Lillian Balfour

Eighteen-year-old Lillian Balfour cares deeply about the environment and her community.

She took part in the School Strike for Climate NZ, co-leading marches in her hometown of Thames for three years, and she was one of the first to enroll in a world-first Bachelor of Climate Change degree at the University of Waikato.

“It was important to me to reduce my impact on the environment because I was not seeing enough change around me,” Lillian says.

The degree has helped her with climate anxiety, giving her the tools to address the issue and take action.

“I have learned so much, the social science and policy side to climate change had a big impact on how I think about climate change, especially when combined with the Indigenous Studies paper - it reinforces how climate justice is also a social justice issue.

“I see so much hope in my University peers, as well as in the climate action groups and organisations in my community. We need to put the work in, and stand on the right side of history so that young people like myself and our children will have a future.”