On 19 February the Dunedin Enviroschools Leadership for Sustainability Hui was attended by over a dozen of Otago Girls’ environmental leaders from Years 11 to 13.

The event saw passionate student representatives from several schools all around Otago come together to share ideas and projects, plan and prepare for the future and to inspire youth leadership within schools, communities and the environment.

A brilliant opportunity this function presented was hearing from several speakers regarding the ideas that surround leadership and how vital it currently is for youth to be prominent in this field. Mayor Aaron Hawkins talked about how governmental and systematic change is fueled by the public and the fact that people, particularly young people, who buy into the fact that there is hope in the face of life-changing environmental circumstances such as the climate crisis are the key to pushing the change we need. Zak Rudin, one of the four coordinators who started the SS4C movement in Dunedin and recently came to speak at one of our own Ideas to Inspire talk, spoke about how sometimes leadership involves the decentralisation of power and doing what you can to give everyone a greater voice. The third speaker was Taylor Davies-Colley who, among many many other things, works at Orokonui Ecosanctuary, chairs the Strategic Leadership Group of Town Belt Kaitiaki and does work with Wild Dunedin. He put emphasis on the fact that it is passion over everything else that makes a brilliant leader and if you get involved in things, further opportunities will present themselves. Finally, everyone heard from OGHS’ very own 2019 Enviroschools prefects Lucy Davidson and Brynn McBurney. In their presentation where they covered Otago Girls’ journey through the Zayed Sustainability Prize, they talked about how leadership doesn't always have to start big and taking small opportunities to develop skills, collaboration and commitment are what build up to change.

The inspiration from these impactful speeches was catalytic and alongside the incredible insight both the speakers and the other student leaders had provided, proved to take root in the minds of the OGHS student as they planned ahead for 2020. This session of ideas that ventured further and further outside the box culminated in the plan that this year the Otago Girls Enviroschools Group will create a hub for creative and political activism so that all of those who wish to can push the change that they want to see. Such a result could not have been brought forward in any other environment or without the amazing Enviroschools organisation and the opportunities they provided and this event was one such opportunity that was truly dynamic.