Long Bay College Year 9 student, inventor and entrepreneur Kate McIntosh has been named Hearing New Zealand’s first ever Youth Ambassador. She was recently invited to be the keynote speaker at the Hearing NZ conference. With concerns about the increasing number of young people suffering long term damage to their future hearing ability, caused by excessive noise, Kate’s role will be to help raise awareness. While Kate has no particular hearing issues herself, she invented, designed and 3D printed components of a whistle that can be ‘heard’ by deaf people, making sports more accessible. It was this initiative, along with her empathy and understanding of the social barriers deaf people face that led to her Youth Ambassador appointment. Congratulations Kate! #LongBayCollegePride #LongBayCollegeLegend