Bridge to Impact: Building Belonging & Designing Action for a Sustainable Future at the Düsseldorf Changemakers Conference

Even if you just have a simple idea and you don't have that much support behind it, it's to just do it and just initiate it because after seeing so many students sharing their ideas and the things they've done at their school, even though maybe in the beginning they didn't have that much support, it just inspires me to in the future whenever I have something I want to do, even if I don't have those people backing me up, I just will want to do it and create that change. Welcome to Empathy to Impact. I'm your host Scott Jamison. This podcast is designed for K-12 educators dedicated to global citizenship education. You'll hear stories directly from students who are making a difference in their communities and gain the inspiration you need to make a shift in your own teaching to nurture the aspiring global citizens in your classroom. This podcast is brought to you by Inspire Citizens. On this episode, we are going to be talking about the Changemaker Conference that happened in Dusseldorf, Germany. We're going to be talking about how we might plant the seeds for changemaking in schools through clubs and events like the Changemaker Conference. We're going to be checking in with a resource from our friends at Compass Education. The Sustainability Compass is a great guide to different strands of being a Changemaker and talk about how the conference was able to utilize that. We're going to be talking about how students will feel a sense of unity and belonging as a Changemaker when we come to conferences like this and have an opportunity to meet students from around the region from other schools, see things in common and things we care about in the actions we might be able to take and collaborate on. And we're going to be talking about behind the scenes of a conference and how building a strong team and developing trust and identifying and utilizing the strengths and skills and superpowers of our teammates helps to lead to an amazing event like this one. Don't forget to subscribe to the Empathy to Impact podcast so you don't miss these exciting stories from young people around the world. And please leave a review on your favorite podcast platform to help our podcast reach new listeners. Here we go. Welcome to the Empathy to Impact podcast. My name is Scott Jameson and I am visiting some Changemakers from Dusseldorf, Germany, who just this month, early part of March 2026, hosted a Changemaker conference at their school. And we are going to hear all about the work that they did leading up to that conference. What inspired them to be the hosts of a Changemaker conference? And what they learned, well, they were at this conference connecting with about 250 other Changemakers from across the region. Many many different schools coming together to think about how we might work towards a more just equitable, joyful, sustainable future. So I am so excited to welcome my three guests today. I'm going to pass over to them for some quick introductions. I'm Julia. I am Melania. And I'm Gabriela. And we're grade 11 students at the International School of Dusseldorf and we are the lead student planners for Changemakers 2026. So what does it mean to be a lead planner? What kind of work does that entail when you're hosting a conference like this at your school? So we worked in a core team, the three of us and three adult mentors, so our teachers. And we worked together to organize all of our speakers to get all the school delegations to come to our conference, organizing everything they might need, and kind of deciding what type of atmosphere, what tone we want to set at our conference, and what message we want to pass along to our guests. And I think just being a part of the core team means having the most oversight over the whole conference. So if there were certain people that you wanted to ask about everything, if you wanted to know everything about the conference, it would be one of us three or six in the core team. So tell me about the planning getting started with this conference. So I met all of you in Budapest at the Changemakers Conference in 2025. And you guys took over the responsibility to be the host in 2026. What has happened since that conference leading up to your conference? How have you gone from being conference participants to having this amazing event goes so well at your school? It started at the conference already. So we kind of went there knowing we were going to host the next Changemakers Conference. So we spent a lot of our time just analyzing the conference at Budapest and seeing what we need to do, how the conference flow goes, where the speakers were, and then sort of adapting it to a format that we wanted. Next steps were coming up with a theme for our own conference and choosing which speakers we do want, especially from the ones we saw before at the other conference or just in general other people we might know. Yeah, it started very, very broadly like Gabby said choosing a theme, figuring out how we can build off the conference in Budapest but also making it our own. So already at the conference we were interacting with speakers and networking there. And then when we got back to Düsseldorf, we started brainstorming. Oh, in our craziest best case scenario conference, what speakers would we have? There were different people who came up. I think one of them was David Attenborough and then we looked up his hourly rates and we chained our mind. We were just thinking what would be the best conference for us as attendees? And then we worked from there. Yeah, and how that kind of looked like on paper, we literally at the Budapest Conference just brainstormed all ideas possible. I