Napat Yisunsri (Journey)
Youth Leadership Team, Center for Systems Awareness
Thailand | ASIA
Napat Yisunsri, affectionately known as ‘Journey’, is passionate for creating sustainable and resilient communities while nurturing healthy minds. Journey has been interested in and advocating for addressing real-world challenges starting from global warming, climate change, education systems and making changes since he was 14 years old. As a student at Darunsikkhalai School for Innovative Learning (DSIL) in Bangkok, Thailand, Journey is immersed in a dynamic educational environment applying the learner centric learning methodology called ‘Constructionism’ that encourages project-based learning and aims to cultivate students as global citizens.
Through DSIL enabling learning environment, Journey has fuelled his commitment to making a positive impact on the environment through various projects. One of Journey’s impactful projects involved designing and making a giant urban air filter to mitigate city pollution in 2020-2021. As part of DSIL students team, this project was successfully completed and the giant air filer placed in front of a big shopping mall with recognition from the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority’s Phasicharoen District Office on the students’ efforts to come up with an innovative solution that helps provide cleaner and healthier living spaces for people in that community.
In addition to the work on air pollution, Journey embarked on another project aimed at reducing the workload of farmers while promoting sustainability. He designed and developed a prototype for autonomous electric tractor, which offers an eco-friendly alternative to traditional rice farming. By replacing conventional fuel-powered tractors with electric counterpart, Journey’s project aims to not only reduce carbon emissions but also eases the burden on farmers, promoting efficient and sustainable agricultural practices. The last project he has developed with his 2 friends over the last three terms in Grades 11-12 is the radio controlled rescue robot with a robotic arm using PID control.
Beyond his personal learning responsibilities at school, Journey has extended his dedication to supporting teachers at DSIL as a mentor for peers and younger students by guiding them on coding and utilizing fabrication tools in his capacity as ‘young facilitator’, empowering them with essential skills for their project work.
A pivotal moment in Journey’s path was achieving certification as an En-ROADS Climate Ambassador in 2021. This notable accomplishment highlights his commitment to promoting climate action. As an En-ROADS ambassador, Journey plays a vital role in facilitating sessions that utilize the climate simulator, enabling participants to explore potential outcomes and solutions related to global warming.
Journey was keen to continue to learn about compassionate systems with a passion to look for sustainable solutions through making possible changes in education particularly from the roles of youth and student. He pursued his strong interest by completing the compassionate systems master practitioners’ program in 2023-2024 with partial scholarship from the Center for Systems Awareness in exchange of taking part in supporting the Youth Council of the Center for Systems Awareness and Youth Leadership Team in his capacity as a facilitator in which he has been involved since 2020. Journey now holds a part-time contract with the Center for Systems Awareness from January 2024.
In 2022-2023, Journey was an exchange student at a Gymnasium school and lived with a host family in Germany. He was awarded a scholarship as a creator to share experience of an exchange student through his YouTube channel. What he has learned from his living in Germany for almost one year would hopefully add values to broader perspectives to his work and study.
On his personal side, Journey loves exploring new ideas on technology and innovation especially on public transports. He has a YouTube channel ‘Creates Studio’ to share knowledge on techs and relevant stuff. Journey adores running. He is a young traveller who also loves trains and urban planning. Journey enjoys scuba diving, skiing, and learning new cultures with his family, and he is a big fan of football and F1. He plays piano and he was ranked the third highest score from the national-level examination of Piano Grade 6 in Thailand in 2022, held by Trinity College London.