The latest Papakura Youth Scholarship recipients want to be doctors, nurses, lawyers, mental health advocates and gymnastics coaches.
Papakura Local Board chair Brent Catchpole says the advice from Papakura Youth Council members around the recipients was invaluable.
“We want to support our young people, our future leaders, to succeed,” he says.
A total of 24 grants totalling $20,000 have been made.
A few years ago Papakura Youth Forum chair Kyanna Hetaraka-Rua helped the board present the scholarships, this year one has her name on it.
She has been involved in many community initiatives. “In my whanau we say, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’, and Papakura has provided me a world of opportunities.”
The scholarships are open to those aged 14 to 24, providing financial support for tertiary study, vocational training or leadership development courses.
Several recipients are pursuing health careers, Aparna Mishra committed to helping break down doctor-patient barriers, Taryn Richmond studying holistic health and Alisha Hickman taking her background with St John forward.
Destiny Anderson hails from Murupara where the town’s one doctor has inspired her to become a community nurse practitioner, while Jerome Mika wants to work at Middlemore to serve the community and Lafoga Tuiolemotu’s nursing study will help her improve Pasifika health.
Others are focused on helping others, including Emalia Sweet, who wants a career based around interpreting to support those with language difficulties, while Gabrielle Allerby is pursuing science. “I love helping people and this could lead me to use science to do that.”
Joshua Wilson, diagnosed with dyspraxia aged eight, credits the education staff who believed in him. “I want to use my experiences to give back, particularly to my community.”
Cultural backgrounds have also shaped the applicants.
Teuila Lulu Laufale says her scholarship will ease pressure on a family with limited resources but which has always encouraged her, with Juvina Auva'a motivated to succeed by family struggles as migrants, Tyra Leitupo’s passion for law coming from a commitment to fairness that underpins her Samoan aiga, and fourth-year Otago law student Samantha Fowler, involved in Māori communities and who works in community law, saying personal plight work continues to be an eye-opening and rewarding experience.
Other recipients
- Kate Logan
- Abbey Chalmers
- Francesca Moverley
- Kritika Selach
- Hannah Ford
- Taylor Bell
- Taine Naera
- Leilani Cowan
- Paris Boyce-Bacon
- Tatiana O'Keeffe-Pauu.
