Transcript
Speaker: Hello everyone, I'm Kennedy. And I'm Vassilis. We run Changemaker -Z, a student -run initiative that aims to empower, educate, and connect in zeros interested in entrepreneurship. We interview teenagers with impactful projects and create resources to help you change the world. If they can't do it, so can you.
Speaker: On this podcast, we discussed the logistics of creating different types of projects with Jin Ziers who have already done it. We will leave our social media and website information in the description. Hey guys, welcome to the first episode of the Jin Ziers to Rise podcast for season three with us in the studio is
Speaker: Patience, Edison Minow, a high school graduate, passionate about animal rights, sustainability, climate change, and body positivity. Today, we'll learn more about Teen Discuss, a platform that gives teenagers the opportunity to connect and discuss issues of the world today and find solutions to them. Welcome, Patience. Hi, I'm so excited to be here. Thank you very much for having me. Of course, we're so excited to have you here. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what's your involvement with Teen Discuss?
Speaker: Okay, so hello everyone. Like she said, I'm Patience. I'm an iSchool graduate. I'm the founder of Teens Discuss. This is an organization that aims to connect teenagers from all over to discuss what issues while finding solutions to them. So a talk came about with my co -founder, P. Smooti. We came about this idea just last year and
Speaker: were able to bring it to life. And we've had like five podcasts and two Zoom sessions so far, and it's been exciting and an amazing journey. That's so exciting. We're going to get in to all the different stuff you have later, but was there a specific moment that sparked the creation that team discussed or it's kind of some, you know, you always wanted to do? So yes.
Speaker: like a process, to be very honest, because it's something that I've always wanted to do. It has been on my mind for so long, but I didn't like talk about it with anyone. It was just on my mind. I didn't know what to do. So my co -founders of Now Peace was the one I told about the idea first and foremost, and she was so supportive. She was like, yes, let's do that. Let's
Speaker: like, let's do this thing, let's do this project. And she just gave me the booster, like, okay, okay, okay, I have someone support me, I feel like this is a great idea. So I was like, okay, yes, let's do it. So that was how it came about. So I want to say it was like a specific moment, because it was like a process of thinking about it before I finally told my friend, and she was like, yes, let's go about it. So yeah, that was how it all started, to be honest. I love your enthusiasm. It's great that
Speaker: like you this was your goal and then you actually did it i would like to learn why is it so important for young people to have a stand when it comes to discussing presentations
Speaker: So yes, I love to say this to every young person that I meet. We are this generation that is so vibrant, we are energetic, but at the same time we are living the work for the people in power. They are old now, they will soon be retiring, they will soon be going to their families and resting.
Speaker: We need to start, you know, being active. You know, teenagers feel like the people in power should be the one taking the risk, they should be the one making decisions. But I feel like it's really important for young people to start taking a stand and being active because we are the future. We are the ones who are going to experience all these challenges later. So it's very important for us to start working on it now.
Speaker: and which starts involving projects to enable the SDGs and everything is being worked upon. So I feel like it's really important for us young people to understand, especially in discussing these issues, because I feel like a lot of young people don't know what's really going on in the world right now. So it's really, really, very important.
Speaker: Thank you so much for mentioning ACGs. We had a previous conversation with the DNC teams from Nigeria also, from where you are from, and it was an important matter for people to learn more about it and then had a petition. So for those that are interested to learn more about it, let's go and listen to this amazing episode. But for now, what are the different components of your organization, the team discussed organization?
Speaker: So yes, we have a lot of components because we are basically trying to connect everyone from all over. So it's like a video and audio communication. So first off, we have the team. We have like me and my co -founder, we are in charge of everything, like, you know, just overseeing everything and making sure everything is okay. Then we have our team members. Each team members have different roles related to their special skills. And then we have, we just started this ambassadorship program. We haven't really, you know,
Speaker: started working on it, that would be February, but that also is part of it. And we have those to oversee the social media pages and so on like that. So it's really like so different, but yes, we're united in solving more global problem. So yeah. Yeah. And that global problem, is it just like information, like providing information kind of?
