trips, we went and explored the city, we also did a lot of research, and then we, like, constructed a speech with information that we found about, that issue, and then
Jessica Benitez: like, that was her whole grade, so it was about 53 people that each created a speech on a different issue, and then we all presented it, and then I think 5 or 6 finalists, 6 finalists.
Jessica Benitez: were chosen, and then we had our oratory contest, which was, like, our… how we could express our speeches to the mayor and other important people here in Cartagena. In the way of kind of the exploring the city, we got to use, like, the public transport here in Cartagena, which is called Transcaribe, and just go all around the city, around parts we didn't even know, and just go along with all of our partners around.
Jessica Benitez: Yeah.
Scott Jamieson: That's awesome. Oh, sorry, did I interrupt somebody?
Jessica Benitez: Oh, no.
Scott Jamieson: Alright.
Scott Jamieson: That's awesome. I want to zoom back to something that Sophia said, and this is a bit of a different kind of service learning project. When some people think about service learning, we often think about trash bags or paintbrushes and shovels, but service learning can look
Scott Jamieson: And sound, and feel.
Scott Jamieson: different in different contexts, and I think the work that you're doing is so important in your community, and I want to ask a follow-up question to see what kind of issues were people focusing on in this project?
Jessica Benitez: We… we can say, each of us, which one we focused on.
Jessica Benitez: Okay, I can start. Well, I focused on one. I've always been very, like, interested in tourism, since Cartagena is a very touristic city. It is, like, our main economic income.
Jessica Benitez: And… but I didn't want to focus on, like, typical issues surrounding tourism, so I put one that I have seen a lot happen in very touristic sites, which was sexual tourism.
Jessica Benitez: So I focused a lot on the negative impacts that this had on Carpagena, and I think it was, like, it was very…
Jessica Benitez: it wasn't a topic that I knew a lot about, so it also, like, get a lot of information for me, and it also allowed me to show a lot of people about this topic that many people didn't really know about, so…
Jessica Benitez: It was a very great experience. I was also talking about tourism, but I focused it on how tourism affects, like, our economic life, living in Carpagena, how all the prices go up because of tourism, and how also security kind of
Jessica Benitez: Decreases because of the amount of people that are publicly.
Jessica Benitez: So, for me, I focused on something maybe more personal coming up. I focused on the lack of attention from the government to single mothers in poverty.
Jessica Benitez: So I focused on the effects on their children, their homes, etc, and I kind of did a really deep investigation with data and all of that to kind of focus on something more homely, I guess. Something more personal.
Jessica Benitez: I focused mine on the life of education in our city, and kind of, like, what inspired my topic, per se, was that our school has a lot of connections with, like, Punta Ganoa students, and they were doing… they were doing, like, a project with, like, Preakface, which IGFES is, like, the SAT, but, like, Colombian SAT.
Jessica Benitez: So, like, they were doing that project, and I realized all of, like, the gaps that were in their education, and, like, the big difference that there is between, like, a private institution results.
Jessica Benitez: and the public institution results, and also, like, I got the chance to visit the school and, like, notice the differences in infrastructure and the lack of opportunities that they
Jessica Benitez: I also, focus on, like, the education, but more about, like, how education should be more, like, a right and not a privilege, because here, for example, in Cartagena,
Jessica Benitez: in a, like, in the same city, some students have many things, and others, like, don't have anything. So, I think everyone should have the same opportunities in the education, for example, so…
Scott Jamieson: Miguel, do you want to say hi and introduce yourself? Oh, they're… sorry, you're all over… go ahead.
Jessica Benitez: Thank you. So I think… no, I don't think… I focused on a broader political.
Scott Jamieson: Can I interrupt you for a sec? Can you just kind of say hi and introduce yourself, before you start?
Jessica Benitez: My name is Miguel, and I am in the group of the 12th grade, and for my speech.
Jessica Benitez: I talked about a broader political subject, so you know how in the United States, the states have kind of, like, independence, so they can set their own laws? We don't have that here in Colombia. Instead, in the capital, we decide all of our laws.
Jessica Benitez: I thought that here in Cartagena, and in the coastal regions, we have a big problem, and it's that we have different circumstances and different needs than other parts of the country.
