启明星人| 社会创新项目总监Elizabeth Sobhani：拥有“长热情”的社会创变者

启明星人 17/20

加入一个社区的理由可以有很多，但最能让我们对它产生归属感和认同感的，往往是它包容、暖心的小环境。

启明星就是这样的社区，20年来，大家受到启明星的感召加入它，又共同塑造它。

正值启明星创校20周年之际，我们决定走近20个“启明星人”，展示他们的故事，进而呈现20年的启明星社区丰富且真实的一个个侧面：

本期《启明星人》，我们走近的是启明星学校社会创新项目总监Elizabeth Walker Sobhani：

Elizabeth Walker Sobhani

Elizabeth Walker Sobhani总是很忙，即便如此，如果你向她提出帮忙的请求，她还是会说——“好的！”

作为启明星学校的社会创新项目总监，Elizabeth几乎是忘我地投入到这项工作中，因为社会创新已然渗透到启明星课堂和活动的方方面面，因此，她也就被各方事务所需要而忙个不停。

如此忙碌和重负之下，Elizabeth享受其中——社会创新是她长久的信念，也让她和启明星结缘于此。

与启明星“结缘”

Elizabeth不依旧俗，为了给孩子寻找合适的文化和社区作为成长环境，2010年她和丈夫从百慕大来到中国。

启明星创始人兼时任校长Dawn Vermilya看到Elizabeth拥有教育咨询和实现社会影响力项目相关的背景，就邀请她为当年还在采用蒙台梭利课程的启明星提供咨询，为学校制定向更国际化层面发展的战略。

这是Elizabeth在中国的第二个咨询项目，她帮助启明星的董事会和领导团队制定了学校的第一个战略发展规划。

为启明星做咨询的过程也是Elizabeth了解这所小而美的学校的过程。她被学校的使命和社区深深吸引，用6个月完成了工作，也坚定了为孩子择校的信心——决定把大儿子Josh送到启明星1年级上学。

“我们希望他有双语能力，希望他享受国际课程的自由，也接受中国式教育的规范。”Elizabeth说。她把国际教育和中国式教育比喻为2个世界：“我们希望他能在两个世界里自由切换。”

她选对了。在启明星学习多年之后，Josh今年夏天毕业了，收获了伦敦大学学院、伦敦国王学院、多伦多大学、麦吉尔大学等世界一流学府的offer，并多次获得启明星学校的学术最高奖启明星学者奖。

“人”的因素

在16年的咨询生涯中，Elizabeth从未停止以自己的能力和热情推动创造社会影响的项目。她为全球居于领先地位的公司、包括联合国在内的非盈利性组织、北美和亚洲的学校完成了约40个咨询项目，支持这些机构拓展和实现自己的社会责任——比如为孤儿提供干净的饮用水；为那些离开了学校的学生重新获得受教育机会……

“单纯给予当地社区资金不是解决问题的唯一方法，而是需要公司或者机构的员工面对和帮忙解决当地的问题。”Elizabeth反思说。在这个过程中，她越来越关注社会创新过程中人的因素，并且对教育产生了兴趣——因为她“看到了下一代成为重要社会创变者的潜力”。

为三里屯校区社会创新日做准备

作为启明星董事会的志愿成员，拥有丰富社会创新经验的Elizabeth2021年开始担任艾毅教育集团和启明星学校社会创新项目总监。“启明星从初创就是一个社会创新和服务项目；艾毅又以创新、改变、激励为宗旨，社会创新项目更加让两者联结和融合起来。”

“把所学放在正确的方向上”

引导整个社区——包括学生、教师和员工，以及家长——都投入社会创新项目，并且让周边的社区也参与进来，是Elizabeth对启明星社会创新项目的愿景。2年间，启明星校园生活的方方面面也无不凸显“社会创新”的印记：

联合国可持续发展目标摄影挑战、力求改变项目、社区联结体验旅行、社会创新市场和凤凰论坛、创新实习项目、社会创新日等活动，以及为鼓励和支持社区成员实现自己的社会创新项目而设立的创新想象力奖金都是启明星社会创新项目的有机构成。不仅如此，社会创新能力和知识也不持续不断地被融入每个年级的课程。

如此繁复的工作让Elizabeth几乎全天处于工作状态，而她乐此不疲：“看到学生、家长、老师们相信我们所做的事情，并加入进来，让我很自豪！当然，这不是社会创新团队一己之力能完成的，我们在努力建设一所独一无二的学校，每位社区成员都在为此而努力。比如，我们安排启明星学生和打工子弟学校的学生互动，一起植树、创作艺术作品、分享彼此的想法、发起募款活动。从启明星学生脸上的表情看得出，他们很乐意参加这样的活动，享受到了回馈身边社区的快乐。”

北皋校区社会创新日

身边同事这样评价Elizabeth，她是心中有大爱的。正如她在很多场合不时提到的，就教育来说，最重要的是把所学放在正确的方向上，运用自己的能力和知识来帮助身边社会变得更好，哪怕是很小的贡献都有价值，我们做这些并不是要关注得到了什么，而是要关注付出了什么。

Daystarer 17/20

There are many reasons to join a community, but we experience the greatest sense of belonging from those with a warm, inclusive atmosphere.

