Announcing the 2025 Geoff Lealand Student Challenge winner and runner up
Our judges take great pleasure in announcing the winner of the 2025 Geoff Lealand Student Challnge is Charlotte Fry from Rangi Ruru Girls’ School in Christchurch with a stylish and engaging video. Here’s a link to her winning entry..png)
Runner up is Amya Sharma from Rosehill College in Auckland with a brilliantly-written and thoroughly researched essay – link here.
Charlotte wins $1,000 first prize and for her school’s media studies department she wins $500. Amya wins second prize of $500. Congratulations both of you!
Charlotte and Amya are two of many high school students who entered this year’s Geoff Lealand Student Challenge. The theme was ‘Social media. Love it or leave it?’ and it seemed to really connect with students. We received 4 times more entries than usual, and all of them had something to say.
The question of how to deal with social media became particularly topical after the Australian government decided to ban social media for under-16s later this year and Aotearoa New Zealand’s government also started looking closely at a similar ban.
Parliament’s Education and Workforce Select Committee launched an inquiry into online harms for young people, and two private members bills are ‘in the tin’ waiting to be pulled out – Catherine Wedd’s ban on social media for under-16s, and Reuben Davidson’s bill to require platforms to be safe for young people. Meanwhile research shows most adults support a ban on social media for under-16s.
But what do young people say?
Some of the students who entered the challenge support a ban. In her entry, Addison Chapman from Kaiapoi High School writes:
“Social media sites cannot be trusted to regulate themselves. They have hurt, exploited, and abused too many people and are continuing to do so through our younger generations. With the internet becoming a growing part of our lives, we need to cut it before more irreversible damage is done.“
In a beautifully written piece, Rachel Kim from Westlake Girls High School concludes:
“I know a world without social media might sound like a personal hell for some young teens. But if all your friends were in the same boat, would you still feel the need to post and perform your life?”
However, most students say that young people need preparation, not prohibition. Arnav Chandra is one of a platoon of students from Rosehill College in Auckland who entered. Arnav recommends better design, stronger regulation and healthier usage habits.
Meanwhile Rachel Gammon from New Plymouth Girls High School makes the excellent point that social media is one of the few spaces that queer young people can find their community in those crucial early years when they are learning that being different can be good.
“Queer People, particularly young people exist in a mostly isolated state. Queer people have been traditionally excluded, ‘othered’ away into the obscure corners of the world. The majority of Queer community spaces are geared towards adults; bars, many queer events, and queer spaces overall.”
Rachel says banning social media for these people means banning a refuge for queer young people.
Many entries also picked up on the commercialism that twists social media to strange places. In a clever, witty and free-ranging essay, Addy Pilley from Albany Senior High School in Auckland puts it very well:
“If anything, young people should be part of designing the next generation of platforms. Imagine a social media network not built on profit. No ads. No data-mining. Just connection, creativity, and community. Imagine if safety and wellbeing were baked into the design—not tacked on after a tragedy.”
Many excellent entries
There were many other exceptional entries, in a wide variety of genres including:
- Cameron Lewes Murray from Wellington College wrote an evocative poem that is a must-read.
- Ren Mok-Yazdani from Western Springs College in Auckland created a hilarious animation.
- Nixon Donaldson from Sacred Hearts Girls College in Hamilton wrote a “free-verse” poem that is erudite and hopeful.
- Gisborne Girls High School student Gloria Donaldson entered drawings.
- Lauasi Kafoa is a year 10 at McAuley High School in Auckland who wrote a kinetic, rhythmic poem that was among the judge’s favourites.
- New Plymouth Girls High School’s Ella Hunter created a website!
- Alexandria Farrington from St Mary’s College (Wellington) wrote an entertaining and thought-provoking poem.
And there were several excellent videos that deserve a special mention. Lachlan McLean from Mclean’s College in Auckland made an hilarious, quirky and moving video that shows immense talent and a highly original approach to film-making.
Another amazing video was by Te Kuiti High School’s Tamorangi Clayton-Lake who made an engaging mini-documentary featuring perceptive interviews with students and teachers, and the most innovative microphone placement the judges have ever seen.
Final word
Because of the large number of entries there were four judges this year, including Josephine Maplesden who is the widow of renowned media studies educator, Geoff Lealand. Josephine was very impressed by the standard of work and remarked that Geoff would have loved them.
BPM wants to express our heartfelt thanks to every student for entering the challenge and giving us a smile, a laugh and hope for our younger generation. We were impressed with the quality and variety of entries and the awareness all the students shows about the subject.
All students who entered get a complimentary free student membership of Better Public Media Trust for 12 months. We look forward to getting those members involved in choosing the challenge subject next year, helping with judging, and our many other activities aimed at building awareness of Aotearoa New Zealand’s public media needs.