January 24th, 2024

By Stefanja, a student at Eastwood Collegiate Institute (ECI)

Eastwood Collegiate Institute (ECI) hosted the very first United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Expo. Collaboratively organized by ECI staff, students, IMPACT (ECI’s climate action club), and the Outdoor and Environmental Education (OEE) Department the event featured numerous speakers from around the Waterloo Region, combined with a community partners showcase. The event finished off with another speech and a video performance by the Eastwood recording class. Led by student emcees Emily and Thaida, geography students from Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate Institute, Waterloo-Oxford District Secondary School, Grand River Collegiate Institute, and Elmira District Secondary School listened enthusiastically to the speakers, furthering their understanding of what they can do to work towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The UN SDG Expo is an extension of the Global Schools Program, sanctioned by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), that is dedicated to the education of students globally to prepare them to thrive in a world that is constantly shifting, backed by the SDGs.

Dan Vandermolen, founder and owner of CHANGE Lifestyle and Apparel, spoke about making intentional choices in our own lives. In his words, by paying attention to the cost per wear of our clothing products, we can help invest in a future with less fast fashion ending up in landfills. The second speaker was from Sustainable Waterloo Region, Tova Davidson, who spoke about carbon emission reduction and individual impact, encouraging a taste for sustainability.

Eastwood geography teacher, Mr. Mulligan gave a surprise performance of two original songs about climate change on acoustic guitar: Slowburn, and Hole in The Sky.

During the community partners showcase, 20+ community partners set up informational booths in the ECI cafeteria where students could take their ‘passports’ to get stamped and take notes on organizations that complement the 17 SDGs.

The event ended with a very insightful speech by Ward 7 Councillor Julie Wright about her experiences working towards a more sustainable future, accompanied by Eastwood’s recording class video performance of Share The Land by The Guess Who.

By the end of the event, everyone who attended left hopeful about the future and confident in the education of future innovators. Thanks again to IMPACT for having such a large hand in organizing, as well as the rest of the staff and students who helped bring this event to fruition. Here’s to many more years of the UN SDG Expo!

#StudentVoice Series

This article is written by a WRDSB student and is part of the Student Agency and Voice program. Student journalists embody WRDSB’s commitment to creating space for students to tell their stories. They are ambassadors for their peers as they share their personal experiences and stories about their schools and communities in their unique voices.