Speaker: So what I would like to say is that since this course, like the name implies, it's just basically discussion. And you see discussion is something that is really important to be very honest, because where we started our first Zoom session after the entire session, and one of those who came chat with me privately, and she was like, I really love the session, you know why? Because I was able to build up that confidence.
Speaker: I felt like when I speak, people don't listen. I feel like when I speak, people don't really think my idea is a good one or people don't, I feel left out sometimes. So she was like, she was able to like build a back confidence that yes, you can be active in, you know, this type of discussions or world issues and stuff like that. So I think that discussion is something that brings up connections, collaboration, partnerships, and also new ideas. And that's why I love this phrase that says,
Speaker: effective communications often brings about effective ideas so that's what our like motto and everything from backing up the organization is all about. I love that and it's so true like rather there could be so many reasons why you feel like someone's not listening to you it could be because you know especially being young you know or like a woman or whatever but um do you think that there are advantages to being a young person when it comes to getting involved in reaching the sustainable
Speaker: development goals? I feel like there are advantages, there are disadvantages, it all depends on the role you're taking because being a young person I feel like you are more likely to get more you know discouraged and you're also more likely to get more encouraged. It goes away.
Speaker: Being a young person, most of the time I see people in leadership positions, they'd be like, oh, you founded this organization? That's really so cool and amazing. I would like to support your organization in any way that I can. And we also have peer pressure like, why are you even doing this in the first place? Don't you have any other things to do?
Speaker: So I feel like there are advantages and there are also disadvantages, but I would like to say that there are more advantages than disadvantages. So one of the advantages is that you are inspired, you get more connections, you get to broaden your horizon, you get to learn more and you get to connect. So those are some of the advantages. An optimistic way of thinking. That's great. So what are the sustainable development goals and what can we do to get closer to reaching them?
Speaker: So basically the SDGs are the 17 global goals that were put together by the United Nations to make the world more sustainable and better for us all. And what we can do to reach them is basically by
Speaker: One of the things we can do is what we have already started discussion and we need to make people more aware of what's really happening. I'm telling you, I have friends that don't even know what the SDGs are. They don't have an idea. So it's really important that we get to enlighten people the more.
Speaker: I was the type of person that didn't even know what climate change was. I have to be very honest. I had to go through the process of learning about it and understanding it properly. It was really confusing, of course, but I think I get the idea now, and I'm working towards fighting and working for a change towards climate change. So I feel like it's really important for us to enlighten first. Then we have to build partnerships. We have to collaborate. We need to find new ideas. We need to go with the flow as technology is expanding and, you know,
Speaker: Developing, we need to, you know, change, you know, go with the change as well. So I feel like the first thing we need to do to reach those goals is just to enlighten people first. You know, you can enlighten a person that will be the person to bring this big idea to change, you know, the situation of climate change. But if that person is still in ignorance, we can't be able to get the idea. So first thing, we need to enlighten people. Yeah, it's true that many people don't really know what the ideas are. And maybe it's too confusing for them.
Speaker: Actually, today I had the discussion with Manasipatil. It was a connection to LinkedIn and we talked about many different stuff and actually serialized in your community. She is from India.
Speaker: that people maybe not only they don't know about things like that but also they don't care about to learn for them. And this is what we want to do through the podcast or through your organization to make people to start believing on them. Whether it's not that they exist, they are real problems and we need to find real solutions to them.
Speaker: So the perspective is what are the strategies that you use so that more people can know more about your initiative and what has worked for you so far and what hasn't.
Speaker: Okay, yes. Thank you for that question. When I, like, when I had to talk with my co -founder about the idea, to be very honest, I didn't know we'd come this far. Like, I was just like, let's just have this small discussion first and see how it goes. And we had the first one and we had people say, oh, I want to join the second one. And people say, okay, I want to be in your podcast.
