On the 19th of April, Tasipale Valavala, Judah Watkinson and Matthew Gowans travelled to Auckland taking to take part in the 2016 Aotearoa Youth declaration, organised and operated by the New Zealand United Nations Youth.

Youth Declaration is an event where high school students from across the country gather together to talk about issues affecting New Zealand and how our generation views them. Each student was put into a group of fourteen, focusing on a particular area of society. In these focus groups, they talked to industry professionals and conducted research in order to create ‘statements’ which would be put forward for consideration. Every other group then had the chance to amend these statements, debates over such amendments were made in plenary sessions. All changes to statements were voted upon, with the deciding vote determining what was put into the Youth Declaration document. The declaration will be presented to Parliament, MP’s and local governments as an outlook on New Zealand from a youth perspective. Aotearoa Youth Declaration was an enlightening experience, with the opportunity to work alongside other passionate students with differing opinions and visions for the future. It was an awesome experience which is recommended for other students of SBHS to apply for in the future.