Lupe, or Lupeoaunu’u Vaai, is from Vaoala in Samoa. She is a pupil of St Mary’s Primary School Savalalo. Her favourite subjects include Maths, English, Social Studies and Basic Science, and she loves studying about the environment and experimenting with technical gadgets to see how they work. She considers herself the family ‘environmental and technical expert’. Lupe also enjoys reading, socialising with her friends, playing the piano, playing sports as well as Samoan and hip hop dancing. She lives with her parents and her two brothers. One of her biggest idols is Ms Brianna Fruean, who is a young environmentalist in Samoa who recently received a Commonwealth Award from the Queen in London for her work as a Young Environment Advocate. Lupe is a Catholic and she goes to church at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Apia. She is working to set up her own environmental group in her school in order to help support the environment in her developing country. When Lupe was 7 years old, she won her first national inter-school competition and her drawing on saving energy was produced as a sticker for promotion by the Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment. Lupe wants to continue learning so she can be either an environmental lawyer or an Information Technology expert in the future.
She is especially grateful to her parents, her family, her helpers and her teachers and friends for their support.