New Zealand Pacific youth honoured by Prime Minister
Embargoed until 9.15pm Friday 19 November 2010
ALL NEW Zealanders can take pride in three young people who tonight were honoured as the inaugural winners of the Prime Minister’s Pacific Youth Awards, the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs says.
The three winners, J’aime Laurenson, Samuelu Siilata and Tammy Kingi, made it through a rigorous selection process to convince a judging panel of their outstanding qualities as leaders, advocates, community members and, more generally, contributors to the sort of nation New Zealand aspires to be. They are to be congratulated.
The Prime Minister’s Pacific Youth Awards are in three categories:
The University of Auckland Award for Leadership, won by J’aime Laurenson
The Weta Workshop Award for Creativity, won by Samuelu Siilata
The COGITA Award for Inspiration, won by Tammy Kingi.
J’aime this year graduated from the University of Auckland with first-class honours in both law and engineering bachelors’ degrees – the first student to do so. He continues to arrange mentoring for Pacific engineering students in a scheme which has contributed to a 100 percent retention rate, and higher than average pass rates.
Samuelu’s creativity encompasses poetry, music, dance, painting, carving, costume, design, screenwriting and more. He works within several different Pacific cultural traditions and is a previous University of Auckland award winner.
Tammy Kingi has been an important support person for other Niuean students as president of the university’s Niuean student association for the past three years. That support and mentoring is also extended to Pacific students at Auckland’s secondary schools.
The Ministry said Census and other official statistics showed that the Pacific population was young and fast-growing. That was in marked contrast to the European New Zealand population.
In a few years young Pacific people would be a large workforce, a significant consumer market and increasingly featuring in New Zealand’s social, economic, cultural and political life.
One hundred or so entries in the first year the awards were offered suggested there were many young Pacific people stepping up to play their part in New Zealand’s future, the Ministry said.
It also congratulated sponsors the University of Auckland, Weta Workshop and COGITA Business Systems for signing up to sponsor the awards.
The winners receive up to $6000 in tuition fees at Auckland University (leadership award), a year’s paid internship at Weta Workshop (creativity award), and an overseas trip/personal development worth up to $5000 (inspiration award).
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Bios of Prime Minister’s Pacific Youth Award winners
The University of Auckland Award for Leadership, won by J’aime Laurenson J’aime Laurenson (24) from Auckland is an outstanding role model for students currently studying in Engineering and Law at the University of Auckland. He graduated in 2010 with first class honours in both Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Laws, the first student to ever do this at the University of Auckland. He will be using his award for either a Masters or Phd in Engineering.
A prefect at Auckland Grammar, J’aime was named the 2003 Bursaries Top All-round Male Pacific Island Scholar and received a number of school, university and national scholarships.
J’aime is a past president at the University of Auckland South Pacific Indigenous Engineering Students (SPIES) support network for Maori and Pacific people and is currently employed by the Faculty of Engineering on a part-time basis organising tutorial needs and mentor-mentee arrangements with the faculty.
J’aime and his family are active in the Samoan community in New Zealand and Samoa.
In the words of J’aime: “The award will help me to pursue my post-grad qualifications and I’ll be one of the very few Pacific Islanders in that field of study (mechatronics - mechanical and electrical engineering).”
“I can help and encourage Pacific people to consider opportunities and careers they wouldn’t think possible and also being an engineer ...to increase the amount of Pacific people in that area. There’s a shortage of them in our society. Most are encouraged to take law, medicine and don’t appreciate engineering.”
The Weta Workshop Award for Creativity, won by Samuelu Tevita Siilata Samuelu Siilata (24) from Manukau has demonstrated an exceptionally high level of creativity in the arts. He has excelled in poetry, songwriting, Polynesian music, dance, painting, costume design, screen writing and film.
Educated at Auckland Grammar and the University of Auckland, Samuelu majored in film, tv and media and minored in anthropology and Pacific Studies. He then went on to do a post-grad diploma in digital media at Auckland University of Technology where he was able to hone his film making skills.
Getting the Creativity award and working at Weta is literally a dream come true.
In his own words: “Here I’ve been given the chance to work with the absolute best. The chance for me to immerse myself in that world is absolutely brilliant.”
The COGITA Award for Inspiration won by Tammy Kingi
Tammy Kingi (22) from Mangere Bridge, Auckland has played an integral part in the Niuean students association at the University of Auckland for several years now. She has shown passion and commitment to her culture, cultural practice and maintenance of language. She is fluent in Niuean and has a working knowledge of Tongan, Maori and Samoan. Tammy is a Youth advisor on the Le Va advisory board, an executive member of the Auckland University Pacific Islands Association and a DREAM fono mentor for high school students.
Tammy has completed a Bachelor of Arts majoring in linguistics and Pacific Island studies. Presently, she continues with post-graduate studies in linguistics.
Tammy was selected and short-listed because she has extensive involvement within the Pacific community and has advocated the Pacific youth voice in many fona. She is a strong Pacific youth representative, secure in her identity, and committed to encouraging and inspiring others to achieve their potential.
