On November 18, the 2023 Shanghai Roots & Shoots Youth Leadership Training, came to a successful closing. Over 30 university and high school students from Shanghai and Nanjing participated in the online and offline training.
Featuring the concept of a zero-waste campus, the 2023 leadership training is designed to equip the students with the basic knowledge of zero-waste and project management skills such as problem research and analysis, so that they can acquire the ability to explore the possibilities of launching a Zero Waste Campus.
To help students better understand the training content, a “leader” role was specially designated in this year’s training project. These leaders accompanied the participants throughout the training, providing necessary and timely support. Meanwhile, five mentors and two members of the Roots & Shoots Think Tank delivered the courses covering various topics ranging from questionnaire surveys, and project design, to recycling practices. The training progressed from basic to advanced, presenting vivid classroom experiences for the students.
The entire training lasted four weeks, including three sessions and ten courses. In the first session on October 28, Zhao Lu, the Executive Director of Chengdu Roots & Shoots, started with practical examples of zero-waste campus initiatives, explained the concept of zero-waste campuses, and shared challenges and experiences encountered in the practical process, and finally provided suggestions for building a zero-waste campus. Second, members of the Roots & Shoots Think Tank, Sun Yulin and Wang Sijia, shared their experiences on leading recycling projects when they were in high school. Their presentations brought a wealth of new insights to students from project preparation to execution and the ideas to further expand the project’s impacts. In the afternoon, Zhang Yue, Knowledge Expert from McKinsey introduced the students to the knowledge and skills of how to create a market research questionnaire, as well as guided them in designing a questionnaire on the spot.
In the second session, Ren Kai, the General Manager of SBag (a recycling company)., provided a detailed explanation of the recycling schemes and their applicability to recyclables, sharing the challenges faced in the current recycling practices. Xu Yifan, the Office Manager of Terracycle China, brought rich recycling cases that they have run into the class to illustrate the relationship between recycling and the economy. On the other hand, Mei Yi, the Chief Operating Officer of McKinsey Academy, shared some basic methods of problem-solving by using interesting case studies, imparting highly efficient and practical problem-solving skills to the participants.
In the last session, Zhu Wanting, the Operations Director of the Shanghai Roots & Shoots, introduced the eight essential elements of the project proposal framework and SMART principles, among other content to elaborate on the project planning. She also guided the students through the process of creating their own zero-waste campus plans from scratch.
In the final stages of the training, the students were separated into 6 groups and each group proposed their own plans for constructing a zero-waste campus. The proposals included campus paper recycling, recycling and reusing of takeaway plastics, and the reuse of second-hand textbooks. Ultimately, a plan named “Paper Makes You Beautiful,” jointly presented by Shanghai Kongjiang High School and Shanghai Qingpu Senior High School, was selected as the best proposal of the entire event.
With the guidance of the mentors, students gained a deeper understanding of the zero-waste topic and significantly improved their project planning skills. Many students expressed that they benefited greatly from the training. Xu Jiahe from the World Leading Schools Association (WLSA) said, “In these three training sessions, I not only gained a lot of knowledge about environmental protection projects and activities but also saw an improvement in leadership skills. I will continue to devote myself to environmental protection and hope to have follow-up activities with Shanghai Roots & Shoots. Many thanks to Roots & Shoots for providing us with such a platform and opportunity to join in professional training!”
The training marked the first step for the students into the realm of green leadership. In the following term, they will continue to actively get involved in environmental campaigns and events on their campuses with their team members to make positive impacts.
About the Leadership Training Project:
The Shanghai Roots & Shoots Leadership Training is a capacity-building training project for student leaders and members who are dedicated to practicing sustainable development. Established in 2011, the project inspires youth in the field of sustainable development through various workshops and empowering training, enhancing their organizational, management, communication, and innovation skills. The project also motivates young people to engage in sustainable development-related actions. To date, the training project has engaged over 30 schools and nurtured more than 700 students.