2. Greenstones at Green School Bali (part of the Global Pathways Innovations Mini-Series)

In episode 2 of this miniseries, I chatted with Olivia, Farah, and Krissa, current students at the Green School Bali, about their learning through their Greenstone projects. Greenstone are a capstone project that is a key part of the living curriculum at Green School Bali that educates young people for sustainability through community-integrated entrepreneurial learning. And the project reflects young people's passion for important causes and desire to make a difference in the world. Along with other information, you can also find a link to the Regen26 Youth Conference Olivia mentions in the show notes. So I'm super happy to be here with you all talking about your amazing experience out there in Bali at Green School Bali, and particularly this thing called the Greenstones. I'm not even going to call it a course or a, it's, it's a, it's an experience. I don't know. Tell me about it. If one of you perhaps could just start, how would you describe Greenstones to someone who's never heard of it before?

My name is Farah, and I'm a senior, and I'm mainly an artist. I work with, like, a lot of paintings. And so if anyone is wondering what a Greenstone is, the easiest way for me to explain is it's basically a passion project where it mixes between the passions of a student, like what they like to do, and the passions in terms of what they want to give back. Whether it's to the nature or to their community. And so Greenstones can either be very small in scale where it's like maybe to one family or like sort of one group of people, but it can also be a bigger impact like to a lot of schools or like a big community or even an entire island like Bali.

Amazing. And Krista, maybe, or Olivia, could I ask you, when do you start engaging with the Greenstones? When do you start thinking about it? Is it something you do at the end of your experience in a Green School or is it— yeah, when do you start thinking about it?

Hi, my name is Olivia. I'm French American. I am in Green School Bali and I'm in 11th grade. So we start kind of talking about the topic of Greenstone, which is kind of a passion project, capstone, whatever you'd like to call it, in the end of 10th grade. But mainly we really start this project in 11th grade. The beginning, we start talking about group projects where, you know, you build swings or slides, trying to just figure out the concept of what it's like working in a project where you have to communicate, figure out problems and issues, solve them, and a lot of things. And then after you've kind of worked with that, you start idealizing your own ideas and figuring out what you want to do, what your passion is, where you'd like to go on and lead from. And then I would say around after December onwards is when you really start in your project, from 11th grade onwards.

Okay, it's interesting. And how does it connect with your other learning experiences? So in your other courses you're taking, or how does what you're learning in more of a classroom situation with other traditional subjects, or you might not even call them that at Green School, but just so listeners understand, you're in different classes across your schedule. How does the learning you're doing there then help you inform how you might design your Greenstones or how you might then go about enacting your Greenstones.

So, hi, my name is Krisa. I'm in grade 12. I'm from Jakarta, Indonesia. So I think a lot of things that we learn from Green School really affects our Greenstone too. Green School also have like courses like environmental science or even general science that a lot of students could use as their platform or access to create a Greenstone. Like if they're passionate about sustainability and regeneration courses in Green School, like there's experimental class with biobased materials. There's a course called Regen 26, which I think Olivia can explain later. That's also about greenstones and capstones and project about sustainability. And Green School is definitely like a source where you can learn about a lot of social issues too that can be put into your passion project. Like, related to that. Yeah, I think Olivia can explain about the Regeneration 26 course.

So Regeneration 26 is a class that we are currently participating in. It's actually planned to be a huge conference that is going to be happening on April 16th through 17th, and it's really, it's super cool. It's actually a class where a bunch of different grades come together and we just organize a 1,000-person, like, conference of The concept is youth, where it's really the youth leading the youth. We talk about issues, we come together, and youth make a pact. And that really, it is exactly what Green School is. We send out emails to thousands of schools trying to figure out the logistics of getting 1,000 people into one place, figuring out where they're sleeping, the management of the whole thing, how the event is going to happen, what topics are we going to be talking about. It is a lot of logistics, and those logistics you usually would never start really thinking about until what, you're 20 years into your career starting a quick conference for your office. But we're doing it here as 16, 17-year-olds. It's incredible.

Yeah. And Green School also has courses related to that. Like there's also a course called Wo Festival, which it's student-led festival where students in Green School gather to create a festival to celebrate the World Oceans Day and sustainability towards the ocean.

And yeah, that involves science, literature.

