- Harvard University is among the choices of top universities targeted by four Māori student scholarship winners. Photo: AFP/Maddie Meyer
Four Māori high school students have won scholarships to help them strive for an Ivy League education in the United States.
They were among more than 180 students who applied for the scholarship, seeking a $25,000 cash boost to help them gain admission to top global universities.
This is the seventh year the scholarship has been on offer, which celebrates young Māori and Pasifika which was founded by Crimson Education. The scholarship is for Māori and Pasifika high school students who dream of pursuing pathways to top universities around the world.
One of the scholarship winners was Taranaki's Inglewood High School head girl Erini