With another year coming to an end it is the best time to look back at the 365 days behind us and everything that’s happened at oikos during that time. It was an eventful year for us, full of exciting development both in terms of starting new projects or reshaping and refreshing the existing ones. 

January

As we kicked off the year, there was hard work in full swing at a number of projects, among which was reshaping our Curriculum Change Initiative into a new structure with a new name – the oikos Transforming Education Initiative. The new structure in place allowed for better synergy and overview between the different projects and teams within the initiative like oikos Camp, oikos Academy, Curriculum Change Squad, The Stories Squad, LEAP Researchers and Positive Impact Rating. From within the Transforming Education Initiative a new project around TE Stories took off – focused on telling the stories of changemakers at universities around the world and sharing their journeys and experience in making them more sustainable and bringing change from campus to classroom. At this time Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) published their book on Responsible Management Education with a chapter which was contributed by oikos International.

February

In February we were excited to finally present the months of effort from a group of active and alumni oikos members working on the oikos HOMEcoming project. The project goal is to reorganize our archives, open them up and make them more accessible to the community, strengthening the connection between our present with the past, while at the same time taking learnings for the future. To launch the HOMEcoming Project we hosted an online get together with oikees from 12 different generations across the 35 years of oikos’ existence, looking back at their student days and sharing their oikos journeys. This month was also a special moment for 46 students as part of the 2022 cohort of LEAP Advanced – now under a new name: LEAP YOUth. The new nomenclature reflects the evolution of LEAP that’s been taking place since its first cohort was created back in 2015. Today oikos LEAP ecompasses four programs: LEAP YOUth, LEAP Researchers, LEAP Life and LEAP Tools.

LEAP YOUth onlike Kick-Off Meeting

March

In March of this year the LEAP journey of 13 early career researchers from 10 universities began with the LEAP Researchers Kick-off. LEAP Researchers is a nine months long intensive program which supports early career researchers, masters’ and PhD students both their professional and personal development. At the same time, their fellow leapers from the LEAP YOUth cohort were well into the first module of their LEAP journeys, focusing on the ‘being’ dimension of responsible leadership, acknowledging and working on relationship with the self. 

April

April was a busy month for the oikos Community, starting with the Spring Legislative Meeting, where chapter representatives elected the new oikos International Co-president for the 2023-2024 term Carolin Lemke. At the meeting oikos Istanbul was granted a full chapter status following a vote by the representatives, with a number of other important decisions made. Not long after, oikos Graz was excited to host the entire oikos Community for the oikos International Chapter Conference in their city. Over the course of four days the sessions would cover a wide range of topics focusing on bringing changes to systems around us, with the belief that all people could make a change and hope of coming together to collaborate and drive the change. It was a large gathering of both local students and members of many oikos chapters, including some LEAP YOUth participants who were hosted in Graz by our team a few days prior to the Conference for the onsite Kick-off Meeting. The intense 3 days allowed participants to deepen their understanding and practice of LEAP foundations, culture and frameworks in person. 

oikos International Chapter Conference in Graz

May

We started off May by announcing the results of the first ever oikos Community Impact Contest which was launched a month earlier. It showcases and celebrates the amazing work done by our Community with every oikee eligible to vote for the project they’re most inspired by. After months of preparations, we launched a Rite of passage pilot program in which the oikos International Team participated. The four-day long program focuses on the transition from studenthood to responsible adulthood and was partially funded through a crowdfunding campaign. In the future we aim to make Rite of passage become a regular part of our project portfolio and open it up to the wider oikos Community.

June

Halfway through the year the LEAP YOUth cohort was wrapping up the second Module focused on the ‘thinking’ dimension of conscious leadership. The Module develops cognitive skills, learning tools and frameworks that support us to make sense of our complex world. Early June saw the launch of the Positive Impact Rating 2022 Edition at the UN PRME Global Forum, exploring the Role of Business Schools in times of crises. The third edition of the PIR surveyed 45 business schools from 21 countries which formed the PIR 2022 Report. Notably the results from the Global South, particularly India, performed better than their peers in the Global North in 2022.

LEAP YOUth Mid-Term Meeting

July

As many students around the world went for a well-deserved rest, our LEAP team was hard at work organizing the LEAP YOUth Mid-term Meeting. This year’s edition of the Meeting took place in Churwalden, Switzerland, and brought together oikos students from different countries and backgrounds united in values and goals of growing into conscious leaders of tomorrow. Over the course of seven days they had the chance to exercise the five conscious leadership capacities while getting to know each other better in a picturesque setting tucked between forests and mountains.

