YES Auckland

Congratulations to all our Winners for Challenge One 🎉🎉

Central: Protected - Diocesan School for Girls
South: Plant Pal - Pukekohe High School
North: Akrasia - Pinehurst School
East: eXplore - Glendowie College
Sweet: re:mix - Western Springs College

If you are one of our winning teams please DM us to claim your prize! 🏆

A big congratulations to all teams who completed Challenge One we are super proud of all of your work!! 👏👏

If you did not receive full marks, have a look at the feedback we gave you and please resubmit!

Welcome to Term 2 🎉🎉

Challenge 2 - The Pitch is fast approaching 🔜🔜

It’s time to start preparing your pitch and presentation.

Take a look at the marking criteria so you know exactly what’s expected and can make sure you cover everything 😊

Check out the Dashboard, for some example pitches and handy tips to help you along the way.

Good luck! And most importantly HAVE FUN 👏👏👏

⭐️ Challenge 1 is Due Next Wednesday ⭐️

Here is a quick reminder of what you need to include in your submission

Don’t forget to include photos 📸📸

Make sure you submit your document/video on the dashboard by Wednesday 1st April

Good Luck!! We can’t wait to see your Challenge 1 Submission. We know you’ve all been working so hard 👏🏻👏🏻

And that's a wrap on YES 2025! Well done to all our teams who successfully completed the program this year! Best of luck for your next adventure

Drumroll please 🥁

Announcing our Regional Finalists for 2025. Congratulations!

Meet this week's Feature Friday: Aspire from Glendowie College in Auckland-East!

🎯 Meet Aspire — Four driven students from Glendowie College on a mission to turn burnout into breakthroughs. Introducing 5MinutesOff: a pocket-sized toolkit designed to recharge your brain and refocus your energy—without reaching for your phone.

🧠 Your mind deserves a break, not a scroll.

Inside each pack, you’ll find:
🔁 5-minute focus hacks
🧠 Brain breaks
🍓 Quick, healthy recipes
🎨 Creative prompts

Whether you're a student, entrepreneur, or creator— everyone hits that wall. These cards help you climb over it.

✨ It’s sustainable. It’s stylish. And it’s helping people show up as their best selves.

🛒 Grab yours for just $10 at the YES Markets or visit aspirenz.myshopify.com to order online.

🌿 Feature Friday 🌿

Meet Sustain-a-Bite, an inspiring team of young wāhine toa from Ormiston Senior College who are turning waste into impact! 💚

Sustain-a-bite was is formed by five 17-year-olds - Ibadat (CEO), Jordyn (Marketing Director), Tanya & Chanel (Production Directors), and Jing (Finance Director) - who have one mission: To Grow A Greener Future. 🌱

Their innovative solution? 🌍 Sustainable meat trays made from strawberry mulch – a natural, eco-friendly alternative to plastic trays that are flooding our supermarkets. Sustain-a-Bite is not just tackling plastic pollution; they’re reshaping how business and the environment can work together.

With $7,000 in support from the Stanley Ratley Waste Minimisation Scholarship, they’re one step closer to bringing their product to families across Aotearoa, showing us what real environmental leadership looks like. 💪

They’re a business with heart, purpose, and vision — partnering with other like-minded companies to drive meaningful change, one tray at a time. 🍓♻️

Follow their journey 👉 .a.bite.nz

Meet Follicure – a passionate trio of Year 12 students from Glendowie College who are redefining haircare through sustainability and innovation! 💚

Follicure has created a scented roll-on hair oil packaged in upcycled deodorant bottles – because looking after yourself and the planet shouldn’t be mutually exclusive. ♻️💇‍♀️

🛍️ Catch them at:
📍 Britomart Markets
📍 Takapuna Markets
📍 Matakana Markets

Support their journey and shop via the link in their bio! Follow their story:
📸 Instagram:
🎥 TikTok:
📘 Facebook: Follicure NZ

🔥 Feature Friday 🔥

This week, we are featuring Azure Essence from Westlake Girls!
Azure Essence, selling eco-friendly room sprays and scented dissolvable fragrance tablets. The issue that they're passionate about solving is single-use plastic bottle pollution and mental health. 5% of their profit will go to Sustainable Coastlines to help protect marine life and clean local beaches.

💡 Using refillable glass bottles and dissolvable fragrance tablets, their customers can simply “just add water” to create their spray once they've run out. This is what makes them different from our competitors. The two scents they offer are, Lavender for stress relief and Eucalyptus for energy boosting.

💲 To purchase: https://azureessence.company.site/ and we will sell at Browns Bay Sunday market on 27th of July and 17th of August.

📷 on Instagram and Azure Essence on Facebook.

♻️ Feature Friday: Aaja’s Candills ♻️
This week we’re spotlighting a small business with a big impact. Aaja’s Candills transforms recycled cans into beautiful, handcrafted candles and plant holders. 🕯️🌿
Each piece is a reminder that waste can be reimagined into something warm, comforting, and full of life.
Check out their Instagram here: