Posts List

I was invited back for a second Inspiring Australians Student Summit, this time joining history-making astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg and Dr Karl as one of three keynote speakers. Over 600 students from nine visiting schools came together for a morning built around curiosity, resilience, and dreaming boldly. I brought the youth voice and community leadership lens to a lineup of genuinely extraordinary Australians, speaking to what it means to build something from the ground up as a young...

I was invited to deliver a keynote at the Official Dinner of the 31st National Schools Constitutional Convention, held at the National Press Club in Canberra. I spoke to 120 students from across every school sector in Australia about what youth voice in democracy actually looks like when you take it seriously. I was invited specifically as the 2025 SA Young Australian of the Year and for my work building SAYF. What made it even more meaningful was that I had been an NSCC delegate myself in...

I served as MC across ReachOut Australia's Youth Advocates and Ambassadors Workshop at ReachOut's Sydney office. The workshop brought together ReachOut's cohort of young advocates and ambassadors to connect, reflect, and explore what is next for their work. Holding a room requires something different from a keynote. It is about reading energy, creating safety, moving things forward without forcing them, and making sure everyone in the room feels like they belong there.

This was the second episode in a two-part series with host Nadia Rossi, Dr Ben Lohmeyer, and me. We continued sharing findings from our co-designed study on loneliness in young people and its relationship to bullying, discussing what the research means for young people's wellbeing and what families, schools, and practitioners can actually do about it. The conversation covered how schools can create safe spaces, what young people said would help them when experiencing loneliness, and the...

I was invited to serve as an independent grant assessor for the James and Diana Ramsay Foundation's 2026 grant round for young people. The Foundation's mission in the youth sector is to support programs that promote wellbeing, resilience, and the opportunity for young people to thrive. My role was to assess applications and provide a shortlist of recommendations to the board for final funding approval.

I developed and facilitated a workshop for the young people of Wattle Range to identify the local changes they wanted to see in their community. At the end of the process, I supported them to present their ideas directly to the Mayor and local councillors to push for real action.

I was invited by the OECD to participate in a focus group interview with an international delegation of senior public officials and experts from the OECD Open Government Unit. The interview forms part of the 2025 to 2026 Country Review on Strengthening Civic Space to Support Citizen Participation in Australia. The delegation visited Adelaide and I was asked to share my perspective based on my leadership roles and contributions to civic youth programs. Being identified as someone whose work is...

During National Child Protection Week, I joined SA Australian of the Year Professor Leah Bromfield and Senior of the Year Charlie Jackson OAM on stage to present a Call for Change in protecting children. SAYF members delivered speeches highlighting stories of resilience, justice, and the urgent need for community-led reform in how we think about child safety. Bringing young people onto that stage to speak in their own words about what reform needs to look like was incredibly powerful. Photo...

Over 400 students heard from Sam Bloom, World Para Surfing champion and author, His Excellency Dr Richard Harris SC OAM, Governor's Deputy and Thai cave rescue diver, and me as the 2025 SA Young Australian of the Year. Together we shared lessons on resilience, trust, teamwork, and the power of youth voice. I spoke to students about using their voices for change and what genuine community leadership looks like at any age. Photo credit: Andrew Beveridge

South Australia's inaugural Active Citizenship Convention was a landmark three-day event at Adelaide Oval, bringing together nearly 1,000 Year 10 students from across the state. I delivered the keynote across all three days, opening conversations about leadership, participation, and what it genuinely means to show up for your community as a young person. The event featured democratic simulations, mock ballots, and AI-related media panels run by the Electoral Commission. I brought the youth...

I was invited to join a panel discussion hosted by Ending Loneliness Together exploring the WHO Commission on Social Connection's landmark report on loneliness and its global significance. I contributed as a youth practitioner working directly in the loneliness and social connection space, bringing the lived experience and community-led perspective to an otherwise predominantly academic and government conversation.

Since July 2025, I have been serving as Co-Lead for ReachOut Australia in the development of the organisation's first-ever Youth Engagement Framework. ReachOut is one of Australia's largest national mental health support services, and this framework marks a real milestone, bringing together all areas of the organisation around a shared set of principles for safe, meaningful, and impactful youth engagement. My role centres on listening. Bringing together diverse voices, from staff to, most...

