Marcus Akuhata-Brown Inspires Kids at Casebrook

By Vivien, Lucy, Gabe. Room 1 | Posted: Wednesday June 7, 2017

On the 31st of May Casebrook welcomed Marcus Akuhata-Brown with a powhiri.  

Marcus later addressed the school and talked about when he was younger and how he wanted to drop out of school. But one day a former head student, who then became a teacher, called all the Maori boys into the school hall and told them that they all had potential and the opportunity to make something of their lives. He told them that he had been in the same position as they were in right now. This made Marcus think about his life choices and he made the decision to stay in school. He was the first in his family to make it to the end of year 13 and go to college.

He qualified as a teacher and has led a number of innovative alternative education programmes addressing the learning needs of youth at risk and young offenders.

Over the past seven years Marcus has travelled all over the world as both a national and international representative. He founded a global consultancy in 2000 and is currently involved in a number of education and training initiatives. He is also previous director on the international board of CIVICUS and member of the Commonwealth Youth Caucus.

He left us with these two powerful messages, “ If it is to be, it is up to me” and, “The decisions you make today can and do affect the rest of your life.”

Marcus will continue to go to many schools and inspire kids to believe in themselves and go for their goals.

By Vivien and Lucy. Room 1

Marcus Akuhata-Brown's Workshop.

The very humorous and inspirational Marcus Akuhata-Brown and his youth group took a workshop with selected students. We played games that helped us understand that decisions we make now can affect our future.

The first thing the group did was introduce themselves by sitting in a circle and saying their iwi as well as something they enjoyed. Once that was done they all heard another life story. Afterwards we split off into groups and performed plays that showed teamwork and perseverance in someway. At the end of the workshop the group reflected on what went well and what they would have liked more of.

I thought that the workshop was a great way to get students thinking about what they wanted to do in life and understand that it’s okay to ask for help.

By Gabe. Rm 1