Youth-led relationships and leveraging passion
Tayla Hill was a Kaitiaki o Ara/SADD National Leader from 2021 - 22, Deputy Youth Representative 2023 and Youth Representative 2024. In 2022 an opportunity came about that brought her National Leader challenge of delivering a project together with an invitation from NZIDE.
This case-study captures how Tayla’s own development converged with the opportunity of not just talking to NZIDE but, in the end, presenting at 2 of their annual conferences and bringing about a relationship that inserted a youth voice into what is a proportionately adult forum.
The study goes into Tayla’s decision making, how she navigated relations with NZIDE and provides insight into “what happened next” as involvement spread across 2 years and 2 conferences.
2022: Project choice and first attendance at NZIDE conference
Q. When you were thinking about what your project would be about, we were deep into Covid restrictions. When addressing the conference attendees was mentioned to you - what was it that made those words resonate with your project needs? What did the opportunity look like to you at that time?
When developing my project my school and many others still had shortened days with limited students and staff in attendance - meaning that planning and running events had become extremely difficult.
My first idea for my project was to try and get another road safety programme into my school. It would be a one day event, run in my local community and students could even get credits from it. This idea was brought to me when I had police come and meet with my SADD group and discuss possible ways I could work with them to run events. However when taken to senior staff it was rejected mainly due to the fact it was a paid for service (unlike SADD) even though I was prepared to try and get funding. Consequently, I was back to square one.
I knew I wanted my project to be “bigger picture”. At the time I was completing my defensive driving course with some friends. The instructor, Peter Elder, overheard us talking about SADD and approached me, saying he was happy to help in any way he could. When I spoke to Peter and told him I was a SADD National Leader and needed to come up with a project idea, he mentioned he was the President of NZIDE and there could be an opportunity for me to speak at their conference.
I love public speaking and spreading awareness about what SADD is and what we're doing. I was running out of time to come up with a project idea but this opportunity really left an impression on me - so I chose it.
Q. When planning what you would do and ultimately say as a presenter, you spoke with various people from NZIDE and SADD and you had a slight conflict between what you wanted to talk about and what was suggested by the partner you talk about. How did you overcome that conflict and rationalise your eventual content?
There were multiple meetings before any kind of speech/presentation was made. I personally wanted to speak to the driving instructors about what SADD is, what we do in schools and what opportunities we have such as the National Leader (leadership development) stream. Peter stated that it would be an awesome opportunity for me to speak and share what SADD does. However, during my first meeting with Peter I realised this was very different to what I originally thought he had wanted me to talk about.
Since I met Peter through a defensive driving course he wanted that topic to be highlighted in my presentation - being how youth getting help via instruction was helpful and beneficial for safer drivers - as well as promoting these driving instructors and gathering funding. We came to a compromise. I said I would talk about defensive driving and how instructors help to form safer drivers, while still being centered around Kaikatki o Ara, but needed to stay away from the topics of general funding or promotion of the other driving instructors since most had their own businesses. It’s not a path I wanted to go down.
I drafted a plan, with 3 main points:
Purpose of SADD,
Personal Experience/Licence Breaching
It’s not just about getting a Licence
Once the SADD team and Peter confirmed this approach, I was able to actually start my presentation.
Q. It looked like you were the youngest speaker but were you also the youngest attendee at the conference? Did this affect you in any way (good and bad)? What do you feel was the biggest challenge on the day? Were there any barriers apparent to you?
I was both the youngest attendee and youngest speaker. At first it was quite daunting but all the instructors were lovely and introduced themselves to me, plus all seemed to be very interested in who I was and why I was there.
I was nervous and thought that perhaps they wouldn’t take me seriously because of my age, but after completing my speech I realised my age actually made my speech more impactful and resonated with the attending instructors - considering I was the age of most of the students they teach.
I think my biggest challenge was believing in myself. Remembering why I was there, being confident in what I was saying and reflecting on my passion and love for SADD. I wanted to get the instructors to think about licensing in another way and understand why students may break the rules.
I don’t think I had any barriers other than my videos not playing on my presentation on the day - oops, I’m not very good with technology!