Yeah, science. Entrepreneurship, arts, everything.

Yeah, it really— our classes, all the credits.

And there's also a lot of Green School students for their Greenstone, they're also creating like festivals. Like there's a student creating a music festival and there's also a few students that is also like organizing events for certain communities. So that really affects the Greenstone.

Yeah, that's great. I'd love to ask you if I can specifically about your own Greenstone project in a moment, but Just before that, could you talk a little bit about the relationship you then you have with maybe it's other peers in your classes or particularly relationship with teachers, educators, mentors, coaches? Like, how do you— what's the relationship there? Or are you just off on your own doing your Greenstones? So how— if you get stuck, for example, what do you do there?

I mean, everyone has their own relationship within Greenschool. But I think that's the beauty of it.

You—

Green School is such an open space. You can really talk to anyone. Personally, I have a lot of relations with my psychology teacher and my social studies teacher, as well as my university counselor. So those are the people I tend to lean to the more— the most. As well as there are parents that come to Green School to just help out all the time. Those are a huge help here. Like, really, the community is huge in Green School. We talk to teachers, parents, counselors, students as well. It's— you can really talk to anyone. So that's definitely a wide variety of people you can speak to here.

And for one of like a big part of our Greenstone is also called Bridge Presentations, which is basically presenting to a group of parents or potential mentors and people that it's like it creates an access and platform for you to be able to have a mentor or somebody that can help you.

Yeah, like even businesses come to help and you can really easily get contacts, which is amazing.

And just to clarify, is that Bridge presentation happening towards the start of the process for you as you're thinking about your idea, or is— where does that come in the process?

It's like the middle because it's the start of Grade 12, like term 1 of it. We have the Bridge presentation.

Yeah, yeah, brilliant. So maybe can I just ask you each to speak a little bit to your own idea? Like what— where did your particular spark come from for your idea for your Greenstones. I don't even know exactly how far through some of you are with it. So yeah, just in turn, perhaps you could just spend a couple of minutes just talking about where have you got to and what is exciting about it? Where have you got stuck? You know, what are you learning? Just what's exciting about it for you?

All right, I can start with that. So for my Greenstone, I've basically had like this really big urge to do something with art. And this has been like for a long time, I've thought about it, I want to do something with art. And so it's kind of after like a lot of discussions with like a lot of my mentors, I sort of landed onto the idea of making paint from scratch. But then like within this process, we also want to have like an impact towards like the community, right? So what is like something deeper that can be done? And so for me, it was basically to create paints from organic waste, like mainly organic waste that can be found in Bali, such as the flowers that are used for the offerings or even like food scraps, like mainly from fruits. And then this would be something that I want to share with other artists in Bali, as well as giving back to the community and supporting like youth organizations or like other Green School students who are doing their projects. And I'm hoping that these paints that I make will bring a positive impact.

Amazing. And have you— how deep into the kind of, I guess, the chemistry and all of the aspects of the actual creation of the paints themselves have you gone? Has it gone into a kind of a more of a science direction, or is it— perhaps you could say a little bit more about that piece.

So it's actually very interesting because I specifically chose this Greenstone so I would not have to do any science work because I really don't like science. But unfortunately for me, or maybe fortunately, I've started learning like about more like chemical reactions and what really goes into making paints because it's not only just art, but I'm learning about chemistry through making art. And so I think that's like a really I guess like that's a really special thing for me as someone who can't really do chemistry work in class. Just like practical kind of chemistry work is very educative.

I love it.

And so, right, I'm mainly working with lake pigments currently. I'm still like in that stage of collecting the pigments and I'm slowly working towards making watercolors and oil paints and maybe even inks. And so these will be kind of my outcomes. In terms of the product.

Fantastic. Amazing. I'm glad I asked about the science. Thank you. And Chrissa.

Okay, so my Greenstone is centered around SDG 4, which is quality education. Right now I'm working on a, like, experimental toolkit, like similar to how you'd find a mini, like, volcano experimental kit in, like, toy stores. But instead of mini volcanoes, my toolkit would consist of bio-based materials. Like seaweed, bamboo, mangroves, banana peels, and more of what is considered as agricultural waste. And also in that toolkit would consist of other components that work well with the primary ingredients, like how seaweed often work well with agar to create like a biofilm or a biodegradable plastic. And with that biomaterial kit, I, after finalizing it, I plan to bring the kits to international schools and auction them so that I can have enough funds for me to work on it. And then also donate the kits to a lot of schools in Bali that doesn't have access to even science labs and to introduce them more towards environmental science.

