Dmitrijs Meiksans, the Member of Youth Parliament (MYP) for North West Hampshire, visited students at Bishop Challoner School to tell them all about the Make Your Mark ballot, the largest youth consultation in the UK and Europe.

Dmitrijs visited all the Year 9 and Year 10 tutor groups, answering students’ questions, and telling them more about his role to make their voice heard!

Members of Youth Parliament are elected every two years, with Dmitrijs beginning his term earlier this year in March. He was given the opportunity by his school. Dmitrijs is a Year 9 student, passionate about getting young peoples’ voices heard. He is the author of Lonely, a book which is about a boy being bullied and how he copes. One of his main aims is to help young people combat mental health issues, after seeing many friends suffer.

He said that becoming an MYP has helped to boost his confidence and to meet so many different people, all from different backgrounds and races. He hopes to become a politician in the future.

He said: “It was a pleasure to visit Bishop Challoner on Thursday to talk about my role and to encourage them to get their voices within the ‘Make Your Mark’ ballot heard as young people’s voices are too often neglected. I want to thank Teresa Cripps for being an advocate for the UK Youth Parliament at the school.”

Dmitrijs was the first MYP to visit the school in recent years, and hopes to return with the results of the Make Your Mark ballot.