A ‘changemaker’ is anyone doing anything that fosters sustainable ideas, learning, action, and systemic change in their lives and the lives of others. As Dr. Mike Johnston, Assistant Head of School at Frankfurt International School (FIS), reminds us of the statement that launched the FIS Changemakers into their strategic drive for change and authentic action at FIS and beyond:

“It is abundantly clear that the world needs positive, moral, collaborative leaders who have a vision for a better world. Our planet needs it, people need it, and most of all our students deserve it.”

This article is a testament to the amplification of student-driven change as four school communities collaborate under a common goal. The students are learning that leadership is not always about having your name on something or being the loudest voice in the room, it’s about impact. The FIS lead Changemakers are seeing the impact in their community and beyond and feel empowered to create the change they wish to see in the world. This has inspired change within the FIS context and beyond. 

Frankfurt International School Embeds Changemaker Leadership 

For FIS the journey started with learning about leadership, impact and change. From there, the school hosted an internal changemaker conference for 300 attendees from their school and then, a year later, for 300 attendees from around Europe and the world (Changemaker 2023). The journey has been documented in story from February 2021 about the beginning stages, April 2022 after the first conference, and then after the regional conference in June 2023. 

The conferences are wonderful and motivating experiences but the true impact is in what is being embedded in the program that will be long lasting. Developing inquiry units tied to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with action opportunities, revamping the Primary Years Programme (PYP) Exhibition or the Middle Years Programme (MYP) Personal Project, enhancing unit plans to allow authentic action in upper school, remodeling the school schedule to allow time for changemaking, or looking at the Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) program to link to ongoing impact projects, are just a few examples of ways to support embedding of changemaker leadership in schools. Just this month, the middle school students at FISW (Wiesbaden campus) hosted all Grade 5 students for a changemaker day, instilling tools, strategies, and passion for making a difference. Not one adult spoke all day long and the 26 breakout workshops run by 11-14 year-olds were amazing. The Changemaker leaders hosted an adult learning session for ECIS Loft and shared this changemaker toolbox for others. 

FIS is happy to be supporting and collaborating with the American International School of Budapest (AISB), Munich International School (MIS), American School of Doha (ASD), and more, to amplify the impact and invite other schools around the world to jump on the changemaking wave as it not only has a fantastically positive effect on local and global communities, but the concepts, skills, and character that is being built in young changemakers are astounding. 

Munich International School Fosters Changemaker Education Systems

The aim of changemaker work at MIS is to create educational systems that allow student passions to be amplified. Students like Nantume, Nkoba, and Finley are currently developing solutions to accessing clean water and battling injustice surrounding period poverty, while educators such as Kathryn Berkman are working with the Institute for Humane Education within the International Baccalaureate program. These efforts point to the importance of schools developing systems that have a clear progression from Kindergarten to 12th Grade, which can align with students’ school experience and promote perseverance. This could include connecting structures like the Grade 4 PYP Exhibition with the Grade 10 MYP Personal Project.

Let us grow our educational systems to empower students to make a positive difference in the world around them. To those who feel overwhelmed by our growing global issues including technology waste, food scarcity, and rising mental health concerns for teens, we offer you the perspective of Base 10 which encourages you to get involved in developing solutions at different scales. This year, MIS is following the passion of students wanting to make a difference and planning a Solutionary Summit: Base 10 Changemakers Conference in May 2024, where students, educators, and administrators come together to share progress, develop solutions, and “initiate systems that will continue to benefit even in hard times” (I Ching). Check out more information about the conference by clicking on the student-coded summit website. 

American School of Doha Finds Post-Covid Changemaking Leverage Points 

The Changemaker journey at ASD grew from the ashes of the service program that Covid had left behind.  The only service that most of the service club leaders had experienced, let alone led, was through a Zoom link. Their mentors had been square faces (or Avatars) on a screen. The composters had been dormant for three years because students hadn’t been allowed to stay after school. The only movement seemed to come from groups that were more adult-led than student-led since those adults had some memory of how things had been. But even the adults had grown accustomed to going home right at the end of the school day. Signing up for anything “extra” felt like a major effort for the service community. It seemed like our collective had shrunk to the size of our Covid bubbles, often made up only of immediate family. The service-mindedness and associated habits were broken. So ASD asked, “How could we fix them, and how do we build back better?”.