Jessica Benitez: So, I talked about federalism and how we should implement it here, because it completely…
Jessica Benitez: It changes a lot, oh, sorry, I don't know how to explain this.
Jessica Benitez: it makes it difficult for us to really put our problems first. So, I've heard a lot of problems with the measure that we have, that, for example, some main roads have different taxes around the residential areas. I talked a lot about that.
Jessica Benitez: And how the central government wasn't really caring about our problems. That is a big problem here in Colombia. Ethnical groups are usually misrepresented, and that goes along with many other populations, and so I thought that federalism would really help about that.
Scott Jamieson: Thank you so much to all of you for sharing
Scott Jamieson: these inspiring projects. I'm kind of blown away listening to some of these, and I think these are such big, important issues. And also, I love how they connect to
Scott Jamieson: your local community. This isn't something far away, this is something right where you live, and connected to your interests as well. And that leads me to my next question.
Scott Jamieson: Why is it important to you, as students, to have an opportunity to
Scott Jamieson: Do a project like this that connects to something that you are personally interested in.
Scott Jamieson: A lot of times we think about school, and there's probably some subjects that you can think of where you're not feeling as engaged. It doesn't feel as relevant to you. But this project, to all of you, sounded so personal.
Scott Jamieson: Why is it important to have an opportunity like this as students, do you think?
Jessica Benitez: Well, I think that's…
Jessica Benitez: having the opportunity to have this project on something based, like, on what we wanted to explore, I think it's very important because it not only, like, lets us, like, allows us to have
Jessica Benitez: like, simply enjoy school and simply enjoy our project, but I think it also allows us to be more engaged in it. I think all the effort we put in it is based on the fact that we wanted
Jessica Benitez: is to work out. We wanted to know more about the subject, and we also wanted more people to know about it. So I think that that liberty for us to choose our own topic and our own problem was very helpful and allowed us to create a very good result and a very good project that could be expressed. And, for example, for us to have the opportunity to be in this podcast with you, I think, is very based on the fact that we all
Jessica Benitez: People really liked and loved what we were expressing in our projects.
Jessica Benitez: I think our teachers were also just amazing ones. We have our Spanish social studies teacher. They pushed us to not go into a topic that we already knew, or we already focused on. They told us, go outside of your limits. And we all kind of pushed ourselves in this group especially.
Jessica Benitez: practicing our speech, researching, etc. I think it was so free to do that we were really inspired in order to not only, like, help the community in a different way, which is a new way for us, but also just push ourselves to public speaking, writing, researching, and everything that comes with it.
Scott Jamieson: Love it. And it sounds so engaging, and I just love the passion that you guys have for your topic, and can really see, like, this is a project from last year, and here we are midway through senior year. And you guys are still kind of connected to this, I can tell. And just the energy around the table is so cool.
Scott Jamieson: And… A lot of times in schools.
Scott Jamieson: This might culminate. We're doing research, we're connecting to a topic we really like, and maybe we write an essay at the end of this project, where our teacher sees it, and we don't really have an audience beyond that.
Scott Jamieson: You guys did something different.
Scott Jamieson: With your learning. Tell me a little bit about the speech, and how that was such an important piece to be able to not just do the research, not just become more aware of this issue, but actually to take action.
Scott Jamieson: And… who was the audience for that, and how does…
Scott Jamieson: That work maybe just feel a little bit more meaningful than if you had to write a paper on this.
Jessica Benitez: Okay, I think, first of all, the main difference between, like, writing the speech and writing the paper, I think, is that the speech can be much more emotional, and it can be much more passionate, because it's not only the way you write it, but, like, the way you express it when you go, like, up on stage or, like, in front of the class.
Jessica Benitez: And then, to respond to your question about, like, how it was presenting it, so we did, like, a series of rounds. So, first it was, like, double grade, then the semifinals.
Jessica Benitez: And then lastly, like, us six, we presented in the Coliseum, where we had the mayor, we had a TV presenter, Jessica La Pena, we had a… one of the leaders of, like, a…
Jessica Benitez: a newspaper in Calgaragumo Vamos, which is, like, a data… which is, like, a data recollecting company of the city of, like, the quality of life and things like that.
Jessica Benitez: And we also had the whole high school, like, 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, and 12th grade, plus parents, grandparents, like, it was a lot of pressure to be on. I think the rounds actually just began with us just preparing our speech, etc, and then they told us, we're starting today.
