Kia orana and kia ora. On Wednesday 23rd November, a group of Pasifika and Māori Year 10 students got the opportunity to take part in the ‘Future Me’ programme at the University of Auckland (UofA). The ‘Future Me’ programme is an event to inspire and encourage young Pasifika and Māori students to go to university after secondary school. We had the opportunity to hear about the UofA Pasifika and Māori students’ journeys at university and attended four different workshops about subjects we may want to study at university in the future. This programme consisted of a variety of workshops to explore things like engineering, business, arts, and many more.

The business workshop was about letting our creative business minds think of joint business ideas in groups of four or five from each one of our passions. The workshop gave us an insight into what students do when studying business at university. There were many other workshops that we attended such as bio-engineering where students heard from 4 students with PHDs in bio-engineering. We also went to a creative workshop where they gave the students a tour of the different machines they use such as laser machines, 3D printers, wood machines, etc. There were also other workshops that students attended, based on what they enjoy and what they want to pursue in the future. Māori and Pasifika UofA students recommended specific subjects we can take in school that would help us with the studies we were interested in. The workshops helped many students to get an idea of the different careers and studies you can take and helped us figure out what we might want to do in the future.

Thank you to everyone who was involved in planning the ‘Future Me’ programme! This programme inspired many of our Māori and Pasifika students at Rutherford to strive to be at university one day and follow the career path they have a passion for. I would like to thank Mr Talamaivao and Whaea Stacey for organising and choosing us to attend the event.

Maetaki and whakawhetai koe

Leia Smith 10FS and Moerangi Ratahi 10FS