Q. Your presentation went down well (the presentation and reaction were recorded). What do you feel were the points that hit home? What feedback did you get? How did it make you feel?
The majority of instructors had heard of SADD, most knew it still as Students Against Drunk Driving. I think the main point that “hit home” was the stats I compiled. They included how many students go for their licence and how many are involved in crashes as well as sharing some of Sterling’s (Maxwell) research about licence breaching. After my presentation the only feedback I received was that they wanted SADD to continue to come back to their conferences, and that they enjoyed my presentation. They found it very refreshing hearing from a youth perspective.
It made me feel empowered, like I made a difference and they listened and understood me, they related to and agreed with what I said. It was an unreal feeling and I was so proud of myself for doing it.
Q. After your presentation and after the conference - what was the most immediate thing you thought about? Was it about what you would do next? If so, and in hindsight, was it practical? Did you think you would revisit the same forum?
The first thing I thought about was how I could do it again. How I could continue to spread awareness about this organisation, be a striving youth voice that is passionate about what an organization like SADD is doing.
I definitely think there is room for improvement as well as to revisit and highlight, again, some of what I stated, but for the first presentation I was extremely happy with how it went.
Q. Your participation at the Conference was well acknowledged by all sides. NZTA/Waka Kotahi followed it up and published an article about you:
How did this publicity help you? (For example - in achieving your goals, taking your message wider than the NZIDE community, demonstrating what was possible from a relative small beginning etc., and returning to the same audience)
I’m not sure if the publicity essentially helped me. I think it just made me proud. It confirmed to me that what I did was important and people would listen to me. I still remember reading the email for the first time. I was in utter shock. I think it encouraged me further to continue wanting to be a part of the organisation because I had a voice. Someone else didn’t write the speech for me or make my presentation or even set up the opportunity for me to speak. The opportunity came about from being passionate and wanting to make a difference. Plus it reflected my love of public speaking. I would love to get the opportunity to speak at more conferences.
I think it highlighted that we are all connected, we all have the same goal of creating safer road users. I think it also proved to others to not be closed minded. Opportunities come at you at all stages in life and you just have to be brave enough and determined enough to take them. My journey of speaking at the conference wasn’t easy. I spent hours, had multiple meetings to get to the point I did, but I think seeing it displayed on the NZTA/Waka Kotahi website proved that it was beyond worth it.
I hope it still encourages youth to look outside the box, and think about what they want to achieve and just go for it. I think it also shows how such a simple idea turned into forging a relationship between Kaikiati o Ara and NZIDE and I am proud that I get to say I helped achieve that.
Q. If someone else were to take up an opportunity like presenting at a conference - what advice would you give them? What was the hardest part of the whole process? What did you find to be the most surprising thing?
Go for it! But it is very important to plan. Create a document or write stuff down for ideas. Make sure you do your background work and get all the details. This includes what's expected from and of you, what the overall presentation is about and make sure you have multiple meetings both with the organisation running the conference and the one you will represent (SADD). At the end of the day everyone wants you to succeed, but the SADD team members are there to help you and guide you, plus may give you further ideas etc.
The hardest part was just making sure I was keeping everyone happy, including myself. That I was discussing points Peter from NZIDE wanted me to talk about as well as what I wanted to talk about. Also, to make sure I wasn’t crossing any boundaries and that I wasn’t going outside my comfort zone.
The only reason for the success was because of my passion for it. If you’re not interested or passionate in what you’re talking about it’s not going to be portrayed in the right way. Included in this is being yourself. At the end of the day I had never presented at a conference like this therefore so I wasn’t going to be perfect but just wanted to try my best. I think that surprised me because everyone could see that I was just a student who wanted to spread awareness for an organisation I loved.
2023: Second appearance at NZIDE Conference and preparation
Q. How did the second opportunity come up?
After all the positive comments received from attending my first conference I knew I wanted to be involved in it again if I could. Peter reached out and asked if SADD would like to present again.
Q. Originally you were “overseeing other students” to do the doing and perhaps the presentation, but that didn’t happen in the end. How did the initial approach change your input and goals from 2023?
