Citizens Launches at IB Global Conference

Citizens Team

October 27, 2024

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5 min read

About the author

Written by the team at Citizens.

Citizens Launches at IB Global Conference

Citizens is a go! We had a fantastic time launching Citizens at the International Baccalaureate's Global Conference in Budapest. After 2 years in research and piloting, it was so energising to showcase our platform to IB educators, and get their feedback on its potential in their schools and for their students.

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Live demos of Citizens

We walked delegates through live demos of the Citizens app and got amazing in-person insights on how it could be used in schools, and which aspects of the app teachers felt would be most impactful. The support and enthusiasm for our mission was particularly inspiring for us.

*We don't know why Matt's doing air-quotes here. He's probably off script on Marvel movies again.*

Merch, merch and more merch

We brought the merch: badges, stickers, t-shirts, totes, even unicorn chocolates! It was fun to celebrate our message, that Actions Speak Louder Than Grades, and to find new friends supporting our mission.

Colour My Curriculum

Our inaugural, 'Colour My Curriculum' competition, where delegates designed their own custom wheel on Citizens, proved particularly popular and we had some terrific entries.

Meeting old friends...

It was brilliant to meet up with long-time supporters of Citizens, like Leo Thompson and Rico Chow, who believed in Citizens when it was really just a few slides.

Our founder, Matt, with Leo Thompson, Founder of Edsplorer

...and making new ones!

Our Actions Speak Louder Than Grades motto seemed to particularly resonate, and we met many new friends sharing ideas on what spoke louder than grades to them. Some of the ideas:

Values
The Process
The IB's Approaches to Learning Skills
Empathy
Soft Skills
Commitment
Well-being

...and many, many more!

Thank you to the organisers and IB educators!

All in all, what a terrific way to celebrate Citizens' global launch. A huge thank you to the IB and the organising team for such an amazing conference, and all the educators who were so supportive and generous with their time at the Citizens stand. Until next year!

testimonials

Sir Anthony Seldon

Leading Educationalist

"Citizens has the potential not just to elevate the story schools tell about their ethos and development of young people, but to act as an accelerant to global youth action."

Champions Citizens as a way for schools to showcase character development

"Citizens empowers students to chart their activities and identify the skills and targets they have mastered. As they prepare their Personal Statements, they are able to be reflective using the visualised wheel to identify their strengths and discuss them in terms of the targeted framework. Citizens helps sixth form students identify their next steps - it does not end when they graduate - the wheel propels them to extend their impact even further."

FAQs

What is Citizens?

Citizens is a youth development and recognition platform seeking to expand what we value in education. We help students and schools showcase personal development, extracurricular achievements and social contribution in digital portfolios mapped to expert benchmarks.

What does it cost?

Citizens is free to students and always will be. Schools subscribe for admin and showcase features. Please request a quote here.

How do you protect privacy?

Subscribing schools can set 'visibility ceilings' for their students, which prevents either actions or profiles being public until students reach a certain age, or graduate. We also have advanced settings that allow students to share specific actions only with their assigned teachers, or even with other students in their school.

For individual students that use our app without a school subscription, we set minimum ages for profile and action visibility based on local guidance in your country. This is usually 15 years old.

What is the research behind the Citizens Benchmarks?

The Citizens Benchmarks are designed to map student action to recognised frameworks for skills, character and social contribution.

The Citizens Skills 360™ is based on our founder's PhD research at UCL’s Institute of Education on Global Citizenship Education and youth development, and has been refined thanks to a codesign and piloting project with students and schools funded by Innovate UK, the UK government’s innovation agency. You can read more about this research in our forthcoming Founding White Paper.

The UN Impact 360 is a visual framework for the UN Sustainable Development Goals: 17 commitments for a better world, made by 193 world leaders… our best blueprint for collective action as global citizens.

How old do you have to be to use Citizens?

If you are below the age of 15 you must have parental or guardian consent to use Citizens.

How can I get my school accredited as a Character-Developing School?

Your school must become a subscribing member of Citizens, demonstrating your commitment to character development and recognition, and evidencing this in our index. Accredited schools become part of a global coalition of like-minded institutions and gain access to resources, recognition, and a platform to showcase their impact. Please book a call with our team if you would like to hear more.

Is that a unicorn in your logo? 😃

It is! We looked at a lot of ideas for our logo, from globes to civic symbols, but none of them really clicked. Then, our founder’s daughter suggested a unicorn — and we instantly loved it! There’s a serendipity in this choice. Unicorns are often seen as representations of uniqueness, inner strength, and untapped potential. Celebrating this in every citizen is what we’re all about, and our little unicorn gives us a reminder of this every day!

If I subscribe to Citizens do I need to replace my school’s LMS or SIS?

No, and we can work with you to integrate Citizens with either, depending on how you plan to embed Citizens in your cocurricular programmes.

Who is Citizens for?

For schools that go beyond exams and celebrate a whole-child approach. For students that want to take control of their own development.

What is ‘LMS Action Export & Recognition’?

We take a data export from your LMS and use this to build student profiles in Citizens, preloaded with their existing activity. We do this under a data processing agreement to ensure compliance with privacy requirements such as GDPR.

How do I embed my profile on LinkedIn?

This can be done via LinkedIn's Featured section. First, you need to copy your unique URL for your profile, which can be accessed by clicking 'Share' under your name and photo on your main Citizens dashboard. Then, follow LinkedIn's guidance here to add this link to your profile as a Featured section, ensuring it is the first thing prospective employers view when they review your LinkedIn CV.

What is the Citizens Skills 360?

The Citizens Skills 360™ is based on our founder's PhD research at UCL’s Institute of Education on youth skills, character and social contribution, and is designed to be a comprehensive benchmark of those skills and attributes exams alone cannot recognise. It has been mapped to Future Skills frameworks from bodies such as World Economic Forum, McKinsey and Microsoft, and has been iterated on and adapted during a codesign project and pilot with students and schools globally. You can read more about the research behind the Citizens Skills 360™ in our forthcoming Founding White Paper.

What are the UNSDGs?

The UNSDGs or 'Global Goals' are 17 'Sustainable Development Goals' from the United Nations. The goals are designed to address major challenges facing humanity, such as poverty, inequality, climate change, and peace. Adopted by all UN member states in 2015, they set targets for 2030, and are the best blueprint we have for collective action as global citizens.

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