August

August was an exciting month with the second oikos Camp taking place in Barcelona, gathering teams working on projects that aim to transform education. A total of six teams of students from all over the world worked closely together to develop sustainability projects that would empower their fellow students to bring the change. One of our Alumni members Benoit Pitsaer decided to take on a trip across Europe by bicycle, riding from Vienna to Istanbul in order to support our crowdfunding campaign and raise awareness on sustainability issues. He set up a goal of €2,500, one euro for each kilometer between the two cities with matching donations from his employer NSI IT & Software. Together we raised over €5,000 of funds which help maintain our programs free and open for as many students as possible.

oikos Camp

September

With the new semester kicking off, we created new formats of Community events, under the name oikos AGORA. With a variety of subjects and topics AGORA allows us to cover and opportunities for the oikos Community to create and host their own sessions, in the future we aim to make it into a regular weekly gathering anyone can join. In September, LEAP YOUth completed its third Module dwelling on the importance of the ability of relating for being a good and responsible leader. It developed participants’ interpersonal skills and capacities for relating to self, others and nature with fundamental qualities and caring.

October

The second annual Legislative Meeting once again brought together the oikos Chapters’ representatives to make important decisions for our Community. A new oikos International Board was elected, with six inspired oikees ready to take on their new roles and responsibilities for the year ahead. The oikos Family grew bigger with two chapters in accession – Kano and St. Andrews granted the full chapter status by the Community, recognizing their great commitment and effort put into realizing oikos Mission and Vision at their respective campuses. By the end of the month everything was in place for another oikos Academy to take place, and this time in a new format. The local chapters in Barcelona, Graz, Kano, St. Andrews and St. Gallen hosted onsite events at their local universities, along with online workshops open to both local and students from other cities and countries.

oikos Conference in St. Gallen

November

In November, LEAP YOUth participants completed the fourth Module, this time all about collaboration and honing their social skills. It helped them learn how to develop trust and constructive communication, mobilize and engage others with an inclusive mindset in co-creation. Later in the month, oikos St. Gallen finished the preparations for their annual oikos Conference, which this year was open to the international students and Alumni from the oikos network. Over the course of three days the Conference featured various experts addressing a number of different topics around sustainability, focusing on both its individual and collective aspects. One of the workshops at the Conference was the presenting and launching of the Framework for Carbon Neutral Events, developed by the local chapter and made available for the oikos Community. After years of planning and working on new methods of tracing and presenting our impact we finally launched the oikos Impact Matrix. The Matrix we envisioned as an innovative, yet simple tool, useful for tracing the impact of both the oikos International and oikos Chapters’ projects. In November we launched the LEAP YOUth fundraising campaign, allowing everyone who wishes to support our flagship leadership program through donation to do so.

December

We started off December with a handover process between the oikos International Co-presidents[…]. The oikos Community grew with a new chapter opening in Amsterdam, adding Netherlands to the oikos map. With the semester coming to a close, we look back at the impact and achievements made over the past few months with another Community Impact Contest coming up. We’re looking forward to seeing the exciting projects submitted and how the oikos Community will vote on them, so make sure to keep up, as the results are coming in the new year. After ten months of the intensive LEAP YOUth program and the finalization of the final module, we are delighted to see another generation of responsible leaders complete their journey. With everything they have learned, the fifth module – acting – will help them put it all into practice and drive the change for a better tomorrow.

NSI CEO Manuel Pallage hands the cheque to oikos Co-president Sophie Charrois

Looking ahead at 2023

As we plan ahead for the upcoming year, we have so many reasons to be proud of what we, as a Community, have created this year. There are many things to take away from it, many learnings made along the way and many collaborations formed that, together, we’ll take with us into the new year. We head into 2023 filled with energy and motivation to make our impact even bigger, reach more people with our actions and drive the change together!

Throughout life we experience many changes, whether they’re big or small, we tend to gain awareness only after we’d go through one of them. Looking back at our own lives we can easily point out a moment, a thought, an action we took that had an effect on how our story would unravel later on.

On the other hand, many of us look forward and whether we have our goals set and futures planned out or not and despite our eagerness or ambition, it’s often hard to set the point at which we’ll be certain a big change would take place. However it is not impossible, undoubtedly some of us do have the capacity to reflect and act upon it on our own, but many of us need guidance, a helping hand to prepare us for this exact process.

In order to reach out a helping hand to guide young people through this transition, we have created a Rite of Passage program. These helping hands carry their own experience, along with wisdom once passed onto them by those before them, even going many generations back. Various rites of passages persist in cultures around the world, often differing from one another in certain aspects. What binds them together is an idea behind most of them of transitioning between stages of life, with gaining a sense of one’s own gifts and roles in the world.