think I wrote them down in the notebook and then once we got back to Düsseldorf, we organized it into this Google doc, this master document into little sections just so we could keep those ideas. And then most of the planning started the beginning of our grade 11 year. So we went to the conference in grade 10 in March and then so August of grade 11 is where the work really started. We sat down, we looked at the document and then from then on decided logistics. And I think the first thing we really did was hotel and speakers just because there is a more tight deadline on that because you're dealing with external people and a lot of money. And so we wanted to make sure that we got that down first aside from theme. Yeah, I think also speakers kind of set the tone for the conference because our conference was organized around four strands or sections of change making. So we had environment, economy, society and well-being. And when we were choosing speakers, we wanted to make sure that we address all four of those areas in who we bring in to speak. So that was very important to plan ahead of time as much as we could to make sure that we had a balanced conference as well. Yeah, and just because you get such a diverse group of people coming to change makers conferences. So we really wanted to make sure all our bases were covered and that there was something for everyone there. I think that's so important to recognize that everyone has their different entry points into being a change maker and their personal why of getting into this kind of work. And it's not easy work. It takes resilience and perseverance to be a change maker. Now if these problems were easy to solve, we probably would have done it already. We're looking at complex, difficult issues. And I think it's so cool when young people can be thinking about how they can design solutions to make our communities, make our world just a little bit better. Thinking about some of those special guests. One of them I know very well was Sophie Pico from Our Inspire Citizens team. And she speaks very highly of you guys as conference organizers and headsets amazing experience herself at the conference. Who were some of the other speakers speaking to the different points of the compass for your conference? We had originally many speakers that we want to bring. And most of them came to the conference. I think someone who we connected with very, very early is Jennifer Brandsburg Engelman from regenerative economics. Who unfortunately couldn't actually make it to the conference because she was doing so in very, very important in New Zealand regarding curriculum changes. But she sent us a video of her talk and we really appreciate that. We actually connected with Jennifer, Julianna a couple years ago at a conference we attended in Luxembourg. And when we started planning our conference, we were immediately saying we have to get Jennifer because her message is so powerful, especially because I think for both of us, when we first went to that previous conference, I think it was IESL, so the International Education Sustainability Leadership Summit. For us, sustainability was about sustainability, the green movement, everything like that. And we wouldn't really think about economy as a part of sustainability and change making. And that was such an eye-opening talk and she was such a huge person for us. So we had a mix of speakers that we've met before and also what we wanted to emphasize is bringing in people who we know from just a dog and more local or school. just because those are people that the other students have definitely never heard from. And so that's why we had a professor, Dr. Michael Koch, who was a professor of sustainability and economics in Avviri. And he is an ISD parent as well. And so we also had some ISD alumni, also that we invited to speak. So we had Romi, who had a start-up for carpooling at her university. And so we wanted to invite her because we thought maybe people don't hear enough from university students and maybe people who are closer to their age. And that might be more tangible. And then we also had another alum from ISD, Dr. Valentine Rice, who works in sustainability consulting with McKinsey. It sounds like you guys had such a cool, diverse group of speakers. And I think that is really important. And somebody Julia said about recognizing younger changemakers, I think is really cool because I think their message really resonates. There isn't really an age limit on being able to do this work. It's really about the heart, but also about the skills. And to be able to go out and take on a project and look to do some amazing things. And there are so many young people who are doing such amazing work. And it's important to highlight them. I think that message does tend to resonate a little bit more with young people to say, "This isn't for other generations' work. This is people in my generation who are already doing this work. And that can be really inspirational." You guys also talked about having that diversity, about the different compass points, nature, economics, society, and well-being. And we mentioned to you that economics is not something we often think about. But I think it's a piece that's tied in in so many other ways. I spend a number of years living in Beijing. And there was a lot of air pollution when I was living in the city. But if there was a special event, like a big government meeting or a tennis tournament, then the skies were blue, because they could snap their fingers, turn off all the factories. And you realize it's not as much an environmental issue, but an economic issue that's causing this problem. So I think as we get into some of this complexity, we can see things through different lens. And that's really