National Young Leaders Day Reflection by Zaraa and Uwais

We were invited to National Young Leaders Day. Ten lovely students from PCS attended this day. We think, the youth of today are valuable and represent the future. Every young person has a purpose to fulfill. All young people have the capacity to shine regardless of their race, gender, religion, rank or status. 

This program was held on the 21st of May 2015 at the Vodafone Events Centre which was before known as Telstra Clear. The kind and generous Mr White took us in the school van and dropped us at the Vodafone Events Centre. The hosts were Dave and May who were pretty fun and they were also the hosts of The Breakfast Show.

The first speaker was the extraordinaire, William Pike who is an amazing mountain climber who has lost his leg during a mountain accident at Mt Ruapehu. This speaker had talked about never giving up and that passion creates success. William Pike said that if you have courage, teamwork and resilience everything is possible.

The next speaker was Rukumoana Schaafhausen who practiced as a lawyer for a number of years specialising in the area of governance and she is currently 42 years old . Rukumoana struggled with early life as she finished school at the age of 15 ,  her first job was working as a receptionist for doctor.

The third speakers were a father and daughter named Steve and Riley Hathaway. The father and daughter preciously adore sea creatures. Riley is passionate about creating stories to inspire kids to love the beautiful oceans. They have published a book , Love our Ocean as well as a DVD which will be given to all schools in New Zealand and Cook Islands hopefully by the end of term three.

The fourth speaker was Darryl Sabin. Sadly at the age of 15, Darryl started suffering successive concussion while playing rugby and on ANZAC day 2009, he entered the fight of his life. After a six week stay in Auckland Hospital with a brain bleed, everyone was telling him he should never play again.  Darryl Sabin presented a powerful and inspiring speech about always being determined no matter what life throws at you .

The next speaker was Libby Christophers who is a year 11student from Macleans College , and executive leader of her school environment group. She has a strong passion for the environment and protecting it , this led her to start a campaign to help save Maui's Dolphin. Libby has set high goals for her future as she wants to become a zoologist or an ecologist.

The sixth speaker is a talented Year 13 prefect at Papakura High School. Phoenix Puleanga's passion for hip-hop dance has seen him involved in a number of dance crews in Auckland. He is currently part of Prestige Dance Crew, who are about to embark on a journey to the World Hip Hop Dance Championship in San Diego , USA to represent NZ.

Next May and Dave interviewed Alex and Corban Walls who are contestants that stared on the Block NZ 2014. They both put their careers on hold to compete on this top-rated reality show , accepting the risk the would leave with nothing. Their positive attitudes and do it once, do it right methodology saw them named winners of the 2014 series.

While Alex and Corban Walls were being interviewed May and Dave invited Alison Pugh who is a co-host of the Breakfast show on TV ONE. Alison joined TVNZ in early 2009, starting on the assignments desk, before moving to the Breakfast team in September of that year. She became a ONE News reporter in 2011 and was based in Christchurch until becoming Breakfast co-host in February 2014.

The last to present was a singer/songwriter named Jamie Mcdell. She spent several years of her youth living on a sailboat travelling around the Mediterranean with her family. Bursting onto the music scene in 2012, her straightforward, sunny sound was an instant hit. Jamie has been writing songs since the age of seven and was signed to a development deal while still at high school. Jamie sang two of her most famous songs which are Crash And Life in Sunshine.

We all had a fun time at National Young Leaders Day and this event has surely motivated us to become Great and Successful leaders.