Our own Rite of Passage likewise focuses on the transition, but one seemingly not honored as much, especially relevant for our community of students and that is the transition from studenthood to responsible adulthood. Maybe even often overlooked in the world where studying for exams and writing theses is almost instantly replaced with the demands and pressures of work life. It is what leaves many students asking themselves – ‘what next?’ and experiencing anxiety or feeling overwhelmed, before their student journeys even comes to an end.

Through this program we aim to support students in finding a sense of who they are and empower them in this very transition. Time this year, we organized a pilot version of the Rite of Passage – a five-day journey on which the oikos International team had joined in as participants. This meant that, on one hand we could embark on a ‘prototype’ journey with some experimentation and learnings to take from it, which could then be applied for such programs in the future. On the other hand, along with individual journeys of growing up, we could partly focus on the journey of oikos as a collective and an organization.

The pilot took place at the end of April in Biofalu – an eco village in rural Hungary. Starting off with the venue itself, calling it a perfect fit would be an understatement. A large patch of land which has been a reforestation site for over two decades provided the participants with a retreat far from the busy everyday lives of our cities and universities. Here we could connect with the nature, in awe of beauty surrounding us. From tranquil ponds, over gentle hills, down to windy meadows, in sun or rain, the land was there for taking it all in, calling out to be explored and enjoyed, alone or in the company of an occasional shy deer or a busy beetle.

Biofalu, Hungary

It was not only the land that called to be explored, but also each of us individually by none other than ourselves. That journey is not as easy on our own, which is why we had professional facilitators Chris and Julia to be the guiding light and prepare us to go through the transition. The two had supported many youth over the years in their own rites. Both with plenty of experience and stories to tell and yet, it was in many ways their own journey as much as it was ours.

Chris and Julia had done an amazing job in creating a sometimes intense, yet at all times fulfilling program which had a lasting impact on all the participants. Throughout the program, we enjoyed an atmosphere in which everyone could feel safe and without judgment, which created a circle of understanding and mutual support in which everyone could thrive. It was this sense of trust which helped form strong connections with both the facilitators and participants.

These connections were at the core of the Rite of Passage experience, and not only with each other, but also with our surroundings. From the moment each of us walked in, we were given the space to get to know the land which would be our home over the next few days, take it all in and feel connected with it. The ‘day 0’ was the day for arrival and the much needed landing, after our Team’s few intense and busy weeks on the road with the LEAP YOUth Kick-off Meeting and oikos ICC which happened just days prior.

Setting up the program’s framework, responsibilities and ground rules together as we gathered, we prepared to embark on our Rite of Passage over the course of the next five days. Each day was centered around a specific dimension or an element of the program: softening, revealing, challenging and committing. From adapting to the program’s pace and environment, through reflecting on and discovering the issues each of us faces, to challenging ourselves and ultimately setting up the next steps – each day represented, in a way, a stage of transition.

It’s important to note that when sharing with you a part of the Rite of Passage experience, we refrain from going into too many details and specific aspects of the program’s agenda. The reasoning behind it is simple – maybe one day you – the reader, may be the one to participate in the Rite of Passage, hence in order to make that future experience more authentic and ever more impactful, it’s best to approach it with the mind as a blank canvas.

The program agenda and activities were conscious of the differing needs and inclinations among the participants, hence it maintained the right balance, providing enough space and time for individual and group work, as well as between staying active and unwinding. Physical activity was an important part of our Rite of Passage, whether by discovering the green acres of land, helping our hosts with work or engaging in the expressive biodanza sessions. In contrast, sitting down on the sunny porch at day or on the cozy pile of pillows at night in the company of each other not only helped relax, but also connect on a deeper level, even in between the activities.

Working on the land

On the individual level, there was plenty of space for each of us to take a deep dive into our inner selves, reflecting and exploring where we are in life and where we would like it to take us. The journey was no doubt an emotional one, at times it may have been confusing or difficult to deal with, but it never lacked the support from the group when trying to find meaning in all of it. It allowed us and even encouraged us to challenge ourselves and learn from it, overcoming the obstacles that arise and become aware of what each of us is truly capable of. The balance between individual and group, as well as between moving our bodies and minds, helped relieve the pressure and made the journey feel not as overwhelming.

As a team, these five days shaped up and helped us grow. Even though we all had our individual journeys to take, we were in it all together and never really alone in it. The experience strengthened bonds within the team and helped us connect with each other on a deeper level, growing more aware of each others’ needs, but also capabilities and potentials. Through the program we collectively reflected on and questioned the meaning of oikos, where it is today and where it needs to be in the future, aligning different perspectives and learning from them.

