Malo e lelei, Kia Orana, Ni sa Bula, Talofa lava, Fakaalofa Lahi atu, Warm Pasifika greetings.

On Wednesday, 29th June, I and 4 other year 12 Pasifika students (Dostella Amerika, June Matau, Makelesi Tohi, Faith Nonutunu) headed out to Massey University, and attended PILOT (Pacific Island Leadership Of Tomorrow). More than a hundred Pasifika Year 12 high school students from 21 high schools across Auckland recently attended a special program with a vision to inspire us to achieve our very best, and assist us to explore and make informative decisions for our future educational career pathways.

Students got to hear from influential Pacific youth speaker Eteroa Lafaele, who shared her experience around her journey of taking part in the Computer Technology Industry, one thing we took away from her journey of becoming an Computer Technology Industry was “don’t let anyone else tell your story but yourself, remember the past, present, and future which relates to all us pasifika islander who are usually underestimated.

After Eteroa Lafaele’s speech we split into groups, where we were mixed in with other schools. We went to different workshops. Some of the workshops were about the different types of leadership skills, who we look up to as leaders, entering tertiary schools, scholarships, and elements. My favourite workshop was the elements, we were all given different elements Fire, Water, Earth, and Air, we had to choose what element we fit in, the element I felt most connected to was earth.This was because my leadership qualities matched most of the qualities of earth element. Earth is known to be dominant, they are organised, they strive to achieve their goals and are able to get the job done more easily than other elements.We all got different scenarios and each group element had to choose which scenario their element most suits. To me, this was the first time that I had heard of the 4 elements and that it tells you who you are as a person.This workshop helped me to remind myself, by keeping the four elements in our awareness on a daily basis. It empowered us to recognise our individual leadership qualities as islanders and helped us to shape our nets of influence. It was an empowering feeling to be in a room surrounded by Pacific Island leaders. I would like to thank Mr Talamaivao for taking us to PILOT.

Overall this day has helped us five Pasifika students become great leaders of tomorrow. PILOT helped us to reflect on the journey of our ancestors. At PILOT we are reminded of the pathway our ancestors paved for us and our duty to pay it forward by inspiring positive changes as Pacific Islander leaders. Learning leadership qualities , gaining friendships were other important parts of the PILOT day. I will be forever grateful that I was able to attend this event, and I know that the skills, qualities and relationships that I formed on that day will shape my future. The theme of the day was “We are the ocean. Our ancestors were leaders, they were one with the sea.” So while a pilot may fly over the oceans, PILOT to us is that we are the ocean.

Fa’afetai Lava
Jonathan Chou-Lee 12KI
A Strong Proud Samoan Male Leader