These Adelaide high school students couldn’t wipe the smiles off their faces recently – and for good reason. The Academy for Enterprising Girls visited their classroom at Playford International College in May for a special, inspiring business session tailored for First Nations students.
Keeley, 16, Amelia and Nikisha, both 17, are among the first students to graduate from the academy’s new culturally-safe workshops being rolled out across Australia. The girls flexed their entrepreneurial muscles for the first time to address challenges in their community — and were even thrust into the media spotlight.
The trio posed for photos and conducted interviews with the academy’s media team and South Australia’s biggest newspaper The Advertiser. Keeley said her team came up with the idea of key chains with timetables and school maps to help students get to class on time.
“It’s your first week at high school, or if you are new, it can help,” she says.
“We see kids walking around all the time and classes starting late, and they are not getting the education they need.”
Amelia told The Advertiser that the day had boosted her confidence.
Other ideas included a professional development program called Weave and Wisdom, a weaving and education workshop aimed at helping give teachers skills to “make students feel like they belong.“
“If students feel like they don’t belong, it can result in feeling upset or like they can’t make friends,” the proposal read.
The workshop was embraced by the school’s team of Aboriginal educators, who are making big strides in setting girls on an entrepreneurial path.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are making art and craft, jewellery, beanies and clothing in the Nunga room to sell at local markets.
Ivy Benbolt, the school’s Aboriginal Secondary Education Transition Officer, says one project involves painting donated tiles with Aboriginal designs.
“This activity not only celebrates cultural expression and identity but also introduces the students to the concept of turning their skills into a potential side hustle or small business opportunity,” she says.
The workshop was run with neighbouring Northern Adelaide Senior College and delivered by Young Change Agents.
Academy spokeswoman Nicole Walsh says it is critical that the program reaches First Nations girls in every corner of Australia to help ignite an entrepreneurial fire.
“We are so delighted to see First Nations girls in Adelaide’s northern suburbs embrace the workshop and apply an entrepreneurial mindset to issues they identified in their community,” says Ms Walsh, Head of Programs at the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA).
“First Nations women face unique challenges in their career paths and gender bias takes root in girls as young as high school.”
The Academy for Enterprising Girls - an Australian government-funded COSBOA initiative - has launched the series of First Nations workshops for the first time this year. Interested in hosting a workshop at your school? Contact us to learn more.
