4 January 2002 Charlie found her next step in life at EnviroSchool

The "greening" of Charlie Chambers started long before she attended Lincoln University's EnviroSchool as a sixth former from Chilton St James, Lower Hutt, but the highly regarded vacation school for environmentally minded senior secondary students had a big influence on her future direction in life.

"I am from a family of great gardeners and people concerned about the environment. That's where it all started. I have always been environmentally aware as long as I can remember," she says.

"At secondary school I was head of the Environment Committee, a School Council position.

"In 1994 I attended Lincoln University's EnviroSchool and a week on the campus working with people like Associate Professor Graeme Buchan and Dr Bob Leonard convinced me that Lincoln offered what I was looking for as the next step from school.

"I was looking for a university with a focus on conservation and ecology and I found it in Lincoln.

"EnviroSchool was a great opportunity to enjoy some real hands-on experience of environmental research in a university setting. We learnt and did so much in that week it gave us all a tremendous burst of encouragement to go on in the environmental area."

Charlie subsequently enrolled for a Bachelor of Science degree in Conservation and Ecology and has recently completed an Honours year with a dissertation on how an understanding of biodiversity in New Zealand might benefit from the contributions and questions raised by ecological feminism.

During the course of her degree her interest moved to the intersections of gender and the environment. "Ecological feminism" is an acknowledged field of specialisation overseas and increasingly so in New Zealand and Charlie hopes eventually to apply for a scholarship to do a PhD in that area, perhaps at an overseas university.

She has already been overseas – on an undergraduate study exchange to the University of California, Berkley. In fact she jammed a lot into her time as an undergraduate at Lincoln University including a fulltime year as President of the Lincoln University Students' Association, a job which gave her a seat as a student representative on Lincoln's governing body, the University Council.

This year (2002) she has moved to Wellington as Co-President of the New Zealand University Students' Association.

• Lincoln University's EnviroSchools started in 1990. They are held every two years and have Sir Edmund Hillary as their Patron. In 1996 they received a special Ministerial "Green Ribbon" award for their contribution to environmental care in New Zealand. The next EnviroSchool, dubbed YES (Youth Environment Summit) 2002 will be held over 2-6 April.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.