Alongside a fellow SAYF member, I represented SAYF as one of the only young people in the room, advocating for youth-informed strategies on mental health, domestic violence education, and community safety. Our contributions were personally recognised by Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier, which reinforced something I believe deeply: when young people are given a real seat at the table and prepared to use it well, the people in the room notice.

I was invited by the ACCC to participate as a panellist at the 2025 National Consumer Congress in Melbourne, the ACCC's flagship annual event. The overarching theme was declining consumer trust, framed around the question of how to regulate in an environment where trust is eroding. I contributed to the session on young adults and digital markets, bringing the youth perspective to one of Australia's most significant consumer policy forums. Photo credit: ACCC

I spoke on ABC Radio National Breakfast about the founding of the South Australian Youth Forum and what it means for young people to have a genuine voice in the decisions being made around them. At 17, I had felt the weight of decisions about the pandemic, climate change, and mental health being made without young people in the room. That feeling of disempowerment is what led me to build something. I shared that story on national radio and made the case for why listening to young people is...

I was invited to speak at the 2025 Volunteering SA/NT Conference about engaging young people in volunteering and what it means to build and lead a fully youth-led, volunteer-powered organisation at the time. I shared the realities of youth-led community work, what makes young people want to show up, and how organisations can genuinely embed rather than just recruit young volunteers. Photo credit: Volunteering SA/NT

SAYF members took the stage alongside Dr Ben Lohmeyer at the Department for Education's Wellbeing Leaders' Summit, speaking to hundreds of educators about the importance of authentic youth voice in wellbeing policy. Young speakers shared lived experiences of school, inspiring educators to reimagine what student leadership and wellbeing support can actually look like. Photo credit: Department for Education SA

At the Commissioner for Children and Young People and Youth Affairs Council SA Youth Impact Summit, I joined a panel of young changemakers from across the state to exchange ideas, collaborate with sector leaders, and celebrate the power of youth-led advocacy in South Australia. It was one of those events where you look around the room and feel genuinely hopeful about what is being built here.

I was invited to speak at Flinders University's Impact of Giving donor afternoon tea, hosted by President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Colin Stirling. Alongside Dr Ben Lohmeyer, I presented our co-design research approach on youth loneliness to donors who had supported the work through philanthropic funding.

Alongside two SAYF members, I spent a day across the Parndana and Kingscote campuses speaking to over 400 young people in Years 7 to 12 about youth advocacy, resilience, and leadership. The visit marked the beginning of something significant for Kangaroo Island, building the foundations for what is now the established Kangaroo Island Youth Movement.

I was invited to speak at the South Australian Business Chamber's International Women's Day Business Luncheon, sharing the stage with keynote speaker Professor Leah Bromfield, 2025 SA Australian of the Year. I spoke about the SA Youth Forum's work in spaces of gender equality including coercive control, period justice, and gender equity in schools, from the perspective of a young woman who built an advocacy organisation from the ground up. It was a privilege to speak to leaders across the...

Over two days at the Adelaide Convention Centre, I delivered a keynote to more than 1,000 students from 90 schools, with some travelling from as far as Port Lincoln and Mildura. The room was full of primary and secondary students who had come together around themes of leadership, growth, and connection. I spoke about the South Australian Youth Forum, about what it looks like when young people are handed real tools and real responsibility, and about why advocacy does not wait for a title or a...

Alongside Dr Ben Lohmeyer and several SAYF members, I took the stage at the Department for Education's Wellbeing Leaders Summit in front of hundreds of educators from across South Australia. Young people shared lived experiences of school, mental health, and the search for spaces that actually see them. I spoke about what authentic youth voice in wellbeing policy looks like and what are the gaps and opportunities when schools try to build it. Photo credit: Department of Education

Since January 2025, I have been working as a contracted Co-Lead to establish the Youth Voice Initiative at the Specialised Assistance School for Youth. Working alongside passionate students and dedicated staff, I am supporting the build of a student-led committee from the ground up, one that identifies concerns, highlights gaps, and creates real opportunities for improvement within the school. My aim is to help young people recognise that their perspective has weight, and creating structures...

