Changemaker

The UN's 2030 Agenda's due date is coming in fast, and the goals still haven't been met. Many don't even know of the existence of this agenda, or how they could apply it to their lives in order to become changemakers in their communities. Even then, many others may have heard of it, but haven't had the opportunity or courage to dive into the opportunity to be an agent of change, and to promote the Sustainable Development Goals in their communities.

The Changemaker Experience is an event YourAccess Online will be hosting, in which we will be inviting students from various schools from all over the world to partake in a highly interactive and involved course going over the UN's 2030 Agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals, and how to become agents of change and make an impact both in their communities and in the world. The students from each high school will form teams, with their team leader being the teacher who enrolled them in the program. The coursework will be done in our app or website, and will involve various relevant, fun, and interactive workshops. After the teams finish the coursework, they will get together in sessions to play the Changemaker game, developed in Japan, and will have the opportunity to then apply their knowledge. It will be hosted over Zoom and would require access to a computer, internet connection, and a browser (Google Chrome recommended). The game heavily features SDGs, and involves teamwork and strategic thinking in applying certain changes in the world in order to upkeep sustainable development and balance between three main pillars: Economy, Environment, and Society. After finishing the coursework and game sessions, all of the teams will then make a short video pitch discussing a specific SDG and how they may use it to improve an aspect of their local community. In the end, after having their video pitches evaluated, the winning teams will win a series of prizes relating to the concept of being a changemaker.

This solution directly impacts the students and teachers in these high schools all across the world, allowing them to learn about and explore the important concepts of sustainable development and global cooperation. This sort of education that has a focus on international teamwork for sustainable goals and solving worldwide issues is relatively niche, and the main people who really learn more about it are those who go out of their way to explore these topics. This experience brings forth this subject in a digestible and fun format, that encourages even students who hadn't ever heard of SDGs before to participate.
Although those are the people feeling the direct impact of this solution, the Changemaker Experience in reality indirectly impacts all of us. By bringing forth and inspiring a new generation of changemakers, we are encouraging a wave of positive change and sustainable development that will greatly influence the world for the better.

YourAccess Online has always been interested in global issues, particularly those that can be easily benefited through the means of education. With its founder's great network of schools who would like to have a more internationally-focused coursework, we believe that YourAccess Online is in a great place to be a liaison between the Sustainable Development Goals and these various schools. As a Brazilian institution, we especially have access to a wide variety of communities who could see immense benefits if these goals were more focused on by other local institutions, and we understand that this would also apply to a wide variety of other countries with their institutions also taking part in the Changemaker Experience.

We have had multiple iterations of the Changemaker Experience so far, and are currently in the middle of another. We are relatively well established in Brazil and have diverse participates across the country. We are prepared to expand beyond just Brazil, and would like to host to a wider variety of countries.

As previously mentioned, we would love to expand to host the Changemaker Experience to a wider variety of countries' institutions. We believe MIT Solve would be amazing help at accomplishing this goal, with potential funding, help with technical improvements, advertisement, and legalities as we cross borders and become truly global, so that students of every nationality may become a changemaker.

Our solution allows for a gamified experience of learning about global issues-- global issues that aren't traditionally learned via video games. If applied more widely, it could significantly alter how schools approach learning, and it may allow potentially more involved and hands-on learning environments for children, adolescents, and adults to learn about various topics (although this specific experience is in relation to sustainable development). This more involved approach of teaching greatly takes into consideration the learners and what can be done to make them more actively interested in topics that may be outside their comfort zone.

1. Schools join the Changemaker Experience.

2. Students go through coursework and apply their knowledge in the Changemaker game and relevant video pitch. Students learn about global issues, Sustainable Development Goals, importance of balance and sustainability, etc.

3. Students are encouraged to put all this into practice by coming up with a video pitch that addresses an area of concern in their local community and how they can fix it.

4. After making the video pitch and considering the possibility of addressing those issues, students may be more encouraged to actually and genuinely address those possible changes. Students may also be more encouraged to pursue more knowledge and greater impact in global issues with their new insight in these topics.

We wish to bring awareness to the UN's 2030 Agenda, sustainable development, and global issues faced by the international community with regards to sustainability.
We wish to encourage students to be thoughtful of sustainability in the future and to be agents of change in their communities and the world.
We wish to encourage more educational institutions to discuss these topics more thoroughly, and with a more involved, interactive, and gamified approach that may truly capture students' interest.

As a lot of this is qualitative, we most measure the significance of our experience via testimonials and reviews.
Quantitative methods of measuring our impact range is via number of schools enrolling, number of students at these schools who are interested, and especially number of schools who continue to enroll in the following years.

The main technologies used are apps, software, and internet. These are essential to the experience, as it uses all of these technologies to maintain the experience's interactivity and gamification, as well as keeping everyone connected from multiple different locations.

We currently have 4 full-time staff involved in this project.

We had our first Changemaker Experience in 2022.

He hold regular periodic meetings in which we discuss the experience and share ideas with each other. Considering every individual's diverse backgrounds and set of experiences, everyone's opinions are heavily and thoughtfully considered.