Speaker: So, we never had this, like, oh, this is what we do to, like, bring in more people at first. But now that we've seen that we have a broader audience, we've started collaboration, we've connected with three organisations and, you know, to bring in more audience and to be able to impact more people. So, that's one of our strategies. For now, we are having partnerships, you know, that's one of the SDGs, partnership for the goals.
Speaker: You know, you need to connect with people with the same vision to bring in more people to impact. So that's one of our strategies and it has worked. You know, it has worked because we had an event not so long ago with one of our partners that were able to reach a more broader audience and which led to more people like registering for future podcasts and Zoom sessions. So yes, that's one of the main strategies. I'm so happy to hear that and like hear that you're broadening your audience and I just want to like
Speaker: kind of touch on the fact that you didn't know what you're doing at first but you're still you still did it you know and like that's kind of what my mantra is this year I don't really do New Year's resolutions but it's like um if you're scared do it anyway that's kind of what I've been doing so basically that if you're scared do it anyway it's kind of what you did that's what you have to do um
Speaker: And then I wanted to ask, is your initiative only based in Nigeria or, I think you kind of said you expanded a little bit, but do you have any places you're gonna, you have any places you're planning to expand to? Sorry about that.
Speaker: Yeah, it's okay. So basically, my co -founder and I are originally from Nigeria. So if I had to call it an headquarters, like our headquarters is based in Nigeria, if I had to call it a headquarters. But we have team members from all over. We have audiences from all over. So now we are trying to make it more broad. And that is why we started the ambassador issue program, which is like, you know, we are having to discuss global as the main org.
Speaker: They were going to be having, for example, things discussed in South Africa, things discussed in India, so they can communicate with other teenagers in their respective countries, maybe in their language, in their mode of speaking, you know, anyways, just reach more, you know, these broader audience and impact new people. So basically, we are, you know, the founders are from Nigeria, but we are, you know, global. We are everywhere.
Speaker: And I kind of want to know about your team dynamic, like how do you keep everything organized to make sure everything's on track and like, you know, you're managing a YouTube channel podcast and more. So what's that like? So it's actually very easy. You know, our team members, like I said earlier, we have roles within the team members. So we have people that are involved in, you know, managing events. We have people involved in everything related to the tech. We have people
Speaker: team members involved in like Austin and so everyone has their own work to do so it makes it easier so if there's any duty call so everyone knows which line to fall into so it's like really seamless uh which other people can contribute but you know everyone has their own duty and it's really really very easy and managing a youtube channel is not very it's not hard for us because you know everyone just has their own role so you know you can just you know
Speaker: It's easy, you know where you are, you know what you're functioning as and it just makes it seamless and everyone is not stressed and you know what to do. It's true that each team member is involved in so many interesting and powerful projects. If you check out the website teamdiscount .org, you can find all the team members, but I would like to learn what are each of you working on outside of things, discounts, discussing.
Speaker: Thank you. So when we had team members, we had amazing people who said they wanted to be team members and each of them had this amazing insight on life. Many of them are already in projects. One of us is even a founder of an amazing organization. So we are also different yet united for one purpose.
Speaker: We are working on a lot of things outside Teens Discourse actually. I'm a nice group graduate, I'm also a part -time baker and a part -time tutor, I tutor online. So I still manage Teens Discourse as well and we have our team members, you know, we just kind of dedicate time to like engage in stuff for Teens Discourse, you know,
Speaker: you know, to plan out events, you know, it's really very easy to be very honest, even though some of us are high schoolers, some of us are applying for colleges, you know, we have different things going on, but yes, we still have time to come together and, you know, talk about the future of things discussed. Do you have any advice for people looking to start their own initiative?
