Workshops

The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice.

We have aligned our workshops with the Sustainable Development Goals.

Student-Led Workshops

Fulfill the Fantasy

This workshop will illustrate the process of starting up an organization as a student and how the youth can be involved in change making. By using YFRM as the example, the process of opening up service opportunities, fundraisers, and other steps required in the establishment of an organization will be discussed and how to make your passion project a reality!

Woosuk Kim and Muskaan Chopra are two juniors at ISM and are key contributors to the founding of the Youth Association for Resource Management (YFRM).

The Iceberg

The Iceberg Workshop is an opportunity to change the way you look at the world. This workshop is designed for youth by youth to help you think about problems in a different way. Systems Thinking is a way of thinking designed to help you look at the world differently through Holistic Thinking, meaning looking at problems from different angles and views. The goal of our workshop is to help you learn how to think differently and we guarantee after our workshop you'll look at the world in a new way.

Abinav Subramaniam & Sae Joon Cheon

Project Puno

Project Puno is a student-led youth initiative that stimulates environmental awareness and appreciation among the youth through engaging eBooks that bring attention to environmental issues and concerns within Philippine ecosystems.

This workshop teaches students what environmentally based solutions are and what their uses are in day to day life. Environmentally based solutions are typically macro in scale but this workshop explores various micro methods to alleviate issues most people experience. For example, using mobile gardens to help alleviate pollution in urban areas in Manila.

Project Puno

Starter Pack to Change

Who says you can’t start making change as teenagers? In this workshop, you will learn everything you need to take action! Whether you want to start your own NGO, seminar, or join in on some volunteer work, the International School of Manila's Changing Our World Council will guide you towards creating effective, long-lasting solutions/actions to make an impact little by little.

International School Manila's Changing Our World Council

Professional-Led Workshops

This list will continue to be updated as workshops are confirmed.

Branding & Graphic Design for Impact

Roxy loves stories. A few years back, she saw a lot of unheard yet meaningful Filipino stories that can be told through something she knew she can work with - graphic design. Today, she is the creative director and founder of a small, young, and passionate creative group called Works of Heart. The design agency aims to work with mission-based organisations by providing effective & accessible design to catapult their advocacies forward. At the moment, she is busy with projects related to public school education & social entrepreneurship.

Roxy Navarro, Creative Director and Founder of Works of Heart

Community Mapping

Valerie Garde-Farol and Andrea S. Pineda of Teach for the Philippines will lead a workshop that will deepen the participant’s understanding of community mapping and its value in developing collaborative and needs-based service projects. The workshop will feature sample case studies on community mapping to understand community’s needs and build potential partners. At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to gain an understanding of community mapping and its purpose, identify one's role in community mapping, and discuss how community mapping can be applied in future community service activity.

Andrea S. Pineda & Valerie Garde-Farol of Teach for the Philippines

Design Thinking: How To Innovate To Help Others

Have you ever wanted to invent a product that would help you solve a problem? Perhaps a machine that cleans your room automatically? Or a robot that does your homework for you? Design Thinking is a process for coming up with ideas for useful products and services in a way that is fun, effective, and involves working with your friends. We'll learn how the Swiffer became so successful, how a blanket saved thousands of poor babies, and how Uber convinced millions of people to get into a car with a complete stranger. We might not have time to create a room-cleaning robot, but you may realize you don't actually need one!

Lance Katigbak, designer, photographer, filmmaker, and management consultant

Documentary Screening: Bird of Prey

The Philippine Eagle is a bird of extremes. It’s the world’s largest and rarest eagle, found only in the Philippines. Fewer than 800 individuals remain today, and the future of these iconic raptors — and of an untold number of other species — is tied to the fate of the Philippines' last fragments of old-growth forest.

In 1977, world-renowned cinematographer Neil Rettig filmed the first images of the Philippine Eagle in the wild, transforming the bird into a national symbol. But today, with a rapidly expanding human population facing serious political, economic, and environmental turmoil, the eagle’s plight has fallen out of public consciousness.

“Bird of Prey” follows Neil’s return to the Philippines as he embarks on a grueling expedition alongside a small but devoted group determined to protect the eagle. Together, they answer the question: What will it take to save a species from extinction?

Bird of Prey by cinematographer Neil Rettig

Fight to Protect

Fight to Protect is an awareness-raising movement on child sexual violence that uses sports as both a platform and a tool. The workshop to be held at the GIN conference will feature both the Fight to Protect story and an introduction to the sport and self-defense system of Jiujitsu. The goal is to empower the participants physically, mentally and emotionally. Jiujitsu’s emphasis is on technique rather than strength and power. That emphasis will allow participants to realize their potential regardless of their physical attributes because they can use techniques that are most effective according to their body types and preferences. In the same way, the story of Fight to Protect will allow each one to explore his/her own way to impact society with his/her own skills, talents and resources.

