Making education

Due to our work in the Student Union we were able to get national wide projection and influence in education-related themes and policies.
We were elected co-delegates of Lisbon's High Schools' Student Unions, had to meetings with the Ministry of Education about new policies, participated in several education forums and congress, public debates (my intervention starts in the 14th minute Prós e Contras ) and were theme of several articles in main newspapers (e.g. Expresso Newspaper)

The Centenary

· I was class representative and Student Delegate in the Pedagogical Council on Camões high school (2008/2009 and 2009/2010). Under this condition I was invited to participate in the 100^th anniversary of the school by doing a 10 min. speech as the student representative in the solemn session, which was headed by the Republic’s President, the board also including the Minister of Education. I developed my speech under two lines, one sharing my own dream of a more inclusive, democratic and participated school, the other in which I made strong criticisms to the education politics in this country in the past 4 years.

Due to the massive presence of the media, the political component of my speech ended up having an unexpected impact, with news in most televisions, radios, newspaper, and thousands of messages to various blogs (see for e.g. http://www.publico.clix.pt/Educa%C3%A7%C3%A3o/aluno-acusa-ministra-de-tirar-credibilidade-a-democracia_1405537 , http://www.tvi24.iol.pt/sociedade/alunos-educacao-ministra-maria-de-lurdes-rodrigues-liceu-camoes-tvi24/1096343-4071.html, or http://wehavekaosinthegarden.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/uma-licao-com-20-valores/ ). This media attention culminated with full page profiles in the two most important reference newspapers in this country, “Público” and “Diário de Notícias” (see attached images).

Camões' Student Union

After MACA, a strong group of students that stood for a different school and education system was ready to apply to the Student Union.
We were elected by more than two thirds of the students with 478 votes.
You can visit our blog here: http://xcamoes.blogspot.com.
I would like to emphasize that all the materials in our campaign were made by us (our artistic group) and that no companies were hired.

MACA

MACA, Activist Movement for an Alternative Camoes, was a activist group created in 2008 that had the objective of mobilizing students to create cultural activities and to fight for their rights in Camoes High School, Lisbon.

The initiative came from me but it was able to get together dozens of students very quickly. This was our blog: http://maca-camoes.blogspot.com/

And this is one of our actions, celebrating the portuguese revolution that ended the ditectorship.