Jessica Benitez: And it was with our whole grade, which is a pretty big grade level, and then 12th grade too, which they were with us, just watching us and evaluating us.
Jessica Benitez: And it began, and they started, like, eliminating, and then we did several rounds, I think 3 rounds before the actual final round, but it was very fun. It was also just a challenge for us to kind of
Jessica Benitez: go up to the seniors to a grade level and express our speech the best way we could, and then compete with each other until the end. It was very key.
Jessica Benitez: Yeah. I think that also…
Jessica Benitez: the difference between sort of having, like, this op… like, this project and actually having to present it is that we also, like, gave a meaning to our speech. I think that the fact that we could present it to such important people, and people that we knew could actually, like, make a change and would actually impact our city by us doing that, I think it just completely changed how passionate we were about the speech.
Jessica Benitez: And also, just this opportunity gave us so many skills that we didn't have. Like, I don't think any of us
Jessica Benitez: would have probably had the opportunity to, like, give a speech to the mayor in another project, so I think it was just…
Jessica Benitez: The opportunity to have that, and also the recognition that it gave you, and the skills, like, just simply having the courage to speak in front of so many people, and all the things that went into our research.
Jessica Benitez: I think it was a very great project, and that opportunity and the difference that it had from simply writing an essay that would probably have been forgotten, it really created an impact and a mark in all of us. I also want to add how, like, for most of us, we knew many of the people watching the speech.
Jessica Benitez: were high school students that are not aware of the problems and of the issues that we were going to, like, make our speeches about. So I think the fact that we were able to also show them some
Jessica Benitez: Problematics that may be or may not be known for, like, our high school students, is also really important and made us a little bit more passionate and make us have an impact.
Scott Jamieson: Absolutely. I think that's huge. And this is not the kind of topics that a lot… like, I have two high school children.
Scott Jamieson: One's in grade 9, and one's in grade 11. And these are not the kind of issues that they're typically thinking about. And that we can raise awareness with other students in our school community, with parents, with other teachers, even.
Scott Jamieson: With some of these important people, like people in the media, and the mayor, and…
Scott Jamieson: This is pretty huge, and this is not a typical learning experience. I think it's so cool.
Scott Jamieson: I want to zoom back into something that Dominic said about skills.
Scott Jamieson: I want to talk a little bit about some of those skills that maybe you learned this in grade 11, but maybe it was through previous projects or previous service learning experiences.
Scott Jamieson: What kind of skills were you learning at Kahoa that helped you as a changemaker, as a leader, as you're working on this project? What were some of the important skills you needed to be successful?
Jessica Benitez: Okay, I think, one of the main skills was, like, researching, being able to, like, research well.
Jessica Benitez: I personally was, like, in seminars, so, like, we were already learning in AP seminars, so we were already learning some of, like, those skills, which, like, websites to use, how to, like, recollect information, and that, so I think that was, like, really important to be able to gather all the data that we needed for the speech to, like, prove that what we were saying was right.
Jessica Benitez: But also, I remember really practicing in Spanish class, especially. Like, when we were reading our speech, we wanted to make an impact in several of our words, in several of our research, quotes, or anything we had that made a really, like, big impact. They would tell us to really
Jessica Benitez: use our, I guess, our voice to kind of move the audience and make them feel what we wanted them to feel. So it was really important. So public speaking probably would be a big part in this project.
Jessica Benitez: Yeah, I think another one that we maybe had also, like, learned in other service projects was simply, like, to observe other communities. I think we had the opportunity, for example, in 9th grade, that we also did in another service project, but we weren't… when we went, like, around our old city, Cartagena's old city, and we basically learned history about different places.
Jessica Benitez: And I think those opportunities and those different service projects, like, trained us to be able to observe, like, our city's problematics, and I think that was, well, the biggest, like, part of our project, so I think that was a very great skill we learned.
Jessica Benitez: I feel like some very other important things that our school gave us, to give us the skills for this, was also just a general huge concentration in our ability to get information both online and in literature.
Jessica Benitez: And, you know, like Sophia said.
Jessica Benitez: But also, there were other many things that, for me personally, helped me. This school provides a… the MUN programs, which I found to be very helpful.
