Nadine Kotop, Sam Hasell and Aleisha King are all certified leaders, and patience doesn’t appear to be a virtue. They’re not waiting until tomorrow to start effecting change.
Aleisha, 17, admits she’s had to learn how to cool her jets since she was five years old.
With a clear goal of joining St John Ambulance, she had to wait until she was a more mature seven to sign on.
“I was really tiny. I couldn’t do much,” says Aleisha, who also joined the Salvation Army about the same time.
These days she’s passing down her first aid know-how to kids.
“It’s really rewarding,” she says of working with kids. “You really feel good that you’re helping somebody.
“Not everything’s about you — even though a lot of people think it is.”
Aleisha prides herself on her dedication, even if it means missing important events such as a close friend’s birthday.
One of her mates is still a bit annoyed after Aleisha missed her party to fulfil her ambo duties.
“I’d put my name down. It was something I said I would do. I wasn’t going to pull out. I’d already committed to it, so I fulfilled my commitment. You have to put your money where your mouth is.”
Aleisha believes there’s a “massive generalisation” that Generation Y is a selfish lot, although she admits “there are a heap of people in this generation who don’t give a crap about somebody else”.
“There are a few good ones out there. None of my friends help with other people, really, but each to their own, I guess.”
A little less patient is Nadine Kotop, who says she’s always been in a massive hurry to help.
“We are the future, essentially, so I think it’s quite important for us to start now,” says Kotop, Hume’s young citizen of the year.
The 20-year-old is the type who’s more impressed by survivors than celebrities and — while sports stars such as Chris Judd don’t subscribe to the theory that public leaders set the standard for others — she embraces the expectations that came with winning the award.
“I wouldn’t call it pressure. It was more of a boost and encouragement to keep going on,” she says of the expectations she faces.
“If anything, it was small motivation . . . it was encouraging and made me want to continue with this path and make a difference.”
While a lot of her peers are spending their spare time on social media and parties, Nadine, a final-year university student who also works at Ronald McDonald House, says the key to effecting change at such a young age is sometimes about being selfless.
“It’s about balance, to be honest. It’s just about spending less time on Facebook and putting it towards something else. It’s not too difficult.
“You compromise a little bit. You can’t attend every social event you’d like to, or you neglect a little bit of study if you want to organise an event. It’s about prioritising.”
Like Aleisha, Nadine has had to forgo her share of fun, like a recent trip to Europe, which put the acid test on her commitment.
“I haven’t been earning money as I’ve been utilising that time for volunteer work.
“It’s easy to get consumed by other things, like my peers, but it’s about looking at the big picture — you’re never too young to make a difference and make worthy contributions. Just because you’re young doesn’t mean you can’t have a voice in the community and make an effective change.”
Change is sometimes as simple as altering perceptions, and you could argue Sam Hasell is living proof of that idea.
He’s an opinionated 16-year-old skater, but also a non-drinking poet with plenty of community spirit.
Sam’s also about construction and destruction in equal measure, dedicating his time to pulling apart misconceptions around local youths through his pet project: repairing Kyneton’s skate park.
“I had the idea about breaking the stereotype of young people as drinking, violent youth,” he says.
“We want to show the people of Kyneton that the kids aren’t that bad and that the stereotype that they’ve got of the youth is wrong.”
While many of his contemporaries drink to excess, Sam finds expression through the written word. So he used the poetic form to make a pitch to the local council for $1000 to repair the park. “The stereotype is my big thing,” he says. “I’m a 16-year-old kid. People don’t expect me to be involved in poetry.
“But when I get up and recite something I’ve written, people are truly blown away. I really like breaking that perception.”
Sam has become something of a gun for hire for the council, helping develop a program to improve the mental health of year 8 students in the Macedon Ranges.
As local youth suicides rates have dropped, Sam has reluctantly inherited the tag of a role model.
“I identify with being a role model. But I haven’t tried to change myself or become something that I’m not.
“I should just be myself.”
It illustrates why helping others is not a choice for these youngsters: it’s in their DNA.
“I think I’ve always liked to help people out,” Nadine says.
“I’ve always been into helping the vulnerable. It’s been instilled in me from a young age to help people.
“I’m definitely not perfect,” she jokes. “I should probably help around the house a little more. I definitely don’t do many chores or anything like that.”
It’s a good reminder they haven’t grown up too fast.