Fantastic. And can I ask which part of that is the real passion for you? Is it the materials part, the material science, or is it the education part, or, or maybe all of it?

I think it's definitely, I'm trying to connect both because there's this thing in Green School called service trips and every service trip that I have joined in Green School is related to quality education. And when we visit the schools, I noticed that a lot of the schools, even though they're in poor conditions, these students are always so engaged to learn. But we're always, we always came and prepare with like posters, presentations, or even sometimes only worksheets. And I thought of an idea. What if these students could, like, work hands-on with environmental science similar to Green School students could? Because, like, I realized that Green School has, like, almost 2 to 3 science labs, and we have a mycelium lab. While a lot of schools throughout Indonesia and Bali don't even have a good classroom, or even if they do have science labs, the equipment tend to be in poor conditions. So I decided to make a kit so that it's more accessible and I can bring around and so that the students can really work hands-on with environmental science like Green School students.

That's great. Thank you so much. Olivia, lastly, how about you?

Yes.

So I have been passionate with MUN since middle school, and that really— I continued throughout that passion in high school. And when I was brought up with the question of what I want to do for Greenstone, I was really clueless, frankly. I was really clueless because, I don't know, diplomacy is not as widely shown here as some other things. I mean, we have a huge section of entrepreneurship, but I'm not sure if diplomacy would be one that we really shine on. So I was quite lost. But once again, through my mentorships, I found the idea of policy work, which is really closely tied with diplomacy in MUN. And I had decided that once again, like what Krissa was saying about how Green School really shows us and makes us volunteer with schools that don't have enough, it's really heartbreaking to see that. And it really motivates a lot of students to pursue that as like more than just, you know, volunteering once or twice because that will never be truly enough. And I came up with the idea of working on policies to improve sustainability in schools, mainly internationally and bigger schools, as even if schools say they are sustainable, a lot of times it's really watered down. And I think it's really important to show to schools that, you know, we can be more sustainable, even if it's super simple solutions. So I'm planning on bringing that to big schools and small schools internationally and just fixing and changing policies.

Amazing. Yes, we definitely need that, and they need to hear from the younger people who are pushing that change, or inviting that change, let's say, but with your powerful voices. No, that's amazing. Thank you so much.

Can I mention one last thing?

Please do.

Sorry about this. My Greenstone has a lot to do with schools and policies, and I really need to reach out to schools internationally. Can I just say, whoever is listening to this, if you are in school and you think your school should be better and you want to change policies and you're a YouthMaker and you want to change and be a voice, Please contact me. Thank you very much.

Amazing. So just maybe just to finish off, if you were going to send a message, just as you've done really powerfully, Olivia, but in general about Greenstones or about any of the work you do, you know, some of the things you've talked about Green School, which sounds just so powerful about the open environment and the relationships amongst the community and the educators and the students. If you were going to send a message to people listening to this about some of the changes they might be thinking about making, let's say for the next school year, or things that they could shift in their school to make it a little bit more like the things that you value about Green School, what would you say to them?

So this would be my message to young people listening. You don't have to be in a fancy school to change things. Just say what you feel and people will listen to you more than you'd expect. Have a solid reasoning, be diplomatic. Don't be going in guns a-blazing yelling. Just say what you think. People will support you. You'll be shocked and really just go for it. If you believe in it, you can do it. It's incredible how much support you'll get.

Amazing.

And what about— Just to add to Olivia's answer, I definitely think that many schools should have like a sort of incorporation to what Green School has given access to. I have heard many voices from Green School students past Greenstone that has really moved me and changed me as a person. I've always thought about sustainability in a way, but then I was introduced to greenwashing and many other ideas that I have never heard of. And I think that if many schools could be like Green School, I think that our future would be more— I think more sustainable future.

Yeah, absolutely. I completely agree. Beautiful. Para, anything you would like to say?

Just, I have been working step by step. I think that like young people who are like not sure if they want to make a change or what can they do, I think it's just important to think that even if it's just one small step, even if it's just by yourself, you can still make a change.

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