Lessons for young leaders

AN 18-year-old “full-time change maker” from Bali joined 150 students yesterday for the Tasmanian Youth Climate Leaders Conference at Hobart College.

The gathering followed last week’s strike that attracted thousands of school students across the state.

Melati Wijsen started a campaign when she was 12 to have plastic bags banned in Bali and it recently succeeded.

She gave Tasmanian students three major lessons for taking action: team, thinking outside the box, and persistence.

“I came originally because [I was invited] to come share my story, just to show a real life example of someone on the frontline . . . what we’re capable of doing,” she said.

“But also to show and share the power that we have as young people, as an individual in the community, as a government, as a consumer, it’s up to us how we make our actions count,” she said.

Education for Sustainability Tasmania’s youth facilitator and organiser of the conference Toby Thorpe said workshops during the conference equipped students to make changes in their schools and communities.

“We actually facilitate a working space for schools in a diverse rang of issues, from biodiversity to renewable energy to systems of change,” Mr Thorpe said.

“So they can work with all these incredible mentors we’ve brought together from all across the state ... to implement their own project in their own schools and communities.”

Seventeen-year-old Hutchins student Angus McIntosh said he and a few others recently set up an environmental sustainability community at the school.

“We’ve got recycling bins in, so that’s one thing we should have had ages ago. We’re also going to try target the tuck shop and the waste that the school generates.”