Program Summary

Plan will work with AIESEC to reach out to students in leading High Schools across China to enable them to learn about Sustainable Development; Plan will use this to advocate for inclusion of this topic and the interactive form of teaching to be utilised more in schools.

Why are we doing it?

China faces a number of challenges to ensure its sustainable development: social, environmental and economic all of which are caused by individuals and impact individuals. Many students are aware of China’s problems but are unable to put them into a wider context and understand how the challenges can be solved or their role in creating a sustainable society. There is a lack of interactive teaching at schools and the curriculum focuses on academic subjects so students are unable to learn more about sustainable development, apart from through the media. 

Program Activities 

·            Finding suitable volunteers and training them.

·            Finding suitable schools and ensuring suitable time in class schedules.

·            Volunteers facilitate classes and evaluate their impact. Students attend the classes and undertake action-orientated projects.  

Objectives 

l          Chinese students learn more about Sustainable Development in China and globally

l          International students come to China and learn more about Sustainable Development in China

l          Chinese students and International students learn more about each other’s culture and perspectives

l          Introduce non-rote forms of learning into schools 

Plan will train the International Interns learn more about Sustainable Development especially in China and provide support on creating the educational plan/materials. AIESEC will take care of the logistics, including intern and school selection.  

Impacts

From Sep 08 to June 09 more than 75 volunteers will be teaching in 4 cities, reaching over 10,000 of China’s top High School students. Each student will get around 10 lessons on different topics of Sustainable Development and undertake related projects. These are the future leaders of China, but, more than that, they are 10,000 students who will become ambassadors for a better World affecting all those around them. 

Program Partners  

AIESEC is one of the world’s largest student organizations. AIESEC provides the platform for leadership development for young people by offering over 6500 leadership opportunities each year, in addition to over 4400 international internship opportunities for its members.  AIESEC is an organization that activates leaders, creating a network of change agents that have a positive impact on society. 

The Roots & Shoots program is about making positive change happen—for our communities, for animals and for the environment. And it all starts with you! With tens of thousands of young people in almost 100 countries, the Roots & Shoots network branches out across the globe, connecting youth of all ages who share a common desire to help make our world a better place. 

Future of the Program  Current Situation:

•          A relatively well established program with clear objectives and basic impact measurement system.

•          Experienced volunteers/partners with ‘lessons learned’.

•          Developed curriculum, teaching resources etc.

Mid-term:

•          We plan to create a strategic business plan to ensure sustainable (financial and HR) growth and maximum impact for the project and develop relevant governance and management structures for the project team.

•          Expand to other countries where Plan/AIESEC work.

The Future:

Increase project direct impact and growth:

•          Benefit more foreign students and more High School students through expanding the project to more schools in more cities,

•          Getting more time in front of students in class to increase the impact on them,

•          Engaging students with more ‘action’ orientated projects/activities.

•          Train company’s volunteers to be teachers.

Increase project indirect impact:

•          Plan to advocate for our innovative methodology and curriculum in order to impact traditional education system and other educational programs, through our Impact Days, Evaluations and partnerships with various governmental and academic organizations. Thus the traditional, Chinese language, curriculum will be impacted.