Speaker: Yes, actually, I have two advices. So the first one is, go for something you're passionate about, something you love doing. So I feel like a lot of us, when we're trying to find an initiative, we just want to do it for the sake of, oh, I'm trying to apply to one competition, so I need to like start this org now, so I can, or you can do it for the sake of, oh, yes, I can get funding, you know, stuff like that.
Speaker: Some just do it for the sake of knowing what they're going to get, not in regards to the problems they're trying to fulfill. So I feel like you should do something that you feel like, oh yes, I truly want to do this to make an impact in the world. And you see, a lot of those ninjas do it for the external benefit and which is something that is really wrong, you should do something that you really love doing.
Speaker: So at the end of the day, if there's any challenges, if there's any difficulties, you still keep on going. You still love what you're doing. You're still able to manage what you're doing. Even though maybe you didn't get funded, you're getting discouraged from all over, but you still love what you're doing. With the little impact you're making, you still love what you're doing.
Speaker: So I like to give advice to nature that whatever you're trying to find, make it something that you really love doing, something that you're able to do. Similarly, even when you're sleeping, you can become an idea of how to improve on the organization. And secondly, I have like a goal, a vision.
Speaker: So it's something that I tried building as a teenager because, you know, if you have a vision, you always wake up thinking of ways to, you know, get there. So one of the things I do personally is that, you know, I have a mission statement for the organization. I also have a mission statement for myself that I plan to do this year.
Speaker: And last year, to be very honest, I didn't even think that I would have a website for to discuss, but I wrote it in the goals. Anyway, I told my co -founder we're going to have a website. But that was like, oh, you're going to have to buy a domain. I was like, yes, we'll have it anyway. And I was confident.
Speaker: And to be very honest, I didn't know that I would have a website, but we just launched it like not so long ago and it's really, really amazing. So I feel like you should have something that you walk towards every day. You can make it like your wallpaper on your phone. So when you wake up, you look at your phone, you'll be like, oh yes, that's one of my goals for this year. And I need to do something today to walk towards it.
Speaker: So I think that every teenager out there, if you're trying to find an initiative, have a goal for the initiative, what you're trying to achieve for the year. And trust me, you know, everything you do, just, you know, align to the purpose you're trying to, you know, fulfill. So that's my advice. That's great advice. And I like, I love the urgency on like, do it today. There's so many times with our personal goals, we can just, whatever, I'll do it whenever. And then it never gets done. I've done it.
Speaker: I mean, come on. Speaking of New Year's resolutions, like who else has given up on them? Some of them. So far. So no, do it today. Make a goal for yourself. So you actually have something to work towards. And like, you know how I remember in high school, like you kind of mentioned this, like people do stuff for extracurriculars to get into college. But yes, I feel like if you just do that when you're trying to do like an initiative or something, you're not going to do it. Like it's too much work, not for knocking something that you actually love and care about.
Speaker: So, yes. And then I just finally, I want to ask you, like, for people who would love to get involved, where's your, where can you find your podcast, your Instagram, your social, stuff like that? Also, yes, if you wish. So that's on Facebook, we had to discuss and our podcast is on Anchor and Spotify, since this goes as well. So that's where you can find our main socials and on YouTube as well, which also seems discussed. So yeah.
Speaker: We're going to link that in the description as well. An amazing episode came to its end and it was the first episode of season three. Did we mention that we are celebrating one year of Gen Z's twice podcast today? It's incredible that we haven't read so far. We can't wait for you to discover all the interesting topics that we will cover in the next weeks. Thank you so much patience for being with us today.
Speaker: Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here. Don't forget to write your thoughts and questions on the discussion community. You can find the link in the description or at the Change Microsoft app available both on iOS and Android devices. Until next time, don't forget to change the world. Bye.
Speaker: Thank you guys for listening. We hope you enjoyed the conversation. We had such a great time. Make sure to leave us a review. If you want more Changemaker's content, you can follow us on Instagram at JinsearsToRise and on Facebook at ChangemakerZ.
