Written by Julin Rajbhandari
When I joined the Global Water & Sanitation Center (GWSC) at AIT as a student assistant, I expected a straightforward part‑time job to support my studies. Instead, I found a space where my interests in climate change, water, and climate justice could come alive through real events, communication campaigns, and collaborations across campus. This experience has shaped how I now see International Youth Day: as a reminder that when young people are meaningfully involved in climate, water and sustainability work, institutions gain fresh ideas, honest questions and new ways of reaching their communities. Working at GWSC gave this experience even more depth, grounding our work into questions of equity and representation.
Working with GWSC placed me at the intersection of water, sustainability, and student life. I became part of the team that imagines how to talk about global water days, design campaigns, and share stories of research and practice with the wider community. Over time, I moved from simply supporting tasks to actively contributing ideas, proposing content formats, planning engagement strategies for student audiences, and testing which messages and visuals could make complex topics feel relevant on campus.
One of the most transformative aspects of this role was the chance to practice climate communication in a very practical way. I helped prepare content for key international water‑related days and initiatives, contributing to messages, visuals, and short videos that would resonate with students and partners. A highlight for me was contributing to the World Toilet Day flipbook, where I helped refine the concept, work on the layout, and polish the final version so that it could communicate serious themes around sanitation in a visually engaging, student‑friendly format. Alongside this, I designed posters for online conferences and adapted webinars for World Toilet Day, Global Handwashing Day and Menstrual Hygiene Day into YouTube‑friendly formats by editing recordings, extracting the most important segments, and reshaping them into videos that were more engaging and accessible for online viewers.
This work pushed me to constantly ask: How do we make issues like sanitation and climate impacts on water feel relevant and urgent without overwhelming people? How can a caption, a poster, or a short clip spark curiosity and conversation about water security and climate justice? Designing visuals, refining messages, and translating technical ideas into understandable content became a way for me to integrate my previous media and communications training with my current academic path in climate and environmental studies. The answers were never fixed, but the process of experimenting, revising, and responding to feedback became a powerful training ground for my skills as a climate communicator and visual storyteller.
Another important part of my experience was working with volunteers. For several activities linked to international water days and center events, I helped brief volunteers, coordinate small tasks, and ensure they had the information and materials they needed. This meant translating plans into clear instructions, listening to their ideas, and creating an environment where they felt part of the team rather than just extra hands. Through this, I learned what it means to work with other young people: giving them space to share their perspectives, encouraging them to take ownership of pieces of the work, and recognizing that youth‑led contributions can strengthen any campaign or event.
Through involvement in initiatives that engaged with gender equality, disability, and social inclusion, I could see how water and climate challenges are experienced differently across communities. One GEDSI‑related experience that stands out for me was the Global Handwashing Day 2025 campaign. We invited school students to become “Handwashing Heroes” under the multi‑year theme “Be a Handwashing Hero,” encouraging them to use creativity to promote hygiene and support Sustainable Development Goal 6 on clean water and sanitation. I helped manage the submissions we received and transformed them into social‑media‑friendly content, which meant curating entries, pairing them with clear messages, and presenting students’ work in ways that highlighted their voices and ideas. Seeing the number of creative submissions from students and the positive feedback from teachers reinforced for me how powerful youth‑led hygiene messages can be. This reminded me that resilience is not only about technologies or infrastructure; it is also about who is heard, who participates, and whose needs are centered when we design programs and policies.
Coming from a media and communications background and now studying climate and environmental issues, this role allowed me to bridge both worlds. I was able to contribute not only as a student of climate change, but also as someone who understands visual storytelling, audience engagement, and the importance of clear, accessible language. GWSC benefited from having a team member who could look at campaigns through a student lens, anticipating how messages might land with young audiences, suggesting formats that felt familiar (such as short videos, conference visuals and interactive flipbooks), and helping translate technical research into content that students could actually relate to. My youth perspective, combined with my media skills, became part of how the center experimented with new ways of communicating water and climate issues on campus and beyond.
Looking back, my months as a student assistant at GWSC have shaped how I see my role as an emerging researcher and practitioner. I gained practical skills in communication and teamwork, but I also developed a deeper sense of responsibility for how climate and water narratives are framed and shared. For me, International Youth Day is not only a celebration; it is a call for institutions to involve young people in everyday research, communication and decision‑making, whether that is designing campaigns, planning events, or questioning how inclusive their work truly is. As I continue my thesis and future work in climate and environmental fields, I carry with me the habits I learned at GWSC: listening to diverse perspectives, planning with both content and people in mind, and always trying to connect technical knowledge with human stories. I hope more centers and programs will open similar pathways for youth participation, so that young communicators and researchers can contribute meaningfully to the shared work of climate and water justice.
Contact us to learn more about Internship opportunities or learn about the Global Water & Sanitation Center (GWSC): gwsc.ait.ac.th | gwsc@ait.ac.th