ASD knew that “better” would include more student initiative and engagement.  They started to look for leverage points that could lead to excitement from students and it turned out that Changemaking was a great hook. Lynn Kelley, Learning Service Curriculum Coach at ASD, met Scott Jamieson of Inspire Citizens in the process of initiating a cohort of teachers to pursue the Global Citizenship Certificate; Scott connected Lynn with Mike Johnston, who was incredibly generous with his time and encouragement and showed his visionary thinking when he suggested that an exception could be made to their “no-fly-ins” policy, with the agreement that ASD takes what they learn, back to Doha, and host their own conference the following year. ASD jumped at the chance, gathered the group of changemakers, and off to Frankfurt they went.

The ASD students had never experienced anything before like the FIS Changemakers Conference and it was transformative. The team was eager to create the same experience for students in Doha. The conference was an opportunity for these ASD students and teachers to make connections, start conversations, and raise awareness. Fast forward, and the students who have now attended the ASD conference had a great experience and have already begun their own changemaking journeys. Although participation rates were not as high as expected, with many students and schools who registered eventually not attending, the ASD Changemakers continue to move forward and realize that there is still much to be done to grow the Changemaker vision across Doha; they are up for the challenge and hope to host schools from the MESAC League for a changemaking conference next year. ASD is looking forward to this and are also happy to support any other schools or groups hoping to host a changemaker conference in their own context.    

American International School of Budapest Seeks Changemaker Storytelling

After returning in March 2023 from the FIS Changemakers Conference, the pathway was clear and the energy was fierce. The students hit the ground running, searching for changemaker avenues in the AISB community. All could see that there were instances of action from clubs and in the curriculum, but it’s also known that these efforts were infrequent and weren’t linked to a programmatic focus, so these energized changemaker students went about establishing platforms for changemaking. First came the creation of the Changemakers Club in High School, with the leaders (three of whom attended the FIS Changemakers Conference) laying the groundwork for a ‘base of operations’, aiming for two things: in the long term to have widespread integration of SDGs and changemaking mental models in all aspects of the school, and in the short-to-medium term to have an inspirational event to mobilize changemakers in our community. It is exciting to announce that the latter has come to fruition, where the leaders looked for the entry point in the community with the greatest amount of potential for impact. They landed on orchestrating the AISB Middle School Changemakers Conference that was held on November 22, 2023, which promised (and delivered) energizing speakers, innovative workshops, and ideas for change, where high school students worked side by side with middle schoolers to understand changemaking and get equipped for action. 

In the AISB context, a driver of amplification of changemaking can be a question asked by Dom Verwey, Student Leadership Program Developer and Changemaker Club sponsor at AISB, asking: “How does this all stay on everyone’s lips, minds, and hearts so that we foster sustained movement and action?”. It is especially pertinent in the realms of doing service learning, global citizenship, and changemaking, that we seek to ‘tell the story’. Storytelling is one of the most impactful ways to evoke change and instill a sense of unity through diversity. Sharing diverse stories of people from varied walks of life, each of whom aligning with the common goal of making a difference, can turn a society into a community. It’s the major reason that the next initiative in AISB’s Changemakers Club is an investigative journalism effort to keep the club and the community connected to the changemaking journey. It’s also a reason for these changemakers seeking to expand on their story by collaborating with changemaking entities like Inspire Citizens to help tell it on a wider scale. And, it’s also the very reason for this article; to hopefully inspire and connect you as we all move together. How can we use storytelling to amplify our efforts and the leadership of our students as we work toward a sustainable and prosperous future?

So Let’s Amplify Changemakers

Where do we go from here?

Whether it be expanding changemaking in your own school like FIS and AISB are doing, or fortifying the connections between changemakers across a region like MIS and ASD are doing, there are always foundations from which to start and co-conspirators with whom to connect. Work is being done and will continue to be done with changemakers, in the form of students and adults who are there to support anyone on the journey. 

See some wonderful changemaker platforms, educators, and stories below!

And please reach out to us, all you changemakers out there!

How is your school creating Changemakers? Please Share!