"I would recommend this trip to any young leaders with interest in the environment."

From April 12th - April 18th, I took part in the BLAKE Inspire forum for youth environmental leaders from years 11-13. Out of over 350 applications, 56 students were chosen and I was fortunate enough to be one of them. The week was run by BLAKE (formerly the Sir Peter Blake Trust) and the Ministry for the Environment with an abundance of activities regarding climate change issues such as land degradation, urban ecological restoration and biodiversity conservation in the intent that the young leaders would construct action plans with large social (and of course beneficial environmental) impact. 

Activities included working with NIWA scientists, the University of Waikato and Hamilton Zoo employees on targeting biodiversity conservation. Raglan Kayak Tours and Waitomo Caves black water rafting and cave tour was to target the idea of kaitiakitanga (sustainability of natural resources) in an ecotourism environment. And visiting a Tatua dairy farm to learn about land degradation because of farm runoff. We had the opportunity to spend a day with the Navy doing high intensity activities in order to develop cooperation and leadership skills within our groups and were accepted into the Turangawaewae Marae in the Waikato. The trip featured even more exciting activities such as a visit to the Genesis power station, Hamilton City Council, working with GoEco & Kaivolution and a simulation debate that exposed some future politicians within the group and I felt very at home in my role of journalist Katie Bradford, I developed the nickname ‘The Interrogator’ for always asking pushing questions that kept people on their toes! The constant need for teamwork and communication formed some unbreakable bonds, I know I will stay in contact with these people for a long time because we are all so like-minded with environmental initiative and similar plans for world change.

Throughout the week it was intended that we gained inspiration for our BLAKE action plans that we are to implement into our communities throughout the next few years. I have always been very involved with plastic waste & litter reduction as well as sustainable disposal so my action plan was based around that. Every night we sat down in our chaperone groups consisting of four to five students and an adult leader who had involvement with the environment, in this time my Chaperon Ella helped construct an appropriate and achievable goal with large social and environmental impact in my community. After managing to convince CGHS to make the switch from plastic bin liners to compostable cornstarch bin liners I decided my goal to be, to switch the use of plastic bin liners to cornstarch bin liners in all 35 Christchurch Secondary Schools by 2020. I realised the enormity of this goal and thankfully got my friend, Lila Madden, year thirteen at Cashmere High School to share my goal with me as a collaborative action plan. For this plan we received acknowledgement as one of the top fifteen best action plans from BLAKE Inspire, we are currently in the process of beginning to carry this out.

Before going into BLAKE Inspire, I was hoping to secure my plans for my future career and studies. I wanted to go into environmental law, behavioural ecology and biochemistry and have been thinking of these areas since a seven-year-old believe it or not! After talking with scientists, lawyers and leaders of various organisations and the Ministry of the Environment I can rest assured knowing that seven-year-old Aria made a great decision because I know for a fact that this is the area that I want to dig deeper into. I would recommend this trip to any young leaders with interest in the environment, applications are open in Jan/Feb 2020 and if I could reapply I would do it one thousand times over!