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DFC's Student Council is a child-driven platform that empowers children to become empathetic leaders, collaborate effectively, and communicate ideas for meaningful change. By fostering teamwork and amplifying student voices, it nurtures confident superheroes who strengthen the global "I CAN" movement.
For the past six years, a dedicated team of core members have been instrumental in leading the DFC Student Council calls twice a month. Ruthie, Amalia, Wendy, Julio, and Nikita have played a key role in facilitating workshops, guiding participants through the FIDS process, and mentoring Student Council Members (SCMs) as anchors at BTC. Their efforts have created meaningful opportunities for SCMs to showcase their talents throughout the year.
This year, the committee is thrilled to welcome Liliyan (Former SCM 2023 & 2024) to the team. As a student representative, Liliyan will bring fresh perspectives to planning SCM calls, ensuring that student voices drive the conversation forward.
This passionate group continues to shape a dynamic and empowering platform for young superheroes worldwide.
I am Liliyan Awliyaa, the former SCM of Saudi Arabia (2023 & 2024), I have embraced the "I CAN" mindset, turning challenges into opportunities. Now, with commitment, 'CAN'fidence, and gratitude, I am beyond excited to be a student representative in the Student Leadership Committee, working alongside inspiring leaders. To me, leadership is not just about speaking; it is about igniting actions that echo beyond me.
I'm Jaime Pablos, former SCM of Spain for 2023 and 2024 batches, but I've been working with the FIDS process since primary school. During this time, I've come to realize that FIDS is much more than just a tool for class: it's a way of approaching life. How I tackle problems has radically changed, and I hope I'll be able to convey that feeling to the next batches of the Student Council as a part of the Student Leadership Committee.
Hi, I'm the DFC Israel partner. I am an educational entrepreneur with a special bent for designing educational programs and training educators to teach with heart and empower students with self esteem. I'm Tom's grandmother now and I hope that when he grows up all the efforts of our FIDS KIDS will have made the world a little better. But if there's anything left to fix, I hope that his first words will be Yes I CAN.
32 years with lots of experience in the educational and civic society sector .Passionate about children girls and women leadership and education for development as well art in eduart and music. Sociable and very eager to learn.mingle and grow.
Amalia is the country partner of Design for Change for Indonesia.
Head of Education at Diseña Futuro. Political Scientist with experience in delivering social innovation processes in pedagogical contexts.
Nikita Desai joined as a member of the Design For Change - Global team in 2017. She has been with Riverside School for the past 20 years as a parent, an educator, Head of Riverside Learning Center and as a School Leader for Key Stage 2. (Grades 3 to 7) The fundamental philosophy that drives Nikita’s impeccable work ethic of hard work, dedication and user-centered design is, knowing that with adequate opportunities and support, every child can do anything and everything. Attuned to the Design for Change motto of ‘I Can’, she aspires to help all her students become aware of what bothers them and then to empower them to shift focus from vision to action. Nikita’s understanding of the pedagogy has been strengthened through training in Multiple Intelligence, Differentiated Instruction as well as an online course by the Harvard Graduate School of Education - ‘Teaching for Understanding’. She was invited to present Riverside’s philosophy by the Royal Education Council of Bhutan, Day Star School, Beijing, and Design Thinking at the Teach For All conference in London. She has also co-facilitated a workshop with Kiran Sethi at the Lego conference in Billund. She has been to schools in Rajkot, Anand, Sangamner, and Chittoor as an auditor for their pedagogy and practice. She has been the core team member in organizing the I CAN Children's Global Summit in Rome, where 2000 children from around 40 countries had a personal audience with Pope. Nikita enjoys interacting with people and meeting new minds, photography, listening to music, traveling, and trying different types of food.
Are you planning to shoot a class project? A special project that you and your teacher feel strongly about? Tell these stories by making short films. Happiness @ School has prepared a series of short tutorials, especially for children to use.
'CAN'versation with Marc Prensky
DFC's Student Council Members (SCMs) have launched 'CAN'versations with Marc Prensky, a unique opportunity to engage in insightful interviews that foster essential skills and attitudes. Through these conversations, SCMs develop technical knowledge, critical thinking, communication, and a sense of responsibility. As a DFC Global Advisory Board Member, Marc Prensky brings valuable insights, and guiding discussions that empower students to share their voices, ideas, and vision for the future. These inspiring conversations are now available on Instagram, offering perspectives on leadership, innovation, and meaningful change. Join the conversation and be part of the movement! #CANversations #StudentVoices
"Message in a Bottle" is an initiative by the Student Council Batch of 2024
"Message in a Bottle" is an initiative by the Student Council Batch of 2024 aimed at reducing single-use plastics. Through activities like learning waste segregation and creating Eco bricks, they promote sustainable practices. They’ve also developed engaging resources for children and teachers to download and use for spreading awareness. Explore their FIDS process below to learn more!
FEEL:
With boundless enthusiasm, we dove into our journey! Concerned about the environment, we zoomed in on single-use plastic waste—a global pollution problem. Investigating in our countries, we were shocked by how much of it ends up in nature. Collecting plastics made us realize how deeply it’s embedded in our lives. So, we set an ambitious goal: to reduce and repurpose single-use plastics!
