Young social entrepreneurs from the College’s cross curricular Year 9 and 10 IDEAS program have been busy recently making a difference to society with their unique and impressive initiatives.

Students from Year 9 IDEAS have been engaging in the Future Anything Activate Program. This program led several students to be selected to pitch their innovative social-business idea at the Activate 2020 National Semi Finals held on Wednesday 4 November. Congratulations to Jacob Stead and Jada Nayef who pitched their #innovative, #scaleable #sustainable business solutions live to panel of Australian judges.

Their business ‘Amortis’ was established to make a difference by helping those who have lost someone they love. Their website will enable anyone to create a digital grave for a loved one who has passed on, whereby people are able to donate digital roses, valued at one dollar each, to a charity of their choice. This money will be sent to the charity along with special messages that can be added to help support their loved ones and family.

Semi-finalist Jacob Stead spoke of his experience in the Program “From coming up with our idea to creating and executing it, this entire journey has been a joy. It may have been challenging at times, but it most certainly was worth it! I enjoyed creating our idea, and I found setting it up to be more difficult. This journey has been very enjoyable, and if I had the opportunity, I would definitely do it again.”

Miss Parkyn, Faculty of Technology commented “Our students were outstanding in their delivery and execution of their enterprise pitch, whereby they sought funding and support to launch their ideas out of the classroom and into the real world.”

Our Year 10 IDEAS students were tasked with ‘Bending the Future of Sheldon College’. Most people merely grumble about things that can be better, but Year 10 IDEAS have ‘activated’ their idea and placed matters in their own hands. These student-led initiatives showcased innovation, collaboration and problem-solving.

Year 10 students Clare Monk, Holly Jones and Bonnie Taylor implemented a Junior Car Park safety initiative ‘Happy Feet’. The project occurred during the very busy and congested drop off and pick-up time at the Early Learning and Junior College parent car park with the intent to raise car-park safety awareness. The Happy Feet product is a small circular mat that is placed on the pathway behind the car park and the initiative recommends that when a child gets out of the car, they are encouraged to stand on a coloured mat and to keep them at a safe distance from other vehicles.

Brooke Dunford, Benjamin Wehl and Amelia Zwolsman’s Hydroponic project aimed to encourage Year 4 students to consider the use of reusable and recyclable materials to construct a portable and small, herb growing system. Year 10 students led a series of classroom rotations for Year 4 students, using recycled water bottles and planting without the use of soil. This taught the younger students about this more efficient way to grow and provide for the plant's needs. The plants instead, sit in water full of nutrients to produce their fresh fruit and vegetables, growing up to 10 times faster and utilising up to 90% less water, than traditional farming.

Mrs Vanessa Noonan, Head of Digital Pedagogy and Innovation exclaimed “Congratulations to all Year 9 and 10 students who have been involved in exploring problems that matter to them, using design thinking methodologies to ideate, prototype, develop and pitch their own innovative, scalable and sustainable enterprise solutions. The College is very impressed with their concepts and entrepreneurism.”