During the Term 2 school holidays I had the opportunity to spend one week at St Andrew’s College in Christchurch, attending the 2019 China New Zealand Youth Leadership Summit, along with other New Zealand and Chinese delegates from across the country.

The purpose of the summit was really about exploring how we will implement change when, as a leading country we are faced with the need to shift mindsets in politics, community and international relations.  Each session was lead by well known public figures, such as the New Zealand Ambassador, the Student President of the University of Canterbury and speakers from Education New Zealand.

Every single day enabled me to get an in-depth insight into the different aspects of our two countries.  For me, one of the highlights of the summit was carrying out Project-Based Learning(PBL) in a team, which allowed me to work with five different people, who had completed background research about leading change in the future of China and New Zealand.  I really enjoyed being able to discuss my perspective with them and working as a group to complete a 10-12 minute presentation on our topic over the three days.  

Overall, I came away from the Summit with fantastic memories and with high regard for all the leaders.  I will consider going to the next years Summit, which is being held in China.