One of the primary goals of a Danish upper secondary school, as well as the IB Diploma Programme, is to shape students into responsible, reflective, and active citizens who are committed to contributing to our shared society – both locally and internationally. In two articles, we focus on students who are already actively engaged in society outside of school.

“You closed my school!”

Freja Haugaard Mønsted is in her second year of STX. She shares that her parents once took her to a local election meeting when she was still quite young. “You closed my school!” she confronted one of the local politicians.

In other words, political engagement and the confidence to express it have been instilled in her from an early age. While still in primary school, she was the regional vice-chair of the Danish School Students’ Association. “Back then, I was involved in issues related to dyslexia and inclusion across identities,” she says.

Now, she is a member of DSU (the youth wing of the Danish Social Democrats), and she wishes there were enough DSU members in Norddjurs to form a local chapter. If they could merge with the members in Syddjurs, they would have enough, but DSU’s rules prevent that.

So how does one turn engagement into action? “Sometimes I attend political meetings with my parents, and I’ve also written opinion pieces for various media about, among other things, dyslexia and inclusion in middle schools.”

“I also plan to help one of the Social Democratic candidates in the upcoming local elections – handing out flyers and possibly answering questions,” Freja says.

“Many young people have opinions and things they want to say, but they don’t really know how to get their voices heard,” she says. “I’d like to see a youth party night at school ahead of the local elections. Maybe it could develop into a cross-political forum at school where we could meet and discuss topics.”

As mentioned, Freja didn’t inherit her political engagement from strangers – her parents met as DSU members. “My dad also helped write the statutes for Operation Dagsværk (Operation One Day’s Work, ed) back in 1985,” she says, glancing over at Kanna.

Driven by a Sense of Justice

Kanna T. B. Bennesen, a third year STX student, is leading the Operation Dagsværk fundraising campaign at Grenaa Gymnasium. The fundraising primarily involves students finding a day’s work and donating their earnings to that year’s cause. The school supports the initiative by clearing the schedule for one day, so there’s nothing preventing students from participating.

This year, the money goes to, among others, the Danish House in Palestine, which aims to be a safe space for children and young people to find community and support each other in a society marked by decades of instability and war.

Kanna’s engagement is driven by a strong sense of justice and an awareness that many of us are privileged. “It’s unfair that some grow up with nothing and others with everything,” she says. “We have the means to help, so why not just help?”

Kanna is very aware that this year’s OD campaign can easily become politicized, as the Israel-Palestine conflict is highly divisive. “But it’s not about politics. It’s about helping other young people,” she says. “Last year, the OD campaign supported a project for mentally vulnerable youth in Zimbabwe, and the year before that, the money went to young ambulance workers in Lebanon.”

“I participated in OD in my first year, and then I became chair here at the school last year. I think it’s a great project because everything is organized by the OD secretariat in Copenhagen. It’s plug-and-play.”
In addition to organizing the collection of wages from the workday, the OD group also runs an OD café at Grenaa Gymnasium. For several years, it has been supported by local businesses that donate prizes for a raffle.

Read about Nóra’s and Léna’s participation in the Budapest Pride