St. Dominic Students Changed It

by Ashley Fortin, St. Dominic Catholic Secondary School

On March 20th, 2018, two groups of students from St. Dominic Catholic Secondary School in Bracebridge participated in a Georgian College workshop called “Changed it!” Students in the Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) programs, as well as the students going on the Tanzania mission trip in 2019, went to Georgian College’s campus in Bracebridge to participate in this workshop.

Changed it! is described as an “interactive, experiential session that focuses on introducing social innovation and social entrepreneurship to students in a fun and interactive way!” Changed it! is more than a typical workshop; Changed it! created an efficient plan and ideas to help students get involved with their community.

First, students completed an activity about themselves and their goals, a crucial step to acting on social issues. After reflecting, students labelled themselves based on their attributes. The possible choices were: designer, social activists, hustler, and hacker. The designers were creative and able to create items and ideas easily. Social activists were informed on current issues, hustlers were public speakers and convincing, and the hacker was able to solve any problem.

After being put into groups based on the label, students were asked to create solutions to an issue facing Simcoe Muskoka today: food insecurities.

Students thought of many solutions from increased government assistance to grocery store programs, as well as ideas to erase the stigma associated with food banks and other helpful resources.

Students not only participated in this workshop but enjoyed and learned from this experience. Anna S., a Grade 11 student participating in the Tanzania mission trip and the SHSM (and the 2018-2019 student trustee) learned that there was a whole spectrum of problems and that everyone could be a changemaker, stating: “I learned that there is such a huge spectrum of problems out in the world, and they all call for change makers. I believe that our generation especially will play a big role in changing the world, and the workshop did a really good job of expressing that.”

Through Changed it! students learned how to implement these changes by prototyping and testing to make their solutions a real solution. Changed it! taught students how to become social activists based on their strengths and weaknesses, as well as how to implement change and impact society. The Tanzania team and non-profit SHSM participants are ready to make an impact!

Photo Credit: @Changeditgc