National Young Leaders Day - Guest Speaker Summary

Chris Jupp – Summarised By Madison

Chris Jupp is one of the New Zealand managers of the 40 Hour Famine.  Growing up, he always felt small, like he wasn’t important. When he got to high school he wanted to be noticed and decided to do the 40 Hour Famine. After this, he became a school leader and he lead the whole school during the 40 Hour Famine, raising $44,000. He started to speak in assemblies a gradually felt bigger and more important. His message was that, because you feel small and less important than everyone else, doesn’t mean you can’t make a difference. Chris Jupp also said that your amazing journey may not be about changing your future, but changing other people’s lives.

Jamie McDell – Summarised by Jorja

Personally, singer/songwriter Jamie McDell was the most inspirational person at Young Leaders. Jamie talked about how she got into music. At first Jamie didn’t know what she wanted to be when she grew up. At the age of 16 her mother told her that she had a good voice and Jamie took her advice and sent in a CD of her singing to a record company. A few weeks later she received a letter saying they wanted to hear her perform. After Jamie was signed she did lots of amazing things like, become the ambassador of Surf Lifesaving New Zealand.  She also became passionate about ocean conservation.  Jamie said that she that she doesn’t wear makeup in her music videos to spread the message that girls don’t need to wear makeup to be pretty. She also talked about not being too young to achieve your dreams.

William Pike – Summarised by Sophie

William Pike is a mountaineer and outdoor enthusiast who survived an eruption at Mt Ruapehu in 2007. His leg from the knee down had to be amputated and he had many serious cuts and bruises.  It took many months of long, hard work to be able to walk again and it was 18 months before William managed to climb Mt Ruapehu again. Throughout his recovery, William was grateful to still be alive and to be able to do what he loved.  William believes the values of courage, teamwork and resilience are very important values we all need to have. One of William’s favourite quotes is ‘THINK: ALL PASSION, NO LIMITS’.  He talked about never giving up, especially if it’s something you love!

Marcus Winter – Summarised by Ffion

Marcus Winter is the famous ‘Sandman’.  He wowed us with his amazing artistic skills. He talked about his art and using his art work to encourage himself and others to become a better artist. First he talked about ‘setting a mountain’ which meant to challenge and push yourself to do your best. Then he talked about ‘finding your flow’ which meant to find things you’re good at and working hard at it. Finally there was ‘surround yourself with support’ which meant to surround yourself with people that encourage you to do your best. I learnt that you can take something that you love and turn it into a life passion. Also I learnt that you need to make a clear goals about what you want in life.

Paul Blackwell – Summarised by Miss Simpson

Paul is one of the owners of the New Zealand Breakers Basketball Team, as well as the biggest Pak ‘n’ Save supermarket in the country.  He shared his life journey with us and spoke about how the Breakers have been transformed into a championship-winning team.  It was interesting to hear his thoughts about the importance of establishing a good team culture.