Hāwera High School students win place in second stage of international competition

From left: Year 10 student Liesa Hofstadler, 14, and Year 11 Emilia Scott, 15, have secured their place in the second stage of an international competition. Photo/ Supplied

Two Hāwera High School students have secured their place in the second stage of an international competition.

Year 10 student Liesa Hofstadler, 14, and Year 11 Emilia Scott, 15, are part of the school's social justice group and participated in the international Global Innovation in sustainability Summit (GISS).

GISS is a global competition to allow students to pitch their solutions on how to help the community with a focus on one of the UN sustainable development goals.

Liesa and Emilia submitted their project ideas to the GISS committee and a highly qualified team of educators and environmental sustainability experts evaluated the projects.

Liesa says the pair could choose from responsible consumption and production, climate action, life below water, and life on land for the challenge.

"We chose climate action. For the first round we had to make a video pitch exampling our idea, we looked at the idea of using food waste produced by our school and turning it into energy."

For the next three months, the students will be researching their idea and making an initial report on their findings.

Emilia says they joined GISS for more opportunities and to try something new. She says she and Liesa want to make it to the final round, where they will go to Qatar and visit the international summit.

"We will get to attend workshops, and participate in a conference where we can showcase our project."

Liesa says attending Qatar would be an awesome opportunity.

"We would get to attend these conferences with international students, and also get to see another part of the world."

Head of Social Sciences and teacher in charge of the social justice group, Grant Collie, says he is proud of Liesa and Emilia's efforts.

"I am very proud of the efforts of these strong young wahine and the rest of the group who will be working with them to help them achieve their goals and take Hāwera to the world stage."