Lisa Tamati

On Thursday this week staff and students were privileged to have endurance athlete Lisa Tamati speak to them. This talk was the first in the Global Leadership Programme and was open to all students to attend. Lisa was an amazing role model who has canoed down the Yukon cycled through 25 countries, illegally crossed the Libyan desert, done over 140 ultra-marathons running the equivalent of three times around the equator and run thousands of kilometres through the Sahara Desert.

Her talk was inspiring. She spoke of the challenges and struggles she has had in a number of events and explained how success was determined by the top two inches of your body - your brain -and how it can determine where your body takes you. She stressed the importance of believing you can do anything and the value in surrounding yourself with positive people who will encourage you.

She gave an inspirational speech with a video and we were all enthralled. Thanks to her sponsors (and the suppliers of our photocopiers) Fuji Xerox for bringing Lisa to Otago Girls'.