Student voice at BISL is very important, empowering students to be heard, get involved in student leadership, and take action through initiatives and projects. Max has been contributing to our weekly Secondary Newsletters since the beginning of the academic year and we're proud to start publishing his insightful pieces on our school website too.
When evaluating MEPI and The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award in general, many students might believe that it is merely an expendable hobby one does solely to increase their chances of getting into a good university, as it ‘looks good on my application.’ Although that may be true, if you truly scrutinise and appreciate what the programme stands for and aims to achieve, you will undoubtedly become conspicuous to MEPI’s benefits.
The Award, perpetually adapting and accommodating to the needs of the youth, is habitually recognised for its integral role in helping to develop the identities of millions of young people around the world who have not yet found their own unique self - who have not yet defined who they want to be. The Award gives so many of us the power to enunciate and vocalise our aims and goals through a newfound comprehension of vital skills such as leadership, teamwork, resilience, and determination, to name a few. As a non-formal education framework, this more arbitrary structural integrity of the Award is a perfect exemplification of our ever-changing, contemporary society, as it subjects its participants to new, different experiences once foreign to them through the skill of teamwork heavily pronounced throughout the programme, which therefore enables us to share and exchange relationships, stories, and memories that will engrain and establish themselves in the hearts of participants such as ourselves for a lifetime.
Through this increased engagement of young people, comes an augmented desire to participate with community affairs, as the programme eventuates a greater depth of understanding for empathy and compassion, and thus an intensified desire to help local communities and other people. This materialises through efforts such as starting charities in your local communities, raising awareness through social initiatives, and fundraisers to help a cause you are heavily invested in. Through these endeavours comes a compounded social cohesion and emotional depth, as participants can better articulate themselves and their thoughts, opinions and emotions with the aid of new bonds and friendships formed along the programme.
With an imperative focus on planning and problem solving, the programme aims to help expedite the youth’s desire and need to take initiative in ameliorating global issues such as climate change and the environment - issues that affect our own futures. The heightened need for personal and social well-being, in addition to communication, ultimately improves occupational prospects, as a coherent, expressive eloquence to an individual is greatly attractive to many employers.
Developing new skills and learning of the importance of health and fitness through the fitness and skill segments of the programme help facilitate the continuity of a healthy lifestyle, teaching individuals the art of perseverance in times of hardship, and teaches us to never stop learning.
Ultimately, there is not one definitive benefit to The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award, but rather a wide array and multitude of benefits, that help define and typify what it means to be a young individual in today’s society - this Award simply helps you along your journey to understand that. Within BISL, MEPI if offered as an additional programme of school, alongside our school’s values, ethics and morals, to build a student’s character and identity, and to mould them into a person that is ready to tackle the obstacles and challenges of today’s ever-changing society.
Max, Year 10
