Brooklyn Jiang’s motivation to take initiative came from something he learned this year: “nothing will happen unless you do something about it”.
The Thames High School service and environment student leader for 2025 told The Profile he saw a lot of young people at his school who showed initiative in what they loved to do and was “inspired by them”.
The 16-year-old’s ambitions were to receive an excellence endorsement in most of his courses and in NCEA Level 2, to be head boy next year and study engineering at Auckland University when he finished school, he said.
“I want to develop either sustainable modes of transport or work at Rocket Lab.”
But in the meantime, the year-12 student’s role as service leader was something he actioned as a student volunteer ambassador, where he promoted and encouraged his peers to volunteer in the community.
Brooklyn currently has more than 450 hours of volunteering up his sleeve.
“I’m also an observer on the Seagull Centre Trust, and I observe their monthly meetings and give valuable feedback to them.”
His work with the trust is something that led him to snap up an award for Community Contribution at the Waikato Youth Awards, hosted by a youth-led initiative called Rangatahi Voices on May 24 at the Waikato Regional Council.
The awards recognise and celebrate young creatives, leaders and changemakers from across the Waikato region.
Brooklyn said it was really hard to put into words what he felt but “I still can’t believe it”.
“It was because of my role as a student volunteer ambassador and that I built a relationship between my school and the Seagull Centre with their Natural Organic Waste Solutions, or NOW for short.
“This is a trial to convert food waste into protein-filled animal feed by farming black soldier fly larvae in a safe, hygienic manner.”
Brooklyn said on the same day they had a school meeting on ways to minimise food waste from school, he went to the Seagull Centre Trust meeting and they discussed the project and their need for sources of food waste.
He said it was a productive day because “I put the puzzle pieces together”.
The young leader said he was persistent and liked to be busy, so after he received his Rangatahi Voices Award, he was motivated to start up Green Leaders – a small group of students who aim to make their school more sustainable.
“We brainstorm and propose ideas to lower our carbon footprint. The big one was to install solar panels on our school roof.”
Brooklyn said the group submitted their ideas in an application for the Zayed Sustainability Prize, which is up to USD$150,000, and will be announced in October.
“My goal in this role is to make our school and our local community a little greener.”
