About six months ago, I had the opportunity to attend a regeneration leadership camp on Quarantine Island.
The camp was a great experience to learn about leadership and the environment.
And apart from getting to know all the other pupils from around Dunedin and seeing their passion for making their school a better place, one of the standout memories for me was getting up at 7 o'clock on a Sunday morning to watch the sun rise over the harbour.
The camp was part of the Enviro-Schools programme in which pupils help to take actions within their school which promote sustainability.
Enviro-Schools isn't just about planting trees and recycling.
It's also about teaching pupils how to be better leaders, to be more open-minded, and to explore alternative ways of living.
There is no doubt that being an Enviro-School is an important step towards having a cleaner and greener school.
When it came to planning an action to take back to school, we had hundreds of ideas, but we decided to start with a vegetable garden at school to teach younger pupils about where their food comes from.
As well as the garden, the year 9 pupils spent the last term of 2010 learning about the environment and incorporating it with all areas of the curriculum.
One of the classes also performed a waste audit.
This is where you get all the rubbish from a school day and see how much could be recycled or composted instead of sending it off to the landfill.
The pupils were shown a different way to look at the problems in our environment, and how to make our lives more sustainable.
Small changes such as having shorter showers or using less plastic bags really help.
Enviro-Schools is a great initiative which has taught me a different way to look at the world and that we all need to work together to look after it.
But one of the main things I have learnt through Enviro-Schools is to value your first followers because they are the people who make you a leader.
By Catherine Ross
Year 13
Kaikorai Valley College
