Year 9 Impact Program

Year 9 Impact – It’s Everyone’s Business

Barney Jones and Tim O’Neill, Year 9 Student Leaders

Throughout Semester 1, the Year 9 cohort has been busy creating our own social enterprises, aiming to tackle important social issues.

Each Friday, we headed into the city, where we worked with presenters from Monash University in the mornings and spent our afternoons learning from local social enterprises. We were also joined by Josh, Mitch and Liz from the It’s Everyone’s Business workshop, who were fantastic at helping us start conversations and develop our ideas.

FORMING OUR GROUPS

Together, we all managed to create our own social business concepts by identifying issues we felt passionate about solving. From there, we formed small groups of about four, often working with people we wouldn’t usually collaborate with. Although working in these new groups was a little daunting at first, it helped bring the year level together and allowed us to make connections we might not have otherwise. 

RESEARCHING OUR ISSUES

Next, we started researching our chosen issues, identifying the pain points and needs of our target customers, and creating our own 'lean canvases'— a one-page business plan designed to help us evaluate and validate our ideas. Armed with this knowledge, we brainstormed possible solutions and sorted them based on their impact and feasibility.

CREATING PROTOTYPES AND GATHERING FEEDBACK

Once we had a rough idea, we created prototypes and gathered feedback from our peers, teachers, parents and presenters. These feedback sessions could be intense at times, but there was no shortage of icebreaker games to keep us engaged and ready to learn!

From there, we began preparing to convince the adjudicators that we had the best concept, working hard on our posters, pitches and slideshows.

PREPARING FOR SHARK TANK

While we’ve had plenty of practice presenting to small groups, this Friday we will take on the challenge of competing in our own version of Shark Tank. The top groups will then go on to present their ideas to parents at the Expo Evening on Thursday 29 May at Monash University.

LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Overall, this program has been a valuable experience for all Year 9 students. It has not only taught us skills that will benefit anyone interested in starting their own business but also strengthened our public speaking, teamwork, and given us a deeper awareness of what’s really happening in the world.