Change maker heading to United Nations

Holly Hatfield is one of just a handful of Australians chosen to go to the United Nations’ headquarters in New York next month to develop solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems.

It is a golden opportunity for the 20-year-old former Redcliffe State high School and Scarborough State Primary School pupil, who still calls the Peninsula home.

Holly is presently studying a Bachelor of Law and a Bachelor of Criminology at Griffith University, while working part-time as Think2Be Healthy and Sesame Lane Care and Kindergarten founder Hilton Misso’s assistant.

She is one of six Australians selected for the Unite2030 adult summer camp, which draws more than 200 young people with a desire to make lasting positive social change from more than 50 countries. It runs from September 9-14.

Holly was selected after completing The Youth Delegate Program, online, over three months.

“The camp is aimed at contributing to the sustainable development goals that are published by the UN,” Holly explains.

“We have five days where we collectively work together and go through the innovation process and create a solution to the sustainable development goal that we’ve been assigned.

“There will be a group of us just focusing on the reduce inequalities track. We all pitch on day five our solutions and our ideas. A couple of the best groups go back to the United Nations on the sixth day and then pitch it to the UN Board.

“Fingers crossed our group gets to go, but we’ll still be there watching all the other groups pitch.”

The problem they will be asked to solve won’t be disclosed until they arrive at the camp. The Global Winner will receive funding to implement their solution.

The camp will be held during the UN’s Global Goals Week, so participants will still rub shoulders with global powerbrokers even if they are not invited to pitch their ideas.

“We get to have a private dinner with UN leaders and we still get to network and talk with them, regardless of whether our group gets picked for the best solution,” Holly says.

She is excited about the opportunities the experience will offer.

“I think it’s just really showing me that the world is a whole lot bigger place than I really thought it was and with that there are so many things that I can do, so many people I can help, so many things I can change,” Holly says.

“It’s going to put in perspective for me that I don’t have to live an ordinary life. If there’s a big audacious dream or goal that I want to achieve, the world is really my oyster to do it.

“I think it’s going to be empowering for me. It is very easy to be intimidated by how big the world is and how big these issues are.”

Holly says the experience will also give her a deeper appreciation of the life she enjoys in Australia.

“It’s going to change so many things for me and I’m so ready for it,” she says.

At a time when a negative narrative about young people is so prominent in the media, Holly says it’s time to shine a light on the positive action many are taking.

“I really do just want to show the rest of Australia and the world that youths really are trying to do something great and there’s so many of us out here that are putting our heads together to try to make a real contribution to improving, not just Australia, but the whole world,” she says.

“It is super important, when youth crime is so prominent in the media that we realise that it’s a minority committing the majority (of offences). It’s not the majority of youths that aren’t doing anything (positive). We are. We’re trying to change the world together.”