Year 13 Marlborough Girls' College student Alyssa Ryan ranked herself an outside chance to attend an international climate change conference in South Africa so when she was picked, she began shaking with excitement.
Alyssa, 18, is the youngest of 12 people from the United Nations New Zealand Youth Delegation chosen to attend the UN Earth Summit conference in Durban, South Africa, in November.
She applied to attend the conference on a whim just to see whether she would be picked and two weeks after getting the call is still buzzing from the news.
The conference brought together two of her interests, the environment and international policy, she said.
Her involvement in environmental issues began in year 10 at Marlborough Girls' College where she attended several environment conferences and learnt about the effects of climate change.
From there she said her career path was set with plans to pursue environment and development studies at university.
During the conference the group will work with non-government organisations and will report back to the rest of the New Zealand delegation through their website.
It would also be a chance to network with other young people from around the world, she said.
Aside from the conference, the trip to South Africa would be a highlight for the novice traveller.
"I've never been to Africa before, I've just started travelling this year and can see how it becomes addictive," she said.
Earlier this year Alyssa returned from the Girls' College Classical Studies trip to Italy and Greece and spent two weeks in Germany visiting a friend.
The conference falls right in the high school end-of-year exam season, but Alyssa hopes to have all her internal exams done before leaving.
The group need to raise about $6000 each for the three-and-a-half week trip, but are looking for sponsorship.
- The Marlborough Express
SIMON WONG
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