A foreign affair - bringing young people and politics together

Essex student Joe Bennett, 16, wants to attend the Global Young Leaders Conference in America this summer with three other students and a teacher from his school.

"The Global Young Leaders Conference attracts students from all over the world for a 12-day course, where they have the chance to be involved in workshops and lectures by UN representatives and other influential leaders," Bennett explains.

"The course enables students to debate and discuss some of the important issues our world is dealing with, as well as developing personal skills, such as leadership and communication, both of which are vital to helping us to prepare for the future. This will be a great chance for us to represent our community, and create links with other communities around the world.

"In addition, it will be a brilliant chance for us to take to a world stage ideas and topics that are important to the world, the country, the community and business as a whole."

As well as Bennett, who’s deputy head boy, the students chosen to go to the conference are head girl Lauren Gosling, head boy Sam Hawkins and deputy head boy George Horne, all of whom are members of the student executive at their school, William Edwards School & Sports College in Grays, Essex. "The executive is great because it gives us students something to strive for and allows us to express our views and opinions," says Horne.

"We heads and deputies effectively work as the leaders of the student executive and we bring together everything that is brought up in our meetings and pass it on to the deputy head teacher, who takes it further."

"With the student executive being a body that nurtures the improvement of leadership and communication skills, the Global Young Leaders Conference is a great way to put these skills into practice and further them even more.

"The school was invited to send some of its students to the conference because of connections our headmaster has. We heads and deputies were chosen because we were seen to be the most influential students and the ones with the most potential."

Says Gosling: "The trip, however, is very expensive – costing around £15,000 – due to the intensity of what we will fit in to the 12-day course. We have sent out lots of letters and have performed presentations to local funding organisations and businesses to try and get sponsorship.

"Unfortunately, the majority of those we have approached have said that, during these tough financial times, they are unable to help. Because of this, we have had to reduce the number of students attending from six to four.

"We are all adamant that we will attend and we have not stopped our fundraising efforts, despite the knockbacks we have received. In fact, we are working harder than ever."

SEE JOE BENNETT'S PROFILE