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Three students from Whangaparaoa College who attended Dr Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots seminar at Kristin School last month came away inspired.
Roots & Shoots is a programme of the Jane Goodall Institute that aims to bring young people together to work on environmental, conservation and humanitarian issues.
Year 11 students Kyla Murrie, Tiana Thorpe and Kyle Bennie were invited to the seminar to present one of their self-initiated social action projects. They presented Kyla’s project, which involves selling socks with an image of the critically endangered hawksbill sea turtle on them, and donating the proceeds to the World Wildlife Fund. More than 40 pairs have been sold.
Unexpectedly, the students found themselves presenting the information to around 1000 people at the gathering. They then joined a small group who were able to speak with Dr Goodall and hear more of her stories.
The students were all impressed by the quietly spoken conservationist.
Kyle and Kyla say they knew Dr Goodall by name only and were largely unfamiliar with her work going into the seminar.
Kyle found himself captivated and hanging on every word to the extent that he says he almost forgot to applaud at the end. He was inspired not only by the message, but by Dr Goodall’s quiet approach to public speaking.
“She instills confidence and demonstrated how to get a message across. It also makes you want to make a difference,” Kyle says.
Tiana, who is passionate about conservation and had been to hear Dr Goodall speak at a public event in Auckland, says the Kristin event reignited her love of conservation.
The Whangaparaoa College group also got to speak to students from nine other schools who were at the event.
