20 Feb 2018 Congratulations to Joshua Richardson who has received a scholarship to attend the Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE)/UNESCO Youth Leaders Forum, held in Portugal from 15-19 March 2018. Joshua (18) will join others from the worldwide YRE network to engage with the theory and practice of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in order to build their capacity as ESD leaders. This training is designed for young people aged 18-35 who are active leaders in sustainable development in their communities and aims to empower them to inspire and mobilize others to take action towards building more sustainable, just and resilient communities. Recently KNZB were invited by YRE Global to nominate young people from the YRE network for this exciting opportunity and Joshua was subsequently awarded a full scholarship to attend the Forum. Joshua participated in YRE two years ago as a student at John Paul College in Rotorua and was awarded First Place in the film category of the YRE 2016 competition. Throughout his school years Joshua had a strong interest in technology which led him to film making. He credits his rural upbringing on a dairy farm south of Rotorua for his strong interest in the environment, and in particular keeping New Zealand clean and green. Combining these two passions led to Joshua’s success in YRE and many other projects since including the NZ Enviro Challenge and The Outlook for Someday Film Challenge. The YRE Programme empowers young people to take a stand on environmental issues they feel strongly about and to give them a platform to articulate these issues through the media of writing, photography or video. Teachers report seeing an increase in their students’ confidence throughout the programme as they feel their ideas on important environmental issues are being listened to. Additionally the long term benefits of joining the YRE Programme are far reaching. Once a student has participated in YRE they become part of the global YRE network, opening them up to a world of scholarship opportunities. You can find out more about this year’s competition and how to register your school on the YRE website here. Share this page
