In Transition Year, I picked YSI because my friends were doing it and it meant I could do home economics on a Wednesday. But I soon realised I had stumbled upon something special because our YSI project was whatever we wanted it to be. We were able to look at what was going on in the world, start forming opinions on social issues and find out what we were passionate about tackling.

For us it was poverty. We decided to end extreme poverty. So when we heard about a certain agreement called the UN Millennium Development Goals, we teamed up Self Help Africa and NUI Maynooth CDPC to concentrate on raising awareness about the first goal our Government agreed on: to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.

I remember always being excited about going to YSI class, having a lot of fun, working hard at times and developing and improving skills like speechwriting, for example.

The YSI Showcase could be described in one word, busy. Talking to different sets of judges, presenting our pitch in the YSI Dragons’ Den and trying to grab as much free stuff from the stalls as possible. When it was results time and second place was called, we really really didn’t expect for our names to be top of the list. But it was, and now comes the cheesy line: even if we had been crowned last, I would have been happy anyway because I had enjoyed every minute of it.

So onto my post-YSI life which is the great thing about YSI because it never ends. The big issues like extreme hunger are still present so after we finish our projects, instead of saying "we’ve done our bit" and putting it on the CV, we need to keep going! The issues I had learned about and the people I had met during YSI enabled me to continue and be a part of lots of new exciting adventures. For example, I joined the YSI alumni panel where we did a project on human rights.

I got the opportunity to travel with Self Help Africa to Uganda to see first hand the global issues like gender inequality, global warming and poverty. It was also a positive trip as we visited projects where our school’s fundraising and other's money was being of benefit. I wouldn’t have been a part of this life-changing trip if I hadn’t been a part of YSI.

Even last week, YSI invited me to attend a Presidential debate, organised by Spun Out, about the issues that young people are concerned about. As an undecided voter before, afterwards I was much more informed about what each candidate stood for and it made me more aware of what I want our President to be like, which is never a bad thing.

I would recommend to anyone who has ever participated in YSI, that they should join the YSI Alumni Network, so that they can be kept informed of opportunities to continue being an innnovator.

So, YSI is a not a transition thing, its deciding to be an active citizen for the rest of your life... no pressure!!

Written by Orla Hughes, Young Social Innovator of the Year 2009 member, The Butterfly Effect.