Ankia Van Zyl

In 2022 Ankia finished her schooling at Takapuna Grammar School and is now enrolled in a Bachelor’s of Engineering at the University of Auckland with the goal of specialising in environmental engineering. In her spare time, Ankia loves to explore the beautiful outdoors through frequent beach days, snorkelling trips, photography, and walks through the bush. She has always felt at peace in the outdoors. As she grew older, this love for nature turned into a drive to help protect it, which led her to help organise tree plantings, whole-school cleanups and an eco-bricks project at her school as an Enviro Club Leader. This drive also led her to attend the 2022 BLAKE Inspire program, where she resolved to do something about her school’s recycling issue. She wanted to help prevent the reduction of the school’s recycling program due to poor recycling by students. Ankia is working on this by raising awareness about how to recycle properly and its importance at her school through posters and assembly presentations.