Year 13 Ruth Buckland reports back on her time at BLAKE Inspire 2023.

In the second week of the holidays, I headed up to Auckland to attend the BLAKE Inspire course after being one of the lucky successful applicants out of a pool of over 400 youth.

Over the five days, I learnt so much about the environment and was exposed to so many new areas of science that I would never have gotten to do if I had not attended.

Some highlights of the week included learning more in the marine biology area which was done practically as we collected plankton to look at under a microscope. We also had the opportunity to look at life in rock pools for marine meter squared (mm2).

I also enjoyed visiting Rotatoa Island which is a pest-free island located in the Hauraki Golf. Here, we learnt a lot about conservation and what this looks like in different spaces in order for us to achieve predator free 2050. We were lucky enough to see Takahē on the island and a whole pod of Dolphins during our boat ride back to Tāmiki Makaurau Auckland.

Due to the action-packed week, there are so many others that I have missed such as learning about carbon counting in our communities, kayaking down a river, being voted PM for our policy simulation, and the bus ride karaoke sessions! All these things have allowed me to make so many memories and connect with other like-minded rangatahi around Aotearoa.

The exposure to multiple areas of science as well as different ways we can engage with the environment has inspired me greatly. While I am not planning on working out in the field like what we did a lot of over the week, I definitely want to continue my learning in science after school in some way. Nevertheless, courses like this allow me to build a solid foundation for my learning and give me things I can respect and apply to everyday life such as the Mātauranga Māori lens on the environment. I look forward to finalising and delivering my action plan which is an initiative I developed on this course to benefit the school and community around me.

I absolutely recommend this course to anyone with a passion for the environment as this will allow you to learn more not only about the environment but also about how you can be a leader in your community and make positive change!

Ruth