Social Innovators

On the 23rd and 24th of October 2024, seventy Gisborne Secondary College students from the year eight and nine cohort were given the opportunity to participate in the Social Innovators program, and I happened to be one of them. The Social Innovators program is run by CIC -Crazy Ideas College. CIC are a group who have concentrated their efforts on connecting communities to the next generation of young people through innovation. The program encourages students to uses their creativity, forwards thinking and unique ideas to create potential solutions to local issues in the community. 

The program itself is run over the course of two consecutive days of the school week. The first day consisted of our introduction to the CIC and their big idea process, with engaging and interactive tasks that would both teach and help us to understand how the program works. After we gained an understanding of the process, our day had well and truly begun. We broke off into small groups and started brainstorming our big ideas. This big idea could be absolutely anything, our group brainstormed a mind gun, which is a mental and physical health check gun (Don’t worry it didn’t shoot anyone). The idea behind it is to assess the physical and emotional wellbeing of a person, a lot like a thermometer, but for your whole being. Another group had the idea of using a rocket to send harmful things into outer space. A third group had the idea of growing massive pieces of fruit, to feed more people. Think house sized bananas, or car sized grapes! By the end of day one, each group had picked one out of this world idea and created their mock prototype, made out of recyclable materials such as cardboard and paper.  

The second day was all about making our big out of this world idea, a more in this world. We had to figure out the target audience for our big idea and then we had to scale it down to make our ideas smaller and more realistic. These smaller ideas were known as our smart start ideas. Once completed, our smart start ideas would be pitched to the community partners and sponsors, at the end of the day. When the time came to deliver our pitches and smart start ideas, many students were nervous. Despite any nerves, all teams got up and delivered fantastic pitches to the community partners. To say some of the ideas were good would be an understatement. One group had the smart start idea of fire safety kits being made for people, in case of another wildfire, another group came up with a motivational marathon program, designed to get people up on their feet and moving.  

Without the CIC and the Social Innovators program these amazing ideas may not have been thought of by our students, and some of the issues may not have been addressed. It was an exciting opportunity to be able to participate in the Social Innovators program. Thank you to the CIC and the teachers of GSC for making it possible for us to attend.   

Charlotte B