National Young Leaders Day

Earlier this week, four students from our class attended the National Young Leaders Day in Palmerston North.  Here is a summary of the main speakers they heard from:

Angela Swaan-Cronin (Jasmine)

Angela was the first Maori women to become an Airforce pilot in New Zealand.  She has travelled to many interesting places around the world, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Canada.  She talked about the people who had inspired her to reach for her dreams.  She was rejected from the Airforce twice before being accepted and so her message about not giving up was really powerful.  Her favourite phrase is, ‘The sky is the limit’. 

 

 

 

 

Charlie Laumatia (Hannah)

Charlie Laumatia is a super funny man!  He talked about your genes, your environment and that you can choose who you are.  Here are some of the important things that he said:

• Who you hang out with can change who you are.
• You can choose to be friendly, and have an impact on somebody else’s life at the same time.
• We all look and sometimes act like our parents, but you should always be your own person.
• Act like your role model even if you think it is impossible.

 

 

Cam Calkoen (Jago)

Cam was awesome! He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth, which means he can’t talk or walk properly.  Cam did not let this stop him though and he represented New Zealand in the 100m at the Paralympics.  I think that everyone understood his jokes, even though he was a little hard to understand.  Cam was really motivating and answered all of the questions asked of him really well. Cam has learnt to live with his disability and when Blair asked him if he would like to change anything about his life, guess what… he said NO

 

 

 

Jamie Fitzgerald (Blair)

Jamie is an adventurer who talked to us about some of the incredible trips he has done.  We all knew him, because he is one of the guys in the ‘First Crossings’ TV show.  I really enjoyed hearing about Jamie’s Antarctic expedition, where he walked from the ocean to the South Pole!  He told us about his training and about the extreme difficulties they faced.  Jamie and his friend Kevin were the first New Zealanders to complete this epic journey.  This was a great example of perseverance and how you should never give up, even when things are really hard.