Seeding
It was the third week of March when I looked at my summer calendar: emptiness. Well aware that I shouldn’t be bedrotting for nearly two months of summer, I turned to my passion: sustainability. I reached out to my connections for an internship opportunity: the chain of emails, the sheer load of documentation… The soil buried me. Swamped me. Drowned me.
Thank you everyone, for reading this article. I am Austin, a Youth Sustainability Engagement Volunteer at Orenda Learning. Orenda Learning is an impact-driven organisation with a program called Be The Change that supports youth to engage with their communities in active citizenship. I have been an eco-conscious person since a young age, with a huge passion for food waste reduction & sustainable food production. This led to my role as a volunteer at Organic Farmula, a regenerative farm in partnership with Kellett, where I learnt about sustainable agriculture in the form of regenerative farming.
I am also a sustainability prefect at Kellett School, and have been a Student Ambassador of The Alliance for Sustainable Schools (TASS) for two years now. TASS, a partner organisation of Orenda Learning, is a non-profit network of schools on a mission to reduce carbon emissions from schools. During my role at TASS, I have conducted numerous audits and meetings with the school management, including trialling new sustainable, plant-based meals in the canteen. Being a TASS ambassador has allowed me to network with fellow sustainability-oriented students across Asia, as we learn from each other and share our experiences.
Growing
Roses are red, violets are blue. The company I’ll be working for seems pretty cool.
With the connections of TASS, I was able to secure a three-week volunteering placement program at Orenda Learning. During the first three weeks of July, I have been engaged with Alice Whitehead, CEO of Orenda Learning, as a Youth Sustainability Volunteer. During my placement, I dived into the Be The Change (BTC) High School Course and Toolkit, offering suggestions for improvement from the student perspective, whether it be an alteration in content or a change in the user interface. Also, I reviewed Orenda Learning’s social media accounts, including LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook, in order to complete a ‘student-lens’ audit of the student-facing Instagram page and advise on suggested enhancements and page growth in an attempt to increase viewership and user engagement. In return, Alice assisted me with the creation of my Climate Change Fact File, my own passion project aiming to dissect the causes, impacts and solutions of climate change. This placement stood out to me because it is a mutually beneficial exchange - an uncommon work environment.
Flowering
This is my Easter project, which I have left untouched ever since. Oh my god, what is this… Why are there so many bits missing, and what am I even trying to convey with this… Eye… watering.
It became clear to me that my first draft of the Fact File was highly unpolished: there were sections with highly technical detail, and sections with merely two sentences. In order to find consistency in tone and technicality, Alice suggested that I should understand my audience. With the help of Orenda Learning’s connections, I published a simple survey aimed at my target youth age group, with the aim of understanding their climate literacy. I managed to collect 15 responses in a short time frame - not ideal but satisfactory. I gained a new sense of understanding through the survey: the youth are highly proficient in understanding the impacts of climate change, but its causes and climate justice are lesser known. With this, I have garnered clear next steps: a bite-sized PDF guide by the youth, for the youth.
Blossoming
What… 16 tabs and three million slides?! Leaf me alone.
The Be The Change (BTC) course focuses on community-based action and covers multiple aspects and key elements to make it successful. One aspect of this is that students should identify their passions, skills, and qualities. These attributes form superpowers - an abstract, powerful ability that enables students to carry out their own initiatives with confidence and a greater chance of success. Personally, my own highlight of the course is the concept of reciprocity: a process which emphasises the importance of fostering mutually beneficial relationships between the students, the community partners, as well as the target audience - all members should benefit equally. This is especially evident in my work placement, where Alice kindly offered to help me with my own Fact File - a gesture unprecedented in my previous work experiences, which were one-sided.
The Toolkit from the BTC program is a series of guides which equip young people to think. It effectively takes them through five stages: investigation, preparation, action, reflection, and demonstration. My favourite part of the Toolkit is a guide which shares the importance of integrating mindfulness into active citizenship. Action for change can sometimes be stressful, given the amount of detail and time that needs to be invested, therefore, it is highly important for participants to take care of themselves. When I conduct my own projects, such as leading weekly meetings in Kellett’s environmental committee, it is inherently easy to ‘forget about’ my own wellbeing. Therefore, I created my own self-care plan with assistance from the guide, as I try to improve my mental health step by step.
Harvesting
I have spent a fruitful three weeks (oops… no pun intended!) at Orenda Learning. The placement changed the way in which I view the action I take in my community: there are so many aspects that I need to consider, from the involvement of partner organisations to forming a more inclusive team. Looking ahead, I will be doing another summer program - a climate change-related project focused on the local Hong Kong community. I really look forward to that as I get to interact with a diverse audience, and it is the first time I am serving my city with my passion. I hope I can incorporate my newfound skills and qualities into the program - anything to avoid being a couch potato.