Today, over half a year since we as a team had undergone the Rite of Passage, we often look back to it with fond memories and collective acknowledgement of how special and important it was for everyone who was a part of it. As a fully remote organization, whose team is scattered across multiple continents, this experience helped overcome the difficulties the distance between us creates. It changed the way we approach issues and challenges that may arise in our everyday work, nurturing the culture of openness and deeper understanding between us.

oikos team will continue to develop strategies for further growth of our network that is continuously creating meaningful contributions for a more sustainable world. Completing the pilot gave us new learnings and useful insights, not only in what direction we see our organization growing in the future, but also in terms of shaping it into a long-term program supporting our student community. We see the potential supportive role oikos can have a role for our students in the transition between ‘studenthood and adulthood’.

The Rite of Passage pilot was an innovative opportunity to explore a different approach to the topics that we as an organization focus on such as leadership, responsibility, mental health and personal development. Our Leadership Program LEAP tackles these topics as well, however from a different perspective and with a different purpose, hence why we see the Rite of Passage fitting right in with the rest of the programs oikos creates and offers students.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the generous donors who had supported our campaign raising funds for the Rite of Passage pilot. We would like to extend our gratitude to the Oasis Foundation for their support in the realization of this program.

During a 10-months journey, participants at LEAP YOUth experience the Inner Development Goals framework in 5 modules to explore the main dimensions of conscious leadership: Being – Relationship to Self; Thinking – Cognitive Skills; Relating – Caring for others and the world; Collaborating – social skills and Acting – driving change. Besides input webinars and workshops, they are supported by 1-1 coaching sessions, peer groups, are invited to engage in personal reflections and can enjoy 2 main onsite meetings.

Ending our LEAP journey, from November to December participants went through the ACTING MODULE – driving change. In this module they explored how to foster the skills of perseverance, courage, optimism and creativity to take decisive actions towards challenging and disrupting existing structures and views.

During this last module, they could dive into frameworks that supported their learnings towards acting and to enjoy a closure session of the program with the topic of how to move forward after LEAP. 

For the Acting Webinar participants explored the topic of Active Hope with The Work That Reconnects and the Right Livelihood frameworks guided by Della Z Duncan. Using the model of “Three Stories of Our Time”, Della invited participants to take a fresh look at the challenges humanity is facing through having a conversation about the 3 stories we live in now – Business as Usual, the Great Unraveling, and the Great Turning.  She assisted them in both making sense of what we see and experience, and also in reflecting on how we want to live our lives and to engage in the work of change, keeping our perseverance. 

Afterwards, Della presented about the different possibilities of engaging courageously, optimistically and creatively with “The 3 Dimensions of the Great Turning”. Those are positive actions in the world that are happening simultaneously and are mutually reinforcing:  

1) Holding Actions – activism or direct actions to stop or deal with the destructive and unjust practices that are taking place on the planet right now. 

2) Structural Change- to evaluate, revise and build new societal forms, structures and systems, ways of being together and organizing etc that support life to thrive.

3) Shift in Consciousness – a perceptual, cognitive, and moral shift to biocentric values and worldviews that affirm our human responsibility to life in all its richness and diversity and to future generations.

Della invited participants to dialogue about how they see these stories and dimensions happening in their personal lives and to reflect about the actions they are starting to develop and might want to be more involved with as they move forward in their paths as changemakers.

To finalize the session, Della walked participants through the concept of Right Livelihood inspired by a quote of Frederick Buechner- “the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”, facilitating the space for conversations about one’s Right Livelihood – how to format our actions and work in the world based on one’s deep calling to contribute to a more equitable and life-sustaining society.

The last session of the year for the 2022 cohort was an embodiment closure with the leadership development manager of LEAP, Roberta, and the facilitator and long dear friend of LEAP Chris Taylor. Chris and Roberta guided LEAP participants and volunteers to a 3 steps process of:

1) Review and reflect about the LEAP journey – what were the learnings during the year, how their sense of belonging and community developed, what are the ways of being and doing that they are letting go of and what are the new possibilities they see for their present and future.

2) Celebrate – connecting and dialoguing about the special LEAP stories and people they were grateful to, celebrating ourselves and the completion of the program.

3) Moving Forward – Connecting to the Acting Module, participants were looking at and sharing their commitments and next steps after LEAP.

We end this successful year sharing how the community described in a word their LEAP experience: 

 We are looking forward to the LEAP cohort 2023!

Not long ago, Benoît Pitsaer, oikos Alumni and NSI IT Software & Services employee, supported our crowdfunding campaign with a bicycle trip from Vienna to Istanbul with the aim of raising awareness for sustainability and – at the same time- funds for our projects at oikos.

NSI pledged to support by matching all donations up to €2,500, the achieved goal of the campaign. What a nice move to double the outcome!

We would like to once again thank both NSI and Benoit for their amazing support, as well as all the generous donors who contributed to the campaign.

Today oikos Co-president Sophie Charrois NSI CEO Manuel Pallage to receive the donation in person.

All the funds raised will support oikos International’s work for and with our global student community.