What suggestions do you have to keep students focused and committed to the objective?
I knew that the presentation needed to have a slightly different viewpoint as there would be a few returning instructors and I wanted to keep it current and different. Therefore, I did think having the presentation come from students that were still in school would keep the presentation relevant plus focused on what they thought was important, as the language is reflective of what was being done in schools, (not from someone who is no longer in that environment).
If students were to put their hand up for the conference again, they would need to do their own background research and organise meetings like I did. Instead, I would be a mentor for things such as questions and not be so involved, which is where I believe it wasn’t delivering. I was trying to portray my passion as to why I wanted to do it and how I wanted it to look, instead of understanding what they wanted to say or do.
I learned a lot about leadership, mentoring and running a small team, sadly in the end it was too late to go back and change the way I went about the presentation so I did, in the end, take full responsibility.
On reflection, I was excited to be speaking again (after I enjoyed it so much the first time), therefore I tried too hard, and wanted it to be a success. I controlled it too much instead of letting the students run it. I think I also realised that for it to be successful the other students doing the presentation needed to know why they wanted to do it, because that's what will make them strive to do it, not me telling them. But everything is a learning experience and it was still a success in the end.
Q. Your role as overseeing other students eventually changed because you became the creator and deliverer of the presentation. Apart from changing roles - did this fundamentally change what and how you presented?
Overall, I think I covered what we initially discussed. I just altered it to suit me and how I would write it; i.e. with my own personal experiences, especially now not being in school. I presented in a similar way to how I did the year before. The main difference being Sterling was still able to come and present her survey (on restricted licence breaches).
Q. When you were preparing to present, what were your objectives this time round? What made you settle on these objectives? Did you have expectations from revisiting the same forum?
It was hard to not cover and talk about the things I had talked about the year before, so there was definitely some overlap, but I still tried to make it interesting with new information and get the instructors to “think” like I had done the year before.
However, I had less time to write and make the presentation for it. Perhaps it wasn’t wasn’t quite up to the highest quality or impact I was hoping for. Regardless, I still believe it went okay. I still talked about what SADD was and what we do but I also talked more about looking at things from a wider perspective, thinking about why teens ‘break the rules’, such as mental health including anxiety or peer pressure associated with getting your licence.
Q. We had a lot of evidence from 2022 but a little less from 2023. How did it go? What was different this time round? How were you received 12 months on? In your opinion, where can SADD go now in terms of working with NZIDE? Does the relationship depend on you or is there a wider opportunity for another student to keep this relationship going? If so - what would it focus on?
The overall presentation went well. I think I was much less nervous considering I had done it before and had some familiar faces around the room.
Overall, it was very similar to the first time, they loved hearing about what we're doing and how we were constantly adapting and staying youth focused. This time the driving instructors did ask more questions so it was awesome to be able to answer them alongside Sterling who had obviously done the research and could talk about her findings in more depth.
I feel like it could be awesome for driving instructors to stay connected to SADD and potentially with the National Leaders as this could provide an opportunity in helping their projects, such as emergency kits or safety kits like some students have looked into or done before. I think it is important for SADD to still be represented within NZIDE. At the end of the day these driving instructors are teaching their students who Kaitiaki o Ara is trying to reach and connect with at school. There is an overlap and we both have the same goal of preventing loss and making safer drivers.
I don’t think the relationship depends on me. It's up to another student grasping the opportunity and taking it in their own way. Now being in my second year of uni, SADD at this current moment, is still focused in schools, therefore, I do think it's important that the likes of a National Leader speaks at the NZIDE Conference, as they understand the current issues around students going for their licence and that age group.
It was discussed that there could have potentially been an interactive session run after the speech. Driving instructors could work in groups with a SADD student or Leader, to discuss ideas for how the instructors could weave safer driving education into their sessions by highlighting the issues young drivers are facing. Sadly due to time this didn’t occur, but I definitely think it’s a strong idea that I hope someone else could develop.
I will forever be grateful and proud of the work I have done with NZIDE, I hope there is a continuation of the relationship as I believe there is still more to be discovered.