Written by Lilliana Swainson (Year 12 IBDP, Somerset College)
Three days, 28 orange shirts and many conversations and can make a huge impact.
This year the Year 11 and 12 International Baccalaureate (IBDP) Somerset College cohort took part in Orange Sky’s Sudsy Challenge for the second year! It forms a part of our CAS (Community, Activity and Service) program.
A few years ago, Orange Sky’s Lucas and Nic visited Somerset as entrepreneurs at the Somerset Celebration of Entrepreneurship. Since then, Somerset has been involved in Orange Sky’s mission, and each year students have hosted events during the festival to bringing awareness to the important issue of homelessness around the world.
During the 2021 Celebration of Entrepreneurship, we wore our bright orange shirts and gained the attention and interest from other students, staff and entrepreneurs visiting. We were often asked, "Why are you wearing orange?" For the three days of keeping our kit on, we spoke to many members of our community to bring awareness about those doing it tough.
At the conclusion of the three days of orange shirt wearing, we invited our teachers of the IBDP program to help us ‘wash’ our shirts by dunking us in freezing cold water with hundreds of students and staff from the Gold Coast community watching on!
As Kofi Annan said, ‘young people should be at the forefront of global change and innovation’. It is so important that young people develop a social conscience. The ability to see beyond ourselves and understand the problems of our world provides young people with a drive to create a better world.
We have created a new school tradition which we hope will be continued for the next IBDP cohorts to come!
Check out our blog to read more personal stories from The Sudsy Challenge.