Jessica Benitez: I've done MUN for many years, and I feel like it's helped me a lot for public speaking, and if it wasn't for MUN, and also the investment of teachers into that project, I remember that we were practicing, they would cancel out entire classes just so students could hear us and give us feedback.
Jessica Benitez: I feel like it was a lot of the school's preparation for us to be able to do this, and also many other programs that they gave us so we could get those skills.
Scott Jamieson: Miguel, I like how you highlight that this is really a whole school initiative.
Scott Jamieson: And it's not just you guys, it's not just your class. It's your teachers, and it's other students, and it's parents, and it's really the whole community. And I think that's really what's so beautiful about these programs. So, I want to go a little bit big picture on my next question.
Scott Jamieson: And as seniors, thinking about that next step beyond high school.
Scott Jamieson: Why are these service learning experiences important to you, thinking about preparing you for that next step beyond high school?
Jessica Benitez: Well, I feel like, for example, specifically this service learning program of the, speeches.
Jessica Benitez: I feel like it really pushed us to our limits, you know? It was a huge uptaking, if I'm gonna call that. It was presenting something that we believe in to hundreds of people.
Jessica Benitez: And I feel like that was what's most important about it. So, for example, the… my MUN experiences and the speech specifically, has inspired me to become a lawyer, to study law.
Jessica Benitez: I feel like that's really important, because if the school doesn't give us these opportunities to push ourselves to a limit, we will never really know what we are capable of.
Jessica Benitez: So, I feel like that was a huge part of it. Yeah, I think in my experience, in my personal experience, I want to study political science, and I remember that last year, when I was in 11th grade, I was very confused on what to study. I didn't really know, you know, what path I wanted to take, and I think that service projects like this
Jessica Benitez: specifically this one, that also gave us so much liberty to choose the, like, topic we wanted to talk about, I think.
Jessica Benitez: it just connects us with what we want, and it just allows us to see different skills that we may have, and I remember that after we got done with this, I was like, I know that this is what I want to do in the future, like, I loved it, and I think that if I didn't have this opportunity, I probably wouldn't have, like, taken this path, so I think that having more service projects like this, like what you said previously, and the question that
Jessica Benitez: allowed us to have so much liberty in what we want to talk about, I think, allows us to just simply find out our interests and what we may want to do in the future.
Jessica Benitez: Yeah, I also want to add that mostly that we were juniors when we did the project, and we had so much liberty, so we were able to kind of experiment
Jessica Benitez: Like, the topics based on our liking, and many of us ended up choosing topics related in a certain way of what we want to study.
Jessica Benitez: In college, like, for example, the topic I chose was a little bit more about economics, and right now, I want to study law and economics. I want to do a double major about that, but I know that as us, we also chose topics. I know the whole grade chose topics more like
Jessica Benitez: aligned with what they want to study in college next year. I think that, for me, in my personal experience, it was more…
Jessica Benitez: about…
Jessica Benitez: feeling prepared for college. I always felt like high school ends, and then it's a new phase, we don't know anything about it, and we're very scared, clearly. But I feel like with this amount of service projects, the work we have done in this school, I've never felt more prepared to go to a new school that's
Jessica Benitez: even a higher level, and with more people, and really, like, change the world in different places, not only in Cartagena. And it's really focused on the service we've done in the school. For example, I'm in the English classes right now, where we give English classes to kids from around Cartagena, and we kind of work a lot on leadership on community service in the school, and it's something that's really gonna change us when we have to move on to this next step.
Jessica Benitez: I also think that this helped us to be more prepared for college, because even though I'm not gonna study, like, something related to this.
Jessica Benitez: For example, public speaking also prepared us, like, for life.
Jessica Benitez: Even though I'm not gonna study that, because…
Jessica Benitez: there are more people to express our… our… what we want to say, or… not only in college, but for life in general, I think.
Jessica Benitez: No.
Jessica Benitez: I also think that it gave us a lot of connections. I think a lot of us, like I said, we previously wouldn't have the opportunity to talk with the mayor or with the representative of the newspaper. I think it gave us a lot of, like.
