The whole point of NYLD is to help inspire kids to become leaders themselves. NYLD is all around Aotearoa, with speakers coming to tell the kids their life story.

The most inspiring speaker for Amalia was Brad Smeele, a former wakeboarder who had an accident while wakeboarding and is now a Quadriplegic. He was very inspiring as he told us how he pushed through to get to where he is now.

The event took place at Hamilton in Claudelands Arena on Tuesday 16th of May. Schools came from Hamilton and other areas like Tauranga. Between

9:30-2:30, kids listened intently as the speakers explained their story and told us how to achieve our goals and dreams. In between we played games so we wouldn't fully lose interest. To give you an idea, we hit a huge rainbow ball across the room!

At the end of each talk, students were given the chance to ask the speaker questions. Either relating to their talk, or not. There was even an 11 year old who spoke about his career as a rapper, and how his dad inspired him to make a career out of it. Now he has released 4 albums, each cover he had drawn himself.

Kiratpreet’s personal favourite speaker was Julia Grace, a mental wellness communicator. She definitely helped me and very likely others to reach out when needed, but overall all the speakers have something meaningful to say whether it be to follow your dreams or to push though they all were amazing!

We would highly recommend going to NYLD next year if you have the chance. It changed our point of view for a lot of things.