Limitless has a mission to equip young New Zealanders with the awareness, confidence and opportunities to pursue and excel in work they are passionate about. We'll each work 80,000 hours throughout our lives. What if we could empower every young New Zealander to spend that time doing work they are passionate about?
Limitless was founded in 2016, quickly growing a community and collaborating with exceptional people to begin developing and delivering exciting programmes and resources. Our key programme the Limitless Conference, has reached 730 students from 32 schools throughout the Canterbury region so far. The conferences, run in 2016, 2017 and 2018 have focused on the topics of strengths, values, goal setting, wellbeing and more.Through interactive workshops, inspiring speaker sessions and interactive activities, the conferences have approached the topic of career pathways through the lenses of these topics. We have also established an Online Portal, custom-built as a platform for participants of the Year 10 Conferences to access information on further development opportunities through trusted partners. Finally, we have also directed several videos on the topic of careers, and printed reflection journals we developed for participants in our programme.
We are currently shaping and forming some awesome new things for 2020! Watch this space.
Passion: We are passionate about what we do. We exemplify passion & encourage others to find theirs.
Purpose: We do everything with a purpose, and our purpose is to empower.
Empowerment: We believe in empowering people. We believe that when every young person is empowered to reach their full potential, we will see generational change.
Optimism: We believe the future is bright, and young people are our future. We face every challenge with optimism.
Responsibility: We are aware that every action we take affects others. We are responsible to uplift and respect others with every word and action.
April McLennan
Founder and Chairperson
April founded Limitless in early 2016, after finishing high school in 2015, and having taken part in a social enterprise accelerator. In mid 2016, she was selected as one of 3 New Zealand delegates to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in California. Prior to starting Limitless, April gained experience organizing events for various causes. April now works full time on growing and developing Limitless.
Kendall Flutey
Limitless Trustee
Kendall is the Co Founder and CEO of Banqer, the financial education platform used by more than 150,000 Australasian primary students. Kendall has a background in accounting, having worked in big four private enterprise before retraining as a software developer. With Banqer at the crossroads of these two industries, Kendall enjoys the new challenge that comes with growing a mission driven impact business, where she can seek to make a difference in our communities.
Brent Hefford
Limitless Trustee
Brent has over 20 years of experience in financial services, specialising in people leadership, retail banking, lending, and business banking. Currently in the role of Regional Manager Retail Distribution for lower half of South Island for Kiwibank, Brent has held a various positions across a number of New Zealand banks, and enjoys seeing people thrive and develop to be successful.
Dr Cheryl Doig
Limitless Trustee
Founder and CEO of Think Beyond, Cheryl Doig is a leadership futurist, following exponential technologies and organisational changes and making sense of these for leaders. She is a proactivist who acts for change rather than just talking about it. Cheryl is the Chairperson of the New Zealand Brain Institute and Haeata Community Campus, and has a number of governance roles.
Stephen Henry
CEO, Kode Biotech Group
Hannah Duder
CEO, indigo & iris
Jaye Pukepuke
Founding Director, Bros for Change
Sophie Kennedy
Sustainability Engineer, Fulton Hogan
Grant Ryan
Founding Coordinator, The Cacophony Project
Andrea Brewster
Strategy Development Manager, Girl Guiding NZ
Zion Tauamiti
Suicide Prevention, He Waka Tapu
Rochelle Faimalo
Social Recovery Coordinator, Hurunui District Council
Emily Muli
Singer/Songwriter
Chris Jupp
Youth Partner Manager, World Vision
Katie Cowan
Founder/Director and Lawyer, Cowan Litigation
Dace Caldwell
Director of Corporate Finance, PWC
Chris Mene
Director of Mene Solutions
Guy Ryan
CEO/Founder, Inspiring Stories Trust and Young New Zealander of the Year 2015
Dr Victoria Metcalf
National Coordinator, Participatory Science Platform
Eva Riddell
Programme Creator, Live the Dream & Independent Design Thinking consultant
Seung-woo Hong (Suggie)
Filmmaker and Visual Storyteller
Merenia Hudson
National Kaitiaki of Manawa Ahi
In August 2018, we held our fourth Year 10 Limitless Conference with 230 students attending from 18 different schools around Canterbury. We ran the programme over the span of three days in comparison to our past two days, with 6 speakers and 6 break-out workshops. The three days providing the opportunity to go into more extensive detail and depth with the content created for the students.
In 2017 we ran two Limitless conferences in August with the involvement of 360 students and 27 schools. This conference was built upon the input and feedback gathered from the 2016 programmes, and incorporated a wider variety of speakers and workshops. This was also the first year we invited students from the broader Canterbury region.
In October 2016, the first full Limitless Conference was held at the La Vida Centre with 140 students from 20 schools coming together to participate. This 2 day conference, with the help of over 60 others, focused on strengths, values, wellbeing and goal-setting.
In February of 2016, April and her team ran the first pilot of the Limitless event at Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery school. The pilot consisted of 2 half-days that included 18 students, 3 workshops and 3 talks from speakers.
These are the organisations who make everything we do possible
with thanks to the Community Organisation Grants Scheme