IMAGINE:
With lots of imagination and teamwork, we brainstormed a wide range of ideas. After thoughtful discussion, we chose ecobricks as our main solution, supported by a diverse source of awareness materials, a website and Instagram page.
DO:
It was time to act and unleash our superpowers! We split into small groups, each tackling specific tasks, and combined our skills to bring our solutions to life. Along the way, we embraced change in our daily lives, even creating our own ecobricks. We realized that change truly begins with us.
SHARE:
It was time to share our journey with the world! That’s how you, our readers and viewers, are now exploring our project, diving into our website, and discovering our creations. Most importantly, you’re now aware of the global issue of single-use plastics and how we can tackle it together. Let’s unite and DESIGN CHANGE!"
Journey of the Student Council 2024
Check out the journey of experiences and opportunities for the Student Council batch of 2024
Are you planning to shoot a class project? A special project that you and your teacher feel strongly about? Tell these stories by making short films. Happiness @ School has prepared a series of short tutorials, especially for children to use.
DFC's Got Talent is an initiative by the Student Council
DFC's Got Talent is an initiative by the Student Council Batch of 2023 to provide an opportunity for children across the globe to meet, exchange ideas, and connect with children from different cultures and countries. Check their FIDS process below to know more.
FEEL:
Diversified conversations hold the power to create changes in the world we desire without violent conflicts.” Following the same path we student council members felt the need to connect children globally to indulge them in these conversations to understand each other culture and diversity.
IMAGINE:
Together we pondered upon several ideas but ultimately stumbled upon DFC Got Talent to help us achieve our goal to connect children of different diversities through the talent that they master and the passion they carry.
DO:
We decided that by scheduling meetings on Zoom every twice a month we can bring children together where they can share their passion either by performing live or by sharing pre-recorded videos and interact with each other to understand more about their interests and ponder upon several changes that they can initiate.
SHARE:
The world has become a global village through the propagation of technology and social media and we decided to travel through the same medium by promoting our initiative on several social media platforms like DFC's main website, Instagram etc. to connect more and more people.
Journey of the Student Council 2023
Check out the journey of experiences and opportunities for the Student Council batch of 2023
Are you planning to shoot a class project? A special project that you and your teacher feel strongly about? Tell these stories by making short films. Happiness @ School has prepared a series of short tutorials, especially for children to use.
'CAN'versations by DFC Student Council'
These Masterclasses offered a great opportunity for our Student Council batch of 2022 to get an experience to anchor a 'CAN'versation over a Zoom call and for the DFC Family to know more about our new DFC Board members. It is a casual conversation with a fun, rapid-fire round of questions.
It was a first-ever experience of interviewing someone for a lot of our Student Council Members. They learned the art of questioning, listening, having a conversation, doing background research about the board member, and most of all - shedding the inhibition, being 'CAN'fident, and saying 'I CAN'!!
DFC_Happy_News is an initiative by the Student Council Batch of 2022 to spread smiles on people’s faces across the globe. Check their FIDS process below to know more and remember to click on the Instagram Page and follow them!
FEEL:
There are a lot of negative emotions on the internet and in life. We all saw news that was about COVID, wars and abuse around us that made us sad. Mental health issues are really challenging young people today. We all knew someone who was depressed, lonely, addicted or unhappy. We wanted to put a smile back on the face and make people more hopeful and happier. We felt that if we could make them smile, they would be happier.
IMAGINE:
We brainstormed ideas to deal with this issue and decided to create an Instagram Account called DFC_Happy_News. Imagine if we all shared the positive, happy things happening in our own lives, people will be “infected” with this Happy News and smile more.
DO:
We decided to post articles, or short stories that are positive and interesting, every month. We designed a logo and created an Instagram account "DFC_Happy_News". We, the Student Council Members of Design For Change, upload Happy News to spread the smile regularly.
SHARE:
Since social media is a very common thing nowadays for the youth, we are using Instagram as the platform to spread the happy news and smiles across the globe!! Our Instagram page has starting to gather followers. Once you see a post, you’ll want to share Happy News of your own! We will be sharing the platform at our local sharing events in our country as well as at the global event of Be The Change (BTC) Celebration this year where participants from 30+ countries will be present.
Check out the journey of experiences and opportunities for the Student Council batch of 2022.
Are you planning to shoot a class project? A special project that you and your teacher feel strongly about? Tell these stories by making short films. Happiness @ School has prepared a series of short tutorials, especially for children to use.
PlantOx Project is an initiative by the Student Council Batch of 2021 to plant more oxygen through the tree plantation drives in their respective countries. As of today, the Student Council Members have planted 2,723 trees across 9 countries!!
What are you waiting for? Plant a tree today!!
Are you planning to shoot a class project? A special project that you and your teacher feel strongly about? Tell these stories by making short films. Happiness @ School has prepared a series of short tutorials, especially for children to use.
D’Festival of Change was announced by the Student Council Batch of 2019-2020 as a way to spread positivity and hope to people around the world in these unprecedented times of COVID. The Challenges, Workshops, and Talks were meant to engage and entertain kids and adults alike and give them the strength to make a difference in the world.