"How many of you wake up in the morning thinking they're making a difference?"
That's the question
one of our 16-year-old students, Kathryn,
asked her classmates.
And nobody raised their hand.
And that's a question I've been asking myself for a long time.
I have always been particularly fond of environmental issues.
I remember as a child, on my first National Geographic,
I saw photos of the burning Amazon;
and then growing up I realized
that environmental problems weren't only on the other side of the world,
but also around us.
They were global problems, but also local problems.
I'm thinking about the abuse of concrete,
that affects the landscape I live in every day.
The problems, in other words, of the loss of identity of our landscape
and also of ourselves.
I also think about the climate change problems
that span across the globe
and empowered a single species,
the human species
to irreparably alter the climate,
ushering us into what is called the Anthropocene age.
All these problems always pushed me to try and do something,
and I tried to find my way.
So I graduated from university, I did various types of experience
and then I landed in a research center
that dealt with environmental issues
like land consumption, evaluation of plans and programs.
That's what I studied for.
But I felt - when I came home in the evening -
I didn't feel really satisfied,
I felt that something was missing.
And I couldn't quite understand what.
And what happened then, you may say?
Perhaps I left, I gave up everything, I completely changed my life.
No, I was actually attached to the kind of work I had
because there were my classmates whom I had attended university with.
The work was pleasant - let's say I was in my comfort zone.
So I didn't have the courage to change.
Then an external element happened,
one that led to the closure of my contract,
because they ran out of funds for that research,
and I found myself in trouble.
I didn't really know what to do.
At that time, I basically saw two directions before me:
either getting hired in a traditional business,
then use my degree, what I had studied for;
or try to start with me and my passions
and try to get involved.
And I chose this second direction.
So I founded an association
that dealt with landscape and environmental issues
and tried to involve municipalities and institutions.
The more I delved into these projects,
the thing I noticed
was that I was drawing on talent that I had never considered before.
In particular, I considered my careers as completely separate:
my passions for art and my passion for the environment.
And through that experience
I was combining many things I liked, many interests.
I also discovered some talents that I didn't think I had,
like the ability to connect people,
to manage projects,
to use art or theater
as a communication tool for environmental projects.
So a lot of things I didn't know I had came out.
And all this led me to the awareness
of trying to share what I learned about myself,
and I actually managed to do with young people, with new generations;
and in particular work on them
to give them the tools to first change their lives
and then their world, their territory and their context.
That's how I started my company, and it deals precisely about these issues.
And since 2014 it involved more than 8000 youngsters in Italy
on projects that might make a difference.
And that was unthinkable to me, when I took up this path.
Absolutely unthinkable.
And I remember a colleague in the corridor
just as I was ending my previous work experience,
asked me: "But what's next?"
I told him:
"I know what I want,
I want to take care of youth and environment,
and somehow I'll do it".
And I discovered a sense of security, which I didn't think belong to me.
And offering young people tools for change
was an experience
that allowed them to change things in some way,
starting with talents in the first place.
In fact, what we want to think about, what we want to bring into the classroom
is just to make young people think about who they are,
make them think about what their talents are.
What are their abilities and skills?
Seems like an obvious thing,
but often, at school, you don't think about your actual skills.
So one direct question we ask them is,
"What are you good at? What do you like to do?
Is there something that other people, who love you,
think you are actually good at?
And when the kids are forced to think about it,
we see that things change.
Sometimes someone says, No, I can't do anything at all.
Then try to think.
And actually, when you find a talent, you find a treasure.
And in particular, one of the stories I wanted to share today
deals with how talents and the search for our own ones,
can untap sources of energies we didn't think we had.
I'll tell you the story of one of our students.
The story of a student who spent five hours in a closet.
Now I'll explain why:
For me, and possibly also for you, a pastel is simply a pastel,
For this kid,
a pastel was a tool to educate younger generations,
to teach children how to draw nature,
and being able to teach that there is no waste.
and that when you plant the pastel's leftover,
which is in that case, the pastel that had invented Ottavian,
was a pastel with a seed,
when you plant its leftovers,
you can generate a plant that gives rise to a fruit,
a flower with the same color of the pastel.
Ottavian is one of our students who created this project,
a startup that creates these pastels integrated with the seed
for children.
He was considered,
and he also considered himself a somewhat average student.
He wasn't committed, in his own words.
And as for this project, he became totally passionate about it,
and he discovered that what he did in his leisure time,
what he did outside of school,
dedicating himself to videos, dedicating himself to communication,
could actually be something to work on.
He then got involved in this project
and spent five hours in a closet
trying to tape the video of his startup
as perfectly as possible,
because the clothes inside the closet were absorbing the sound.
And this experience allowed him to somewhat change his life,
because he discovered he had this talent in communication,
he managed to enter a major university specialized in communication,
he won scholarships.
So reflecting on his own talents, he managed to somehow find his way.
This is an example of how,
by drawing on our own resources, one can make a difference
first and foremost within ourselves.
The second thing I wanted to share
was precisely the importance of connecting students and youngsters
with something they don't know,
something that can actually inspire them.
What we've noticed
is that bringing them in contact with innovative realities
but also with unusual places,
can actually make a difference for kids.
What you find on the slide
is a note one of our students left us,
a student from a school in a quite difficult context,
a student that his professors identified as fairly difficult.
And through a three-day mountain experience
with a focus on environmental issues,
this guy actually communicated in a different way
and eventually left us with this note.
He felt free, rediscovered himself
and rediscovered a different way of communicating himself to others.
The last thing I wanted to talk about -
thus it certainly was a path to make a difference -
was the discovery of one's own talents,
coming into contact with something that is outside of our daily lives,
so leaving our usual boundaries
and getting in touch with realities
that perhaps, a priori, did not interest us.
The third thing we want to bring to young people, to schools,
is to try help them make a difference
in their own territory.
So what we do
is to help them think "community-wise".
At first I was telling you about Kathryn;
her classmates did not raise their hand when she simply asked,
How do you make an impact?
But then all together Kathryn and her friends
got together and managed to design a project
that actually transformed Como, where their school was based.
They got together and designed a simple idea:
an application to nudge people to walk,
and then trying to solve
what was a problem for the city of Como, environmental and air pollution
And the fact that the old town
was somehow losing its center of interest.
So these kids made this application,
they created a network of businesses
who gave discounts to people who walked there.
They mobilized the citizens
and made hundreds of people aware of these issues
by organizing walks after and walks all around the city
with families, young children, parents and so on.
And it was nice because they all understood
that they could try to deepen their talent
but they could also connect it with others
and they could try to launch projects
that brought real value to their city.
So, this is the message I want to leave you with.
All of us as citizens, students, parents, trainers,
whatever our role,
we can try to listen to our talents,
put them on the line
and work together to build a better world.
Thank you.
(Applause)