Sustainability Office Student Engagement
Workshop held to promote UN SDGs among youth
As part of its Winter Wellness Day, the U of R Sustainability Office spent a wonderful day at École St Pius X elementary school. According to Sustainability Intern, Kabita Bhowmik, who helped organize the activity “The workshop centered around the importance of the UN’s 17 SDGs in addressing global issues and highlighted the important role of youth and the impact they can make in their communities.”
While addressing the student participants of the workshop, the facilitators emphasized how SDGs can be applied to the local context in Regina. “Learning about Sustainable Development Goals is crucial for youth because it creates a sense of shared responsibility among youth by fostering global awareness and local responsibility,” says Kabita, a Master of Engineering and Applied Sciences student at the U of R.
“We also shared with students, career opportunities and different academic paths to take in emerging fields like sustainable development, renewable energy, and social justice,” she says. According to Kabita, “Whether that’s engineering, biology, or Indigenous studies, in a broad sense these subjects are all related to sustainability.”
Students were able to share their important perspectives on sustainability, and issues they see within the community such as food insecurity and houselessness in Regina. “We got students to write on sticky notes and put them on the wall, about which of the SDGs they feel are most relevant to Regina, and some of the most cited issues that the students identified were houselessness, and to increase food security.”
“Youth contribute to important perspectives and passion to environmental issues which actively shapes the conversation around climate change… and we hope to continue engaging with youth to equip them with the mindset and skillsets towards more youth-led initiatives”.
The purpose of the workshop was to provide students with a platform of engagement and empowerment for sustainable development and to inspire them to become agents of change in their communities.