A year 11 student at Copperfield College’s Delahey campus is providing a voice for students across the state.
Glory Samuels is a member of the Education State Student Advisory Group (ESSAG), which was established last year to give students a greater voice to influence education programs and policy.
Ms Samuels was nominated through the Centre for Multicultural Youth, to be one of just 25 primary and secondary students to be part of the group.
While she said the responsibility was considerable, she was happy to be in a position to make a difference.
“It was really great to see that the government wanted to hear what students have to say,” she said.
“When the opportunity came up I thought it would be a really interesting process to see how these things work.”
Ms Samuels will participate in six, full-day workshops across the year, which involve leadership and communication skills, as well as time for the students to prepare their presentations to the state education department.
Ms Samuels said she was constantly keeping an eye out for improvements to the system.
“When I go along to these workshops I take a lot of what I’ve observed around the school and carry that with me,” she said.
“But I’m also open to hearing what other students at the school have to say. That’s something I’d like to do a bit more.”
Ms Samuels said one of the more eye-opening aspects of the workshops has been working with students from other schools.
“It’s been really interesting because on this group there are students from metropolitan schools, regional/rural schools and schools from the suburbs.
“But a lot of the issues raised are similar across them all, like bullying for example.”
Ms Samuels said she’s had plenty of help.
“I’d really love to thank the Centre for Multicultural Youth, my school and of course my parents for making all this possible.”