Acting for SAYF, I served as Associate Investigator on the Trauma Aware School Villages project, coordinating the SAYF group as an oversight committee for this national study on trauma-informed care in primary schools. The project co-designed a whole-of-school community approach to preventing and responding to childhood trauma, working with students, parents, educators, and schools. It aims to inform a national framework for trauma-informed programs in Australian schools.

I was invited to speak as a youth voice at the Technology and Wellbeing Roundtable co-hosted by the Telstra Foundation and ReachOut Australia. Alongside keynote speaker Professor Sonia Livingstone from the Digital Futures for Children Centre, I represented the SA Youth Forum in conversations about integrating youth voices into data collection, policy-making, and technology design. The roundtable explored the tension between protection and empowerment in children's digital lives.

From August to November 2023, I led a SAYF team researching young people's awareness of coercive control. We coordinated surveys and interviews that informed Stage 3 of the See the Signs campaign, and I presented the findings to policymakers and advisory boards across the sector.

From August 2023 to January 2024, I led research on youth environmental leadership for Green Adelaide, producing a report with recommendations. Understanding how young people in South Australia were already showing up for the environment and what was getting in their way felt important.

Since 2023, I have served as a grant panel assessor for SA Power Networks, reviewing community grant applications and contributing to decisions about where funding goes. It is another form of the same practice: making sure young people's perspectives are present in the decisions that shape communities, including the financial ones.

Since January 2023, I have served as a Youth Advisor on the SA Power Networks Vulnerable Consumers Advisory Group. I collaborate with senior members and board representatives to advocate for the inclusion of young people's voices in energy policy and decision-making. Young people's perspectives embedded into infrastructure decisions that affect everyone.

I led SAYF's involvement in this partnership, acting as a peer researcher in 2024 and supporting additional peer researchers across 2025. I co-authored our first peer-reviewed paper, published in Qualitative Research when I was 18 years old. Over three years, SAYF has been embedded across every stage of this study on loneliness among young people, from shaping the questions to leading focus groups to contributing to the written outputs. Photo credit: Flinders University

I delivered the guest opening address at the Adelaide Festival's inaugural Climate Crisis and the Arts event. I spoke about the importance of the intersection between arts, culture, voice, and climate, and what it means to have a young person's perspective. It felt important to be there. Photo credit: Adelaide Festival

At 17, I was on a panel at WOMAD's Planet Talks: Meet the Changemakers session, speaking alongside five other young advocates about what a renewed relationship with the planet could look like. I talked about the world through a hopeful and sustainable lens, imagining what 2030 could hold if we made the right choices now. It was my first time speaking on a stage like that. Photo credit: WOMADelaide

From January 2022 to December 2023, I served as Youth Representative on the SA Power Networks Community Advisory Board, advocating for young and vulnerable consumers during the Regulatory Reset for 2025 to 2030. I engaged with diverse stakeholders and worked to ensure that the voices of young people were present in decisions that would shape energy access and equity for years to come.

At 17 years old, I delivered a speech and sat on a panel at the SACOSS conference on climate justice and social equity. It was one of the first big things I did. I was the youngest person in the room by some distance. I spoke about what young people needed from a just transition and why social equity and climate action are not separate conversations. Photo credit: SACOSS

I participated in a research interview with the Climate and Sustainability Policy Research Group as part of a project on women's socio-political activism, the future of sustainable development goals, and civil society post-COVID-19. The project engaged Australian and Indonesian women intellectuals, community, and public sector leaders, and I contributed the young South Australian perspective to a conversation about what comes next for gender equity and climate justice.

Alongside Craig Wilkins and Chris Daniels, I was on a panel at the State Theatre Company's Tangent Talks series exploring environmental sustainability. This was my first ever speaking panel, and I was around 17 years old. I talked about what a greener, more just future could look like and why young people had to be part of designing it. Every speaker has a first stage. This was mine. Photo credit: State Theatre Company