Nature gives me a sense of awe at the beauty of our world. I love the gorgeous shifting colours of a sunset, the endless ocean, the sunlight shining through the leaves of a tree. We are nature, and nature is part of us, locked inextricably together. Climate change is important to me because it’s universal—we are all affected by rising tides. For me, it’s easy to feel powerless against the huge force of climate change, but speaking out, marching, and spreading awareness about this threat makes such a big difference. Many people don’t know about or just don’t recognise the dangers of global warming to our planet—so for me, it’s been really important to speak up about the environment and engage others in sustainability. As a competitive debater, I try to raise awareness about the planet through my public speaking, both nationally and internationally as a member of Team England when I debate about environmental issues. I do a lot of writing about the planet, particularly writing poetry, to both process my feelings about climate change and emphasise the importance of saving our planet. And I also advocate for involving others in speaking out to protect our planet, through teaching public speaking skills to young public school students. In my own life, I’ve tried to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Instead of disposing of plastic waste, I use and reuse water bottles, bags, and anything I can reuse to prevent waste, try to thrift clothing and not participate in the fast fashion industry, and in my diet, I’ve reduced my meat consumption to help our planet. The beauty of the natural world inspires me to do my part in saving our planet, and I hope anyone who reads my writing or listens to me feels inspired to do the same.

Nature gives me a sense of awe at the beauty of our world. I love the gorgeous shifting colours of a sunset, the endless ocean, the sunlight shining through the leaves of a tree. We are nature, and nature is part of us, locked inextricably together. Climate change is important to me because it’s universal—we are all affected by rising tides. For me, it’s easy to feel powerless against the huge force of climate change, but speaking out, marching, and spreading awareness about this threat makes such a big difference. Many people don’t know about or just don’t recognise the dangers of global warming to our planet—so for me, it’s been really important to speak up about the environment and engage others in sustainability. As a competitive debater, I try to raise awareness about the planet through my public speaking, both nationally and internationally as a member of Team England when I debate about environmental issues. I do a lot of writing about the planet, particularly writing poetry, to both process my feelings about climate change and emphasise the importance of saving our planet. And I also advocate for involving others in speaking out to protect our planet, through teaching public speaking skills to young public school students. In my own life, I’ve tried to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Instead of disposing of plastic waste, I use and reuse water bottles, bags, and anything I can reuse to prevent waste, try to thrift clothing and not participate in the fast fashion industry, and in my diet, I’ve reduced my meat consumption to help our planet. The beauty of the natural world inspires me to do my part in saving our planet, and I hope anyone who reads my writing or listens to me feels inspired to do the same.

For me, making a difference through mentorship is about using what I've learned in my life to try and create a better one for others. Debating has been a deeply impactful activity in my life for the last four years, helping me develop confidence, express my own views, and learn how to communicate with others. But what made it so powerful was the older debaters who mentored me, and helped me feel like my opinions mattered. I hope to pass that on through mentoring other young women. For the last three years, I have run the Junior Debating club at my school, teaching public speaking skills, judging debates, and acting as a mentor for younger debaters. Extremely privileged to attend a private school with resources to support debate, last year I decided to work to make debating accessible to my broader community. I founded a debate program, Start Speaking, to support students at public schools without the same resources to learn public speaking. I created a debate curriculum, reached out to local schools, and persuaded a teacher to supervise our sessions on Zoom for safeguarding purposes. For the last two years, I have run weekly sessions teaching debate skills and judging debates for public school students in 6th-8th grade. This year, I also organised the St Paul’s Women’s Open debate tournament as a welcoming competition judged and organised entirely by women, for young female and nonbinary novice debaters. I hope I can be a friendly face to reach out to, and a mentor who they can rely on for advice and support in the often intimidating, male-dominated sphere of public speaking. It’s been rewarding to see my mentees become more self-assured over the course of our program, which I hope will cross over into their lives beyond debate.

I try to use my own experiences to advocate for social justice. For me, making a difference is about using what I've learned in my life to try and create a better one for others. Debating has been a deeply impactful activity in my life for the last four years, helping me develop confidence, express my own views, and learn how to communicate with others. For the last three years, I have run the Junior Debating club at my school, teaching public speaking skills, judging debates, and acting as a mentor for younger debaters. Extremely privileged to attend a private school with resources to support debate, last year I decided to work to make debating accessible to my broader community. I founded a debate program, Start Speaking, to support students at public schools without the same resources to learn public speaking. I created a debate curriculum, reached out to local schools, and persuaded a teacher to supervise our sessions on Zoom for safeguarding purposes. For the last two years, I have run weekly sessions teaching debate skills and judging debates for public school students in 6th-8th grade. It’s been rewarding to see my mentees become more self-assured over the course of our program, which I hope will cross over into their lives beyond debate. This year, I also organised the St Paul’s Women’s Open debate tournament as a welcoming competition judged and organised entirely by women, for young female and nonbinary novice debaters. Just as I have found my voice through debating, I’m deeply committed to reaching out to the many other young people who can benefit from being heard.

Poetry is my passion. Writing it, reading it, listening to spoken word—every kind! Poetry for me is a way to capture a moment in time in words. I love poems that give me perfect little fragments of the everyday: short, beautiful lines of verse like Pound’s ‘In A Station of the Metro’. I’ve spent hours searching for the perfect rhyme—words that click together beautifully without losing their meaning. Poems turn words into music. My iPhone Notes app is cluttered with about a thousand poetic fragments of my ideas and perceptions of life over the past 8 or so years. Unintentionally, my poetry creates a timeline for my life and helps me remember things I’ve done and experienced. I look back at these fragments and relive moments that I no longer remember other than from the words I have written about them. Sometimes I return to old poems after years away from them and rework them, finishing a project I forgot I had even begun. Reflecting on my family and community makes me appreciate them more. Sometimes parts of life are just beautiful and all you can do is try to capture them in words, although you will always fail to capture that feeling exactly. But the practice of trying to capture moments in words is endlessly fascinating. I sometimes enter my poetry into competitions and for publication, but the real purpose of writing poetry has never been for others. It’s just been to spend a moment with myself.