Think of the place where you live in, the city you consider home. I’m sure that there are many positive things that you like: places, views, food, people. Now, if you had to think of a problem that this place is facing, what would it be and, what do you believe you could do to solve it?
This was the foundation of the exercise that was proposed to fifty students, between the ages of 16 and 18, of Colegio las Hayas located in Veracruz, Mexico. Many of their answers are part of common problems of every modern world city. Pollution, traffic jams, not enough social services, malnutrition in some sectors, inequality.
The following text, Field Work, Responsibility, and the Earth Charter (only available in Spanish), gathers the proposals made by these young minds that took the challenge of researching the problems of their choice, and designing a possible solution with three key elements. First, their knowledge and interest for the place they live in. Second, to propose their solution from the professional career they would like to study after graduating from high school. Third, to include the perspective of the Earth Charter, emphasizing at least one of its principles. The students created a written proposal in Spanish, and afterwards they made a translation to English with the idea of having more reach to their proposals and being able to connect with more people. Later, they explained their proposals in a brief video included at the end.
This project was carried out as a workshop to finish the “Leadership, Sustainability and Ethics” course given by the Earth Charter initiative that took place from January to June of 2018. The students not only put into practice academic skills learned throughout their school life, but also experienced the power to project themselves as active change agents in the transition of our societies into harmonios and inclusive communities with our environment.