Senior school pupils learnt about the power of activism and young people’s voices during a conference focused for teenagers.

The youth summit, Journey to Democracy, gathered 50 pupils from public and private schools in the Bermuda College gymnasium on Friday.

It taught the teenagers about the work the went into expanding the Bermuda Constitution Order and the work still left to do to expand human rights.

Glenn Fubler, an activist who helped put together the event, said it was a success and would likely be the first of an annual tradition.

He added: “With the interaction and the responses with the students, you see that the potential is there for our future and that the themes resonated with them.”

Journey to Democracy was held for the 60th anniversary of the London Conference in 1966, which established a democratic framework for Bermuda.

It resulted in a fully democratic election in 1968.

Attendees learnt about the evolution of the island’s constitutional order, from its basis and inspiration in 1789 to the constitution of 1968.

Exercises led by Nekesha Holdipp, an educational officer, highlighted the protests and movements that took place to expand democracy beyond White men who owned property to other Bermudians.

Speakers from Bermuda Is Love, the Youth Parliament and the Office of Youth Affairs also led workshops that explained the groups’ importance and inspired pupils to share their civic opinions.

The summit ended with the youngsters splitting into groups and creating posters to share what they learnt throughout the day.

Alexandria Crippen, the deputy head girl at The Berkeley Institute, said the event helped her to understand the importance of exercising her rights.

In particular, she highlighted an exercise that split the students into different groups and allowed only one group to vote as an example of how limited Bermuda’s democracy once was.

The 17-year-old said: “It’s important to be able to recognise what people fought for and your ability to do it.

“You have to exercise that right, because there were so many people who came before us and laid the groundwork for us to be able to have the opportunities that we do today.”

Ms Crippen said the summit also demonstrated ways she could improve her future.

She added: “The main takeaway I got from this event was that, even though we come from different backgrounds — public, private schools and everything in between that — we have the same goals and that is to create a better Bermuda.

“I definitely saw that in meeting each and every one of you today, and I feel like this event is something I will hold with me for a long time.”

Naomi Butterfield, 15, said the summit showed her how young people can make a big difference in their communities.

She added: “We need more access to opportunities in Bermuda and a cheaper cost of living, because it’s really expensive in Bermuda.

“People are stronger as a community because when we’re all together, we can share different ideas and work together.”

Teachers welcomed the summit as an important event to help children understand their worth.

Scott Simmons, the head of social studies at Sandys Secondary School, said it was important for young people to use their voices and that such summits taught them how to do so.

He added: “They need to practise speaking up for themselves, especially in a world of technology where everyone hides behind their keyboard or goes on social media.

“There are better ways to voice your concerns and actually create change.”

Mr Simmons said he hoped his pupils built confidence in their ability to speak up and enact change.

He added that he wanted the children to keep an open mind and listen to others so they may properly use their voices.

Meanwhile, Kristina Wright, a social studies teacher for Mount Saint Agnes Academy, said the event was important to help young people better understand their history.

She added: “I just thought it was a very interactive way to do it, as opposed to being in a classroom and listening to your teacher talk about this every day and bore your life.”

Ms Wright said: “It’s good for them to really understand what other generations before them went through and did for them to have the lives and the privileges that they have today.

“There’s still a long way to go, but it’s definitely a huge change and I just think they need to understand and appreciate what people before them have done, so that it encourages them to do the same for the next generation to come.”

Ms Wright said she hoped her pupils got involved in their communities, understood their voices were “just as important” as those of adults and learnt to use them early.

She added that she hoped to see something another similar summit, with more participants.