Action Reflection StoryWho am I?I am a 22 year old final year multimedia student studying at RMIT Melbourne. I play in tennis competitions, I go on adventurous trips and I like conversing about philosophy and religion.
Why and how I got involved with ActNow?The short version is I met Thea who was already involved in ActNow.
The long version is as follows….
In high school I was just another student. I got involved in a couple of sports and that was it. When I graduated and began university, I made it my mission to join at least one club a semester. I joined the wake boarding and water skiing club, squash club, I did kick boxing, joined up with the student exchange club, went to some Christian union socials and went on some trips with the outdoors club. But the most important clubs I got involved with are the Student Leadership Programme (SLP) and AIESEC.
The SLP offered learning through theoretical and practical activities. Most importantly, this is where I started doing volunteer work as there was a requirement to do 20 hours minimum to aid in the leadership learning process. AIESEC (an organisation run like a not for profit business, by students to provide international traineeships in foreign countries) was taken on as part of my volunteer hours and also an opportunity to further develop myself. AIESEC is also where I first learnt the term ‘change agents’ meaning, someone who is able to drive positive change in a community. The AIESEC learning process was very influential into how I wanted to develop my knowledge and skills as well as how I wanted to use. Another semester came up and I was looking for a club/organisation I could invest my time into. I was mentioning my experience in AIESEC to a fellow student leader saying how great it has been and then she mentioned this thing called ‘act now’ of which I had not heard of before.
At first I wanted to create some sort of partnership between ActNow and AIESEC and so posted on the online forums to see what the interest was. Sure enough another AIESECer had come across ActNow saying that they were looking for students to be involved. Thus starts my journey with ActNow.
I’d looked at what Inspire had done in the past as an organisation and that built my confidence in using ActNow effectively.
My Issue?What makes a 22 year old final year multimedia student passionate about an issue?
As a student who’s been through the education system and someone who has talked about what it’s like from the teachers perspective (my mum is a secondary teacher), I found that there was definitely a lack of motivation in schools. Students don’t know what they want to do until their final years of high school where there’s a real push to starting their career. Students get very little exposure to volunteer organisations, career development, entrepreneurship, international issues and their impacts, people who’ve made a difference and most importantly, finding your passion in life.
As I entered uni I found my self involved and immersed in the student club life and yet the majority of my high school graduates were not interested in joining any clubs. They were too caught up in the career and study routine to even find the time to look at a club. The people I’ve met and the things I’ve learned over my 4 years at uni equate to another 4 year course in life. I would say that it has been extremely important to my success of where I am to today.
I feel very lucky to have taken initiative and being pro-active at uni, others are not so lucky. I would like the attitudes of students to change. I would like to hear about the school initiatives for inspiring students. To hear about the community youth programmes being a success and students earning awards for their involvement in the community. I would like students to have access to all the opportunities I had and more. I want students to be pro-active about creating positive change in their life, and in their community.
If we don’t have an attitude in society that everyone is important and has the power (or is inspired) to make an impact, then our communities will be affected negatively.
What was my decided action?I wanted to change and develop the education system in primary schools and secondary schools. I wanted to inform students of the opportunities and learning that can be found outside of the standard school curriculum. I drafted up an action plan that outlined exactly what my issue was, my solution, my personal impact and the community impact I wanted to make.
Part of my solution was to introduce a subject called social responsibility (or “Australia in crisis” or “Making a Difference-MAD”) class that would broadly incorporate various topics to help inspire students and open their eyes up to their options in life. I decided that I would first find the right people to contact (dept. of education) and see what they have to say on the issue.
What did I do?Previously to joining ActNow I had already created educational content. I had created an online educational game on obesity, late 2004 which you can play through the ActNow site (view my multimedia or look up the obesity issue). This was the only action I had taken and was easy to find time because I made the development of the game as part of my course assessment. As far as following through on introducing a new subject to schools… well that took a bit more effort.
Once I’d written the action plan, I didn’t do much.. at least not for a while. I was happy I got this far but wasn’t sure how I’d find the time to follow through on my action. I think everyone goes through this point of… “I guess I should actually do something now”. I tried to find out information on the net about the educational departments but got rather lost in the process of finding the right site. By talking to people I knew and the network of friends I’ve met through ActNow, I found out about the education foundation. There was a girl called Zulejha working there who is also apart of ActNow. I contacted her and then met up with Julian from the education foundation to go through what I wanted to achieve. I learned that the education foundation has various programmes running to fulfil the same objectives I wanted to. We discussed my involvement in helping facilitate the objectives and learning in schools down the track, and what I could do now.
I began working on a video piece that would be used to promote the education foundation objectives. As a multimedia student, not only was I achieving my action, but also developing skills for my career. Since then I have made contact with the Student learning division assisting teachers in curriculum planning and the VCAA (Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority). I learned that a new VELS (Victorian Essential Learning Standards) guideline had been introduced which tied in directly with what I wanted to achieve. I now look forward to promoting my cause through the education foundation into primary and secondary schooling.
Conclusion.Despite my action being some what over ambitious, I never gave up on taking action. I’ve been interested in education for over 3 years now and so have had the conversations and background that I needed. I had always taken an interest in developing my self and helping out with volunteer organisations, all I needed was the right push to get me going.
My push came from two ActNow members: Thea who introduced me to ActNow, and Zulejha who was a part of the education foundation. It just goes to show, if you start to look and find out more about your issue and if you look for people who can help, you will find your networks and answers. I know I did and I’m happy that I took the opportunities.
References:Victorian Essential Learning Standards website
http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/ Education Foundation
http://www.educationfoundation.org.au/AIESEC
http://www.aiesec.org/Student Leadership Programme
http://union.rmit.edu.au/slp/ Curriculum Planning Guidelines (blueprint for govt. schools)
http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/blueprint/fs1/default.asp
