Author Description

16-year old LISA COURT confronts her demons: negative peer pressure, antisocial behaviour, drifting with the crowd at the expense of reaching her potential. Inspired by her teacher, CJ KRISTEN, Lisa launches the M.A.D. (Make A Difference) project which transforms a school, a community and, eventually, due to the power of the internet, goes global. During this time she discovers love eternal. CJ Kristen is Head of the Business Economics Faculty at Hillfield College, a school which has been through difficult times. Recently appointed Principal, MORGAN RIKA, has the challenging task of turning around the school's fortunes in the middle-class suburb of Hillfield, situated on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. He wants to harness the special talents he believes CJ possesses to achieve this goal. CJ inspires and motivates his Year 12 Business Economics class to undertake a project of their choice after he shares the Parable of the Bean with them, an allegory about seizing the moment, envisioning and dreaming about what can be. The lives of the students in this class, which eventually becomes known as Class 27 (27 students in the class), are thrown into turmoil, as they must decide whether or not to change their lifestyles and attitudes and become change agents within their own school community. Author Bio: Robin Cox has been an educator in multicultural environments for 37 years - as a principal, sports coach, boarding housemaster, symposium organizer and life skills facilitator. During that time he has also mentored about 1000 adolescents and, since 1999 has trained over 700 volunteer adult mentors. His passionate promotion of the spirit of mentoring has encompassed developing mentor training programs and manuals, as well as running seminars and workshops for teachers, youth workers and tertiary education providers. Married with two adult children, he is currently living and working in Brisbane, Australia as an Associate Head, Executive Director of Faith and Commu