Daystar is such a community. For over two decades, people have been inspired to join Daystar, and together we have shaped it. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of Daystar. In recognition of this moment, we decided to interview 20 Daystar community members so that they could tell their stories and present a detailed image of the Daystar community:

Today’s post is about Elizabeth Walker Sobhani, Daystar's Social Innovation Program Director:

Elizabeth Walker Sobhani

Elizabeth Walker Sobhani is always breezing through the hallways as she goes from place to place. Though she is a busy bee, she will not refuse if you ask her for a favor.

Elizabeth is fully committed to her work as the Director of Daystar's Social Innovation Program. She is busy and needed everywhere since the SI Program has been integrated into a variety of curriculum elements and activities at Daystar.

In spite of the hectic schedule and heavy workload,Elizabeth enjoys every minute of her work because she has committed herself to social innovation. This pursuit was precisely what led her to Daystar.

Path led her to Daystar

Elizabeth is not bound by convention. In order to find a culture and community that best suited her children, she and her family moved from Bermuda to China in 2010.

She was then invited to join Daystar as a consultant when Dawn Vermilya, the Founder and Principal of Daystar at the time, saw that Elizabeth had a relevant background in social impact and educational consulting. Daystar had adopted the Montessori education system, and she was expected to assist Daystar develop into a fully-fledged international school.

Daystar was Elizabeth’s second consulting client in China as she helped the Board and leadership team develop Daystar’s first strategic development plan.

Working as a consultant at Daystar, Elizabeth gradually warmed to this “small but wonderful” school. She was interested in Daystar’s mission and community culture, so she sent her oldest son to Daystar as a first grader six months after starting her consultancy for the school.

“We want him to be bilingual and enjoy the flexibility of the international curriculum, but we also want him to be exposed to Chinese-style education,”said Elizabeth, comparing the two distinct worlds of international education and Chinese education.“We expect him to be able to assimilate and thrive in both worlds.”

Her decision proved to be a good one. After spending many years at Daystar, Josh graduated this summer and received offers from multiple top universities worldwide, such as University College London, King's College London, University of Toronto, and McGill University. He also received Daystar’s top academic honor, Daystar Scholar, multiple times.

Important Role in Social Innovation

In her 16 years of consulting, Elizabeth has always been consistent with her dedication to using her skills to create social impact. She has consulted on ~40 projects for leading companies, non-profit organizations including the UN, and schools from North America and Asia, assisting them to be more effective in fulfilling their purpose. Her projects have included providing clean water for orphans in China and providing education opportunities for marginalized students who want to return to their communities.

“Many problems local communities face cannot be solved through money alone. Instead, those issues need to be addressed by the joint efforts of staff in companies or organizations,” reflected Elizabeth.She gradually realized how people could play an important role in social innovation and became interested in education because she saw the “potential” of the next generation in being key instigators of this change.

Preparing for SI Day at Sanlitun Campus

Elizabeth’s ample experience in the social impact sphere, has led her to become the Social Innovation Program Director for both Ivy Education Group and Daystar since 2021. She was also a volunteer Daystar board member at the time.“Daystar was born out of a social innovation/service project, while Ivy believed in the ‘Courage to Change and Inspire.’ The SI Program has forged greater connection and integration.”

To Apply Learning to Make Positive Impact

Elizabeth envisioned a Daystar SI Program that would engage both the school community (including students, staff and parents) and its neighboring communities when she took on this new challenge. For the next two years, the SI Program continued to grow and influence more and more aspects of Daystar's campus life.

The Daystar SI Program includes a variety of activities such as the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) Photo Challenge, Projects for Change (PFC), Community Connections Trips, Phoenix Forums and SI Marketplace, Inno-Internship programs, and Social Innovation Day. The SI Program also offers Inno-Imagine Grants that provide community members with funding and guidance for their social innovation projects. And most importantly, the SI competencies and knowledge are continually being integrated into the curriculum in each grade.

The expanding SI program keeps Elizabeth busy, and she really enjoys the work, “I’m so proud when students, parents, and teachers all have faith in what we are doing and make their contributions. The SI team and every community member are working on building Daystar into a distinctive school. For example, we had our students join together with migrant students to take action by planting trees, creating art, sharing and fundraising. I could tell on their faces that students enjoyed such communication because it gave them a chance to learn other perspectives and to support the greater community.”

SI Day at Beigao Campus

Elizabeth’s colleagues describe her as altruistic. She has repeatedly mentionedthat students should be educated to apply what they’ve learned to make a positive impact, that everyone should use their skills and knowledge to make a difference in society, no matter how small it is, and that people should care more about what they can contribute rather than what they can get.

启明星人|北皋校区小学副校长何立杏：20年都在用心“读懂”孩子的教育者 Daystarer | He Lixing, Assistant Principal of Beigao Elementary School: Seeing and Understanding Students

启明星人| 创始人蔡金勇：什么样的人才更能适应今天的环境？Daystarer| Cai Jinyong, Co-Founder of Daystar Academy