important. [MUSIC] I want to stick back to your own personal why. Why is it that you chose to become a changemaker? It started around 4th grade. When Gabby and I, we joined the green team. And 4th grade actually was led by one of our adult mentors, Mr. Shehan. And that was a big deal for us at the time. We didn't think that it would continue until we were in 11th grade or beyond. We had the time we were organizing things like recycling bins in our classroom. So that was called the yellow bin pickup team. And then we organized a vegetarian week at school. I've been vegetarian since I was in 2nd grade when actually my sister for a project she did in 5th grade. She was looking into sustainability and the impact of the meat industry on the environment. And I think from there kind of snowballed. And later on when we were in 8th grade, Julia and I joined a group called the Eco Committee. And that's where we worked with a bunch of other teachers. And yeah, just continued from there. For me, as Malani said, it was also the Ganon 4th grade. Where I was part of the green team and the yellow bin pickup team as well. And as Malani said, it did kind of like snowball and just continue on into our older years in the senior school. For me, however, it did stop through like 7th grade and upwards a bit as I was a bit overwhelmed with school and was more excused. But then recently when I went to the Budapest Change Raker conference, it kind of reignited that passion for change making and made me want to help more and be inspired to help with the change raker conference happening at our school. You know, I think for me it might have been 8th grade when I joined the Eco Committee with Malania. But there was always sort of that feeling that I needed to take responsibility for something in my community. So even in earlier grade levels, I was always somehow engaged in the community, maybe not directly in a sustainability lens. But just from that feeling that I need to do something to give back to the community that gives so much to me. And so that's kind of on the sustainability spectrum where it started was in grade 8. With that team and then yeah, there was a snowball effect. So we had this really lovely mentor, Dr. Rice. And she essentially just emailed us a bunch and said, okay, can you do this during lunch? Hey, can you help me with this? And we were so on it, we were glad to help her. And that really gave us a feeling that action does make a difference as well. And that there's so much you can do even in just short little time periods of the day. And then that snowballed into going to conferences in Luxembourg. And then eventually the Budapest Change Raker conference and then ours. Thank you so much for sharing your stories. And that's really inspirational. And for educators who are listening, lean in, listen to what these amazing young people are saying. This is after school clubs. This is units that we're teaching in school. This is where we plant those seeds. And Julie is talking about this urge, this interest in doing something positive in the community. But a lot of students don't know what that is. So for educators who are listening, this is our job to create these spaces. Whether it's an after school club, a co-curricular program, a unit in your school been sequenced. It focuses on the environment or focuses on economics or focuses on well-being and society. Thinking about diversity, inclusion and belonging. These are all things that fit within some of the things that we are teaching in school. And this is where it might lead when we can plant those seeds. We have some amazing young people doing some amazing things. Because of some of these experiences being involved in the yellow bin pickup team in grade four. And I always find it so amazing. Thinking about how this all gets started. And oftentimes it's just a little thing that some teacher has created a space. For students to be empowered and take ownership of some of this work. And channel some of that desire to do something positive. And push back against some of these negative stories. And I'm feeling really inspired just listening to you guys. And seeing where this journey has taken you already. But knowing this is just the beginning as well. I want to shift gears a little bit. And think about the come back to the conference. So this conference has been in Frankfurt, in Munich, in Budapest, in Doosledorf, and next year in Lithuania. So we see it moving around the region. We see so many young people growing every year. More people being involved. Why is a conference like this important to you as a student? I mean, for me, I think this connects also to the fourth strands. I think well-being goes on addressed in change making. And I think providing such a supportive space for young change makers especially. To know that even though they're taking on these really difficult things. I mean, change making can be really difficult when you're tackling such complex problems. I think it's really important for us to have that space that we know. Oh, we're all in this together. That it's not just me and my small project on a relatively small scale in my city, in my corner of, okay, Europe for our conferences. But that there are so many other people working towards a common goal. And I think it makes us feel less alone in it. Yeah, exactly what Melania said. You don't want to feel alone. I think especially as a teenager, there's always an element of peer pressure and peer belonging. And it's kind of uncomfortable being an outsider. But sometimes the case with these change maker projects, you feel like you're a minority, maybe not everyone cares. Why am I using my lunchtime's two wards this project instead of hanging out with my friends, right? But then you come to this