In 2023, Rossbourne took a big leap forward in the development and support of our students towards thinking and acting globally. Following the 2022 success of the 7-strong Global Youth Forum, we were invited this year to select committed students to represent Rossbourne School in The Global Citizenship Student Ambassador Program. This ‘Going Global’ program has been a partnership between the Department of Education and Meg Languages, with the latter seeking ‘to create global citizens through language and intercultural experiences.’

The program ran over the whole school year and required a high level of commitment. Year 11 student Amy Walker and year 10’s Nick Hasslinger stood up to take these roles, and they have both proved outstanding in their dedication and commitment to being Rossbourne’s two Student Ambassadors in 2023.

Meetings took place three times each term via a conference call, hosted by Lottie Downer, convener, and attended by a range of other schools including Wheelers Hill, Yeronga, Mount Evelyn, Werribee, Edithvale, and Hamilton and Alexandra College. This enabled Amy and Nick to understand more about the perspectives and ideas of others, whilst they communicated respectfully with other students from different cultural backgrounds. Together, they learnt the steps needed to take action and in so doing, become ‘change-makers.’

Neurodiversity – the virtually infinite variation in humans and their unique combination of abilities and needs – became the focus of Nick and Amy’s work. They identified that their project should focus on promoting a better understanding and acceptance of neurodiversity within our school, and they linked this to several of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities.

Actions taken by our Ambassadors included: preparing a talk and delivering it to each home room, together with a class poster of the SDG’s aimed at encouraging conversations within those classes. They also displayed full size posters in several prominent areas of the school, and created an online survey to gain students’ understanding and views. Their work culminated in creating a high-quality original website on their topics, which is now published here, and which can also be found on Rossbourne’s socials. Called Building a Fairer World, Amy and Nick’s high-quality writing and graphics address a range of important topics including the SDG’s, reducing inequality and why that is crucial, defining and knowing neurodiversity, and what you can do.

The Global Citizenship Student Ambassador Program is student-led, encourages inclusive leadership and mature problem-solving, fosters a strong sense of purpose and commitment, and recognises that today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders.

‘Taking a step is he first thing towards making the world a better place.’ – Nick Hasslinger

Click below to see the students work.

https://amyvicwalker.wixsite.com/myweb

Paul Brown