Puhoro Trip To Houston

In the recent school holidays two of our students, Shelby Nicholson and Ruairi Daniela, travelled to Houston, Texas as part of the Pūhoro Māori Science Academy. They were away for a total of nine very intensive days, where they got to visit both scientific and cultural attractions. The following is a detailed account of the trip written by Shelby:

“Ruairi and I were selected to be a part of an amazingly lucky 15 from across schools in the Manawatu. We travelled across the globe to Texas, USA where we were able to experience so many unbelievable programmes, meet so many life-changing people and really understand the significance of our culture back home in New Zealand.

We all visited NASA and were taken on tours around the campus, being shown Rocket Parks, Lunar rovers, robotics labs and mission control rooms to really understand the variety of roles involved in such amazing missions into space. We visited Ad Astra which is an upcoming company founded by renowned astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz who has been on 7 space missions. His company has been developing the revolutionary plasma engines rather than chemically run engines in spacecrafts. 

We also visited the FIRST Robotics Championship and spoke to Chris Reilly, an ambassador for Tesla and good friend of Elon Musk. He spoke about the new developments for Tesla and in eco-friendly sustainable energy that will hopefully reach all over America and toward Australia within the next 10 years. 

Later we visited an annual Native American ceremony, Pow Wow, which celebrated unity of the tribes and remembered the losses. We were welcomed with a traditional song and dance and a Texas barbeque. It was amazing to be included in such an intimate cultural experience and it was eye opening to see the similarities between their culture and ours as Māori people. 

We were lucky to be included in the Native American culture and to really form a connection with life back home and a bond with the people we met on the trip. It was seriously an unforgettable journey for not only Māori students in STEM but for also finding a community and an identity in our own culture.”

Deputy Principal Appointment

We congratulate Mr Hatch on his appointment to the role of Deputy Principal – a position that was vacated by Mr Scott at the end of last term. Mr Hatch is well known to many of the Awatapu College whanau as he taught at the College between 1995 and 2011, several years of which were spent as a member of the Senior Management Team.  Mr Hatch returns to the College with a great deal of expertise as in the intervening years he has held several Deputy Principal and Principal positions in NZ and in his home country of Fiji. Mr Hatch will formally take up this role at the start of Term Three. In the interim, Mr Hatch will join the staff as Acting Assistant Principal.

Manawatu Inter Secondary School Swimming

Well done to those who competed in the Manawatu Secondary School Swimming Championships on Saturday 7 April. We had some impressive results from the day and all of the swimmers should be extremely proud of their efforts. A special mention to the following students who placed first in their respective age groups: Tia Davis (200m Freestyle) Amy Smith (200m Butterfly), and Sam Brown (100m Breaststroke).

Manawatu Inter Secondary School Athletics

Congratulations to those who competed at the North Island Secondary School Athletics Championships in Whanganui over the weekend 6-8 April. Notable results from the weekend were: Noah Macdermid who won silver in the Senior Boys 3000m, Amelia McKay who came 7th in the Junior Girls Long Jump, and Kyann Williams who placed 8th in the Junior Girls Discus.

Manawatu Netball Life Membership

Congratulations to Mrs Gurney (Student Attendance Administrator) who was recently awarded a Life Membership from Netball Manawatu for her outstanding service to netball in the wider community.

Anzac Day

Co-Leaders Mosiah Igatia and Grace Berge attended the Anzac Day Civic Service and laid a wreath on behalf of the Awatapu College Board of Trustees, staff and students. Mosiah also had the honour, as a youth representative for the city, of speaking at the Dawn Service. Mosiah spoke about his family connection to the war and how 150 men had left their island paradise of Niue for the horrors of the WWI battlefields. Many people at the service praised his speech and said what an asset he is to the school.