A PLEDGE to oppose racism in schools was given by participants in the Australian Young Christian Students (AYCS) national conference being held at St James’ College, Spring Hill, Brisbane.
Bishop Eugene Hurley of Darwin received the pledge from conference organisers Devett O’Brien and Carl Hynes at a forum to discuss ways of combating racism in schools on the opening day last Sunday.
Transformers 2010, billed as “the biggest event in Australia run by high school students themselves”, finishes today (January 17).
More than 80 AYCS members from regions throughout Australia including Brisbane, Townsville, Rockhampton, Parramatta, Port Pirie, Perth and Melbourne attended.
Representatives from Fiji were also present.
Conference organiser and former member of last year’s Year 12 class at St James’ College Morgan O’Brien told The Catholic Leader last week that the conference “had a really good vibe from the word ‘go'”.
Mr O’Brien said Transformers 2010 was particularly important as it would set the movement’s direction for the next two years.
“Members will be able to vote on the issue most relevant to the AYCS in a session during the conference,” he said.
“This issue will focus activities for the coming two years.
“Members have already selected a series of important issues through an online survey prior to the conference.”
Mr O’Brien said racism in schools had been selected as the current topic of importance to Christian students following the results of a survey by the Foundation for Young Australians.
“The survey revealed that schools throughout Australia had identified racism in schools as a big issue,” he said.
“My brother Devett and Carl Hynes felt really bad when they saw this and decided to do something about it.”
As part of the campaign, every AYCS event, local and national, will open with an acknowledgement of country.
Members will look at ways to encourage reconciliation in schools.
The anti-racism campaign also forms part of the AYCS “100% Respect Campaign”. The campaign also focuses on body image and bullying.
Mr O’Brien said his hope for the conference was that it would “refresh and renew” the movement.
AYCS is an international movement with about 2.5 million members, 400 of them in Australia.
It is run by secondary school students aimed at forming active Christian leaders who can make a difference in the world.
