Year 13 student Jo O'Halloran took the opportunity to further her leadership skills in Fiji during the last school holidays.

Recently, on the 9th of July, I went on a trip to Suva in Fiji for a week through the Future Leaders Academy. I was accepted to go, along with 60 other students from around NZ, to Australia and Fiji to partake in this trip. 

We stayed in the Ratu Mara Hostel off the Marist Brothers High School where we were in dorms and had kitchen staff cook us hostel-style food. During this trip, we were split into four groups and completed all our activities within this group. Every time we had an activity to do, a different person in our group would lead it each time. They would have to organise transport, and food and make sure everyone was participating by keeping the group morale up. For instance, I had to lead the half-day hike up Mt Korobaba. 

We did many other cool activities on this trip such as hikes to different waterfalls, trips to different businesses within the community and planting trees at the local school. On the last day on the island, we spent a day at a beach resort where we could kayak, swim and play beach volleyball before heading back to New Zealand. 

I would highly recommend taking up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet new people and make lifelong friends as well as to develop new leadership skills.