Margarita "Meggie Ochoa", Philippines Jiujitsu national athlete

Girls Got Game

Girls Got Game Inc. is a non-profit organization that aims to empower young women through sports. As former athletes, the women members of the GGG organization recognize how being into sports and activities continue to help them in their lives today, with the life values and skills that they learned along the way, whether they are professional athletes or in other fields of work and expertise.

The workshop touches on gender equality and its importance in society. The program is open to participants of all genders with the ideal mix of all. At the end of the workshop, participants will understand how they can impact their spheres of influence by following their passions and come up with with their own personal manifesto on gender equality.

Girls Got Game Inc, a non-profit organization that aims to empower young women through sports.

Global Youth Media

Inspired by design thinking via media makers & in-depth, integrity-infused reporting like National Public Radio, Global Youth Media (GYM) is a student-led, community journalism platform facilitated by Inspire Citizens, their GYM student media team, international student reporters, & global partnerships with international podcasts & acclaimed journalists. Participate in this workshop to walk with foundational journalism skills as well as envisioning how to start a Global Youth Media student-led member station at your school.

Steve Sostak, Inspire Citizens

Saving Our Beautiful Blue Planet - The Special Role of Young Persons from Around the Globe

Be inspired to preserve and protect our beautiful, important, yet fragile marine environment. Discover the special role played by the Philippines within the Coral Triangle, and specifically, the special role of the Verde Island Passage and Tubbataha. Understand why is it crucial to ACT NOW to save our Marine Environment and the challenges AND opportunities facing us. As future leaders, you can learn what individuals and communities can do to save our marine resources.

Robert A. S. Suntay, conservation videographer

Social Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation

Social Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation is a data and metric driven 1-Day workshop led by individuals from multi-awarded Philippine social enterprise, Messy Bessy, that seeks to educate students on social entrepreneurship, social innovation, and design thinking in business.

Abee Magallona, Head of Messy Bessy’s non-profit arm, HOUSE Foundation

Think it. Believe it. Act it!

In this workshop, participants will act on what they think and believe. Using excerpts from Girls are Our Future by Sister Cyril, Neil Farrelly, and Greg Dale, participants will read, digest, and discuss various current humanitarian issues such as child labour, education for all, poverty, and the environment. Students will then collaborate to produce and present a visual and physical work that conveys a message and inspires and encourages action around these poignant issues.

Neil Farrelly, director of Nose2Nose

Woven on the Move

Woven on the Move is a series of workshops with the goal to raise awareness on the centuries-old tradition of weaving among the youth and at the same time, embolden our weavers to protect and preserve their craft.

At the end of the workshop, attendees will have the basic practical skills for banig weaving. But more than the technical know-how, the workshop will instill a deeper respect and appreciation for this traditional craft.

Banig Weaving

Writing Letters to Leaders

Writing Letters to Leaders is a workshop that aims to teach citizens how to best communicate and reach leaders in corporations, local government units, and institutions. The lecture will include examples of letters and letter writing tips. Participants will then have the chance to write their own letters, and their output will be discussed in smaller groups.

Lara Jean L. Salaysay, social studies high school teacher and sustainability advocate

Zero Waste Ways in Living

Zero Waste Ways in Living is an interactive learning session about how you can easily live a more meaningful, positively impactful, waste-free life by being a more conscious consumer. It will introduce concepts on zero-waste and conscious consumption, and to move participants to take a pro-environmental action at home and in the ways that they eat, shop, and travel.

Denise Subido, Managing Director of Muni

17 Skills for 17 Goals

Steve and Lucy will work with participants of all ages to build leadership skills through an Empathy to Action experience, connecting "soft skills" like active listening, thoughtful observation, root cause analysis, crafting indicators for measuring sustainability, examining true price, and building essentialism into project missions to real community impact projects. Participants will be able to walk with this toolkit for sustainable thinking and leadership skills to transfer to all aspects of school, life, and service. Students also will gain the capacity to lead similar workshops, supporting others in accessing the same skills.

Steve Sostak, Inspire Citizens

2030 SDGs Game

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are ambitious and can seem overwhelming, simply due to their volume and scope. While dramatic in their potential impact on the world, approaching them can be daunting.

This game gives people a direct experience of participating in co-creating a sustainable world (“I can do it”; “what I do makes a difference.”); it simplifies and makes accessible an extremely complex issue to a level that allows people to begin to understand, while stimulating our natural curiosity to learn more, and; it activates players’ natural instincts to set their aim toward a worthy goal, simultaneously building confidence and making it enjoyable, while inspiring and motivating players to take action in the real world.

Carol Yeung, founder of iNNOVGoals