Jessica Benitez: like, simply having that opportunity to talk with them and to get them to know us. I think, for example, I had the experience of talking with Catalina Rajujo, which was one of the judges that she's, like, a representative of the newspaper here in Cartagena, and I think that if it weren't for this project, I probably, like, wouldn't have talked to her, and she gave me a lot of insight and opportunity to even appear in, like, the newspapers.
Jessica Benitez: so I think it gave us a lot of visibility, and not only to us, but to our problem.
Jessica Benitez: So I think it was very good.
Jessica Benitez: I think I agree with that. In order to have connections afterwards, we're clearly, really motivated students at the school, people that stand out. And, for example, with the connections we had now in our students magazine, we're working with Digobernacion Bolivar, which is
Jessica Benitez: Kind of all of our,
Jessica Benitez: with all of our departmental and… Like, state. Sort of. And also just working with people outside of our school, and having the confidence to go out of our city and kind of work on the things we're passionate about. This project really gave us the initiative.
Scott Jamieson: After listening to you guys go around the table, I can totally understand how you became the finalists in this project. That was so well spoken, and such a great endorsement of this kind of learning.
Scott Jamieson: And I just want to say thank you for sharing that. I think it was really heartfelt, and I think it's something that a lot of schools need to listen to, because
Scott Jamieson: This is the kind of learning that matters, and we're building the kind of skills that matter, and we're making these real-world connections, and we're discovering what we want to do as a career through this kind of work, and I think that's so, so important.
Scott Jamieson: With that in mind.
Scott Jamieson: What's something that you would say to this year's grade 11 students as they get ready to take on a project like this?
Jessica Benitez: I would tell them to put all their passion, effort, and love into this project, especially 11th grade, it's not an easy year. It's really challenging academically, and then you're preparing yourself for 12th grade, which is even harder.
Jessica Benitez: But I think putting all of that passion for us.
Jessica Benitez: it was so life-changing, and so inspiring to keep on working, so I think just put them… all the effort you can, and really persevere. It's a really challenging project, but it's really worth it.
Jessica Benitez: I think aligned with that, I would tell them to simply enjoy it. I think it is a project that has, like, you can be very nervous. It is not easy for any of us to stand up in front of a crowd so big, and to express a speech that we also memorize, because that is one of the hardest parts. So I think that
Jessica Benitez: to simply tell them to, like, enjoy it, to actually choose a topic that they feel passionate about, because that will simply make it easier and help you have that sort of interest and that, like, passion that you should have while doing your speech, and to, you know, like, allow you to feel your emotions. Like, don't be so…
Jessica Benitez: like, I don't know how to say it, but so, like, stuck up on, I have to do it perfectly, because that is not the speech that will win, or the speech that will make the most impact. The speech that will make the most impact is not always the perfect one, but the one that actually shows your passion and your emotions.
Jessica Benitez: I would also say to choose a topic that they like, and that they are passionate about, because you're going to invest so much time on this project that if you choose a topic that you're not interested in.
Jessica Benitez: It will be harder for you, first, to have a good speech, because you're not passionate about it, and also to actually enjoy working on this project.
Jessica Benitez: I feel like what I would tell them is to really think about the big picture of the speech.
Jessica Benitez: what felt about me really important, what I felt was really important about the speech was that we were going to give it to a lot of people and a lot of really important people. So, every single word that is said out there matters.
Jessica Benitez: So, to have ideas, of course, that one is passionate about, but one that also…
Jessica Benitez: One that also, you know, oneself thinks.
Jessica Benitez: that will cause a great impact. So what I thought was my idea was something that is critically important to our society. Everyone here thinks that their idea is critically important to our society, and that's why we gave our speeches. That's what made it important, and that's what made us give them.
Scott Jamieson: I just want to give a big shout out to all of you. For those who are listening, you probably don't know, but you have to be very brave to come on and speak in your second language on a podcast, and I think that is pretty huge.
Scott Jamieson: So, I just want to say thank you to all of you. You have made my week. This has been such a pleasure, and I'm so grateful to have had a chance to connect with all of you, and share this amazing story.
Scott Jamieson: with our listeners. So, thank you all so much for your time. I know you're all seniors, and we're coming into… You know what? It's all a busy time of year until you get to the end, but I'm so grateful to have this time this morning with all of you, so thank you so much.
Jessica Benitez: Thank you. Thank you.
Scott Jamieson: And… I'm gonna turn the recording off. You guys were off!