conference and you see these 200 other students who do the exact same thing. And then you realize what you are doing matters, right? And then it's just very empowering. Yeah. And I agree with both what Julia and Melania said. But for me as well, what I think is important with these change maker conferences is that it allows students to really collaborate with each other and share their own ideas, inspiring others. For me, when I went to the Budapest Change Maker conference, it really inspired me what everyone else was doing. So I think that's one of the really important, like why change maker conferences so important. And it just because inspires every other student to make their own change at their own schools and in their own communities. I love what you guys are all talking about this idea of community and collaboration and being inspired together, but also feeling like we aren't alone. It's really easy to feel like we're kind of on an island sometimes. And there's a lot of things that we see on social media and it's not very good news. And it's okay to be anxious about this. It's okay to worry about the future. But if we can do that with other people and then channel that into action, I think that is where it gets really empowering. I'm actually hosting a workshop for teachers in actually by the time we published this, it would have been finished with my colleague Sophie and Ivy talking about just what Melania is talking about this untalked about mental health aspect of the climate crisis. And how we do feel alone and we feel strange that we are why am I feeling this no one else is. And the reality is there's a lot of other people are feeling that. If we can make those connections and we can use that and turn that into action, I think that is such an empowering thing. And being able to do that across schools and across different countries, I think can be such a cool way to build that community and grow our impact and be inspired together and say, hey, we're working on a project at our school. Someone else is working on a similar project. I'm going to be able to share some resources or share the journey a little bit. I think that gets so, so exciting. I just read a study came out of I believe it was Yale University that talked about how young people are one are probably one of the most impacted groups by climate change because they have so much ahead to be worried about and how things we don't know the future is so uncertain right now. And I think space like this to just be able to talk about that and share the feelings that we're feeling about an uncertain future is really, really important. Not just that, but also having these opportunities to learn from some of these amazing guests and learn from other students who are running workshops and have had a little bit more experiences change makers. So many cool things coming out of a conference like this. You guys are the main organizers, kind of that core team kind of putting this together. But this is a lot. How did you delegate responsibility? How did you find your people at your school to get on board with this idea and support you in your work? So we definitely didn't do it alone. We had a lot of help from other student subteams and so we had a tech team. We had a food team, we had a facilities team, then we had a welcome team, a video team and a hype team. So there was a lot of other input, right? And well, initially it was just a Google form to be honest that we sent out to our whole school to find people who are interested, but it's also just some people that we knew we could trust and who've been doing a lot of change making that we roped in. Yeah, we have amazing students at our school who are so talented in specific things. For example, we had some of our friends helping us out with logo design, with website design. We were reaching out to specific people at a certain point because we knew like Julia said, the most important thing in this organizing this conference is having that level of trust for people that, oh, this is our project altogether. And this is your piece of it. So we trust you to do a good job with it. I love that. Thinking about how do we empower the members of our team to be leaders and take ownership of this, but also it sounds like you guys are thinking about the different hidden superpowers of different people in your community with all these different tasks. One of those that I got to see is leading up to the conference was a video you created. How did that come together? So we had our video team that existed purely for that video, that conference trailer. And so it started with a few bit of break time meetings and we weren't there for the whole process other than just our scenes, but a lot of those, I guess more B-roll shots and intro scenes were filmed by the video team students with the help of Mr. DeHeart who kind of organized them and started with sort of a storyboard and us telling them what we wanted. I think also as well, it's kind of a well back, but we had a script ready for them when everything that was needed and then scenes were kind of built around that. I think we used some digital storyboarding tools. And a lot of the students on the video team do have more filming experience because I think they have taken some film classes at ISD or sort of digital design classes. We also got a lot of support from other teachers, so our music teacher helped set up the microphones. And we had an amazing student who edited all the clips together. And even though we were nagging him on very little specific details he pushed through and had patients with us to produce a really nice video. I thought that was super cool as a way to get people excited about the conference and introduce people to your campus and give them an idea of why they needed to be at this event. And speaking of that, what was it like? You have all this preparation. You guys have been thinking about this conference since 2025. In Budapest, you start this work at the beginning of your grade 11 school year. And this happens all the way in March. There's a lot of work going on behind the scenes. What was it like when it actually all came together and happened? Worried some of your highlights and experiences? Honestly, it was a very surreal moment because we've been planning for it for such a long time that when it finally happened, it was kind of odd that we had so many students here and we knew all most of these students from workshop forms and other forms. And it was just a very surreal moment. And it was also just amazing to see everyone there. It was a bit stressful when all the students suddenly started coming into the school all at once when all the schools just got there. And we were kind of overwhelmed with the amount of students, but it still was just such a fun time and it was just amazing to see all the change happening. So I guess the best thing about this conference for me was just seeing everyone in the theater room, just seeing how many students actually came to be here to become change makers. It was just an amazing feeling as well that I was a part of creating this and being able to let these students come here and collaborate with each other. Yeah, so our conference ran from a Thursday to a Saturday and on the Sunday before the conference week started, we had our last kind of meeting as a core team and that's when we were clipping and assembling people's lanyards. And for so long, for the last year or something, we've been looking at spreadsheets and documents like Gavi said with lists of people's names, right? And for me, I remember when the first day of the conference happened and all these people started coming in and we're handing out lanyards and I recognize all these people's names. And that was so incredible to me that like, oh, this person who I've seen in a spreadsheet, their name so many times, what delegation they're in and all those things that now I can connect a face to a name and that this is actually happening. Yeah, that first day was also a highlight for me, but I think I'm going to mention something else. I think it was the final day, the Saturday, the final session in the theater, which was the We Will Statements session because we had this sort of, I think this is from a previous conference. We had this sort of ritual, this boom clap, boom thing that we would do as a whole cohort at the end of everyone's We Will Statement. And it was really nice to see everyone committing to it and committing to, I guess also the whole changemaker mindset as a whole. And it was really wholesome, I would say, to hear everyone's We Will Statements and that they were able to take away something special from this conference. Beautiful. That last day is always my favorites. I love when we get everybody together, we're doing our action planning and then coming together for that We Will Statement. And just kind of goosebumps, those you're talking about that last day, it's just such a powerful moment to be there for as a participant, as an educator, as really anybody in that room can just feel that positive energy. And I think it's so awesome that you all played to your big role in creating that moment for all of these people. I think that's really exciting. And something you would say to some students at another school who are thinking about getting involved in the conference or maybe even thinking about hosting their own conference. So maybe that's two different questions, but someone who maybe doesn't feel like they're a changemaker yet or they see some of the stories of people who have been involved in changemaking for a little bit longer, they feel a little intimidated. But they're not sure if this is the place for them. Maybe let's start there. What would your advice be to someone who is sort of like Julius had earlier, feeling this sort of sense of civic responsibility, but not sure what those next steps are? I think that might be one of the more beautiful things about the changemaker conferences that you have so many people who are on different points of their changemaker journey. And so even if you're just at the beginning, just start, go, and see what you can find, because everyone always ends up taking away something, no matter how much they've done, or how much they have yet to do. There's always something for you, and all I can recommend is to just start and have an open mind. Yeah, I mean, what does it that they say? The best cure for anxiety is action, right? And I think that's so true though, if there's anything that you feel has to get done, it's better like Julia said, just to start, even if you start completely from nothing, very, very small, at least you've done something. And then from then it will grow. If you continue putting more effort into it, and if you bring more people into it, if you spread your message, it will grow, because that's what happens, but it can be really difficult to start. Beautifully said, I think that's really important. My good friend Steve Stostak, who was one of the founders of Inspire Citizens, he passed away a couple of years ago. He always said, just take that first step, and the rest kind of follow. And he gets so, so important, but it's also so difficult sometimes. And you guys have been talking about this sense of community, where we bring people together, who are in a lot of different stages of this, but with that shared purpose. And I think it can be just the right inspiration that people need to take that first step. Now I want to shift to the second part of that question from your conference organizer perspective. What advice you might give to a school who's thinking about taking on a change in your conference, where seeing change in your conference is popping up in different parts of the world. What is some advice you would give to a school who is thinking about this as a next step? So an advice I would give is to make sure that you have different student delegations that are helping you out and that you're not just carrying this whole conference on six people and to make sure you have that help and that support around you. And to add on Gabby's comment, I think the more people you have involved, the more resilient your conference will be, right? Because if you're solely relying on one person for a million of responsibilities, if something happens to that one person, the conference might fall apart, unfortunately, not to put a negative spin on it, but having more people involved equals resilience. I think what was really important in organizing the conference for us, beyond the tons of students working in the student teams, making sure that your core team is so, so strong that you have such open communication in that group that if in a discussion someone floats their idea and if you hate it, you have to say it right there and then you have to be so honest, you have to always say what you think, especially as a student, because in two weeks time, you won't get a chance to go back anymore, right? You have to say what you're thinking when you're thinking it, even though it can be difficult. That is such an important leadership skill. And it was Patrick Lencioni who talked about that in a lot of his work is that conflict is a good thing on a team. If we don't have conflict that needs, we don't have trust. We don't have people who are feeling comfortable enough to share their opinion and we want everybody's ideas in the table. We want a space where it's collaborative. We feel people can push back on ideas and make them that little bit better by getting into some productive disagreements to leave us in better places. Such great advice to all of you. I might also add noting that we have two teachers with us on the call, silently here listening, who are joining us on their holiday, no less to listening on this conversation. But Mr. Shian and Mr. DeHeart and I'm sure many other teachers at your school are those supportive people. And I think for people who are starting out with this work, I will guarantee you there are teachers at your school who are going to help you along this journey. And I love this conference as to how student-led it is. And I love how you guys have taken on so much all of this planning and responsibility to bring this together. But I also want to give a shout out to some of the adults who are the trusted person behind the scenes to help with these kind of things. So find those people at your school if you're thinking about moving forward with an event like this. My last question comes back to something that Julia mentioned earlier. Thinking about this no matter where you are in your changemaker journey, that there's always something you take away from a conference. So what is that one thing that you put in your back pocket at the conference that you're going to take with you? I think for me it was something that I could probably apply to most aspects of my life. And it was something one of our teacher mentors, Mr. Ireland said. I don't know if this is a famous quote, but he said something along the lines of perfect is the enemy of done. And so I think that is something I'm definitely going to take with me for my academic journey, my changemaker journey, and just realizing again, just start and ask for forgiveness later. Just do it because oftentimes it's just yourself that is stopping you from making the change. Of course, there are systemic barriers, but just try, just do it. Even if you fail miserably, everything is a learning curve. Yeah, for me, my favorite part of all conferences I've been to are the speakers. And especially the adult speakers, obviously the student speakers are really powerful for me because they're more relatable. But it's amazing for me to see that, oh, there's all these adults who are doing this as well, that it's more future oriented for me that, oh, this is what I could be doing eventually, right? And I think on the first day, we had a really amazing speaker come in to talk about mindset and well-being and confidence, especially. And I think a big takeaway for me and hopefully for the other planners as well was how much this conference did for having confidence in myself and my capabilities. I feel so capable of organizing this because we took on such a difficult thing and we did it really well, I think. For me, something I'm taking away from this conference, similar to Melania's, I think, is that even if you just have a simple idea and you don't have that much support behind it, it's to just do it and just initiate it because after seeing so many students sharing their ideas and the things they've done at their school, even though maybe in the beginning, they didn't have that much support. It just inspires me to in the future whenever I have something I want to do, even if I don't have those people backing me up, I just will want to do it and create that change or just act on my idea. Beautifully said and so inspirational. I think that it's always cool to hear what people take away from these events and there's so many different things, whether it's connecting with other students or connecting with a speaker or just like Julia said, that one little line that sparked something that can be applied in so many other places. I want to ask more quick follow-up question on something that Melania said she was talking about being future-oriented. So what gives you hope for the future? I think seeing what those adult speakers or the adults we bring to our conference, how they and their lives address change-making makes it feel less abstract for us. I think a lot of the time careers and sustainability and social justice can be considered as not serious enough or not "real jobs" or "real futures" and that can do a lot of harm, especially since it's like this and seeing even what educators who come to our conference what they do, I think that makes me so much more hopeful that it's something we can pursue into adulthood as well. I think I would address also seeing all the students in that room. It makes me feel like our future lies in good hands. We're going to make sure that the next generation, our generation, that we will have a sustainable, healthy, happy planet to live on. Yeah, as Julia said, seeing so many students with already ideas to implement change and to better the world just makes me believe that the future is in good hands and that will be okay. And we need that hope with everything going on and everything that we're seeing in our social media feeds. I think it's important to find that evidence-based hope and I think this is such a great example of that and it's events like this and young people like you who give me hope for the future because you're willing to step up and you're willing to get involved and you're willing to lead this kind of work and not just as students but this might translate into adulthood. There are people out there who are doing this important work as a career and helping students to see that and kind of connecting what we believe, what our values are, what our why is to something that can give us a kind of lifestyle we want to live but also kind of think about what the world needs and be able to address that the Japanese have a philosophy called "Iki-Gai" and finding your way into the middle of that complicated bend diagram is not easy for people and I think it's events like this. this has already helped us find our way. Thank you so much. Melania, Julia and Gabriela, I'm so excited to have a chance to connect with you and talk about the conference, the amazing work that you're able to do to bring so many people together and to spark so many ideas and send people back to their own schools with not just ideas, but the kind of tools and strategies and connections and community that they need to move forward with these challenging but so important projects. So I'm feeling so inspired and thank you to all of you for connecting over your school holiday for finding time to be storytellers for good and sharing this hope for the future with our listeners. I'm really grateful. Thank you so much. - Thank you so much. (upbeat music) - Hi, this is Scott. I am actually feeling a little emotional after coming back to this episode and going through the edits and listening to that recording. It's been a little while since we've had this conversation as I'm getting to my edits. It's just so awesome to be able to connect with young people who are passionate about this work and working as change makers in their communities and their schools and doing some really amazing things. I love to focus on creating a sense of beauty and belonging and recognizing that there actually are a lot of people out there. And it's just so important to find our people whether that's in our own school communities or beyond connecting with other schools in the region and thinking about how we might work together to bring our aspirational vision of the future to life. Something else has come up a lot in conversations I've been having is helping students realize the change making isn't something that just happens in schools. There are some amazing people out there, young people and even old people like me who are working towards making the world just a little bit better. I think there's a lot of different careers that often get undervalued. We think about the international school communities that we have been part of as educators. And a lot of times there are certain careers that are highly valued in those spaces and others that maybe aren't taking this seriously like we were talking about today on the podcast. I think that's doing this a disservice. I wonder how we might be able to lift up. Certainly through events like the changemaker conference and thinking about our day to day work in schools. How might we be able to recognize people who are doing good in the world, whether that's students or young adults or people who've been doing this for a very long time? How do we bring that into our classroom? I think events like this are the way to do that. Thinking about changemaking, are there opportunities for students at your school to engage with this kind of work? Do you have a changemaker club? Is there an event that you might be able to attend with your students? If not, maybe it's time to think about hosting an event at your school. If you're not sure where to get started with this, reach out to inspire citizens. We are passionate about this kind of work and we'd love to collaborate with you to help you think about what being a changemaker looks like in your school community and how we might empower our students to take the amazing things that are learning in school and apply those in a meaningful way to have a positive impact in your community. Thank you for listening to the Empathy to Impact Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you don't miss these exciting stories from the inner people around the world and drop us a review to help our podcast reach new listeners. Thank you for making your difference in the lives of your students and the people in your community. Thank you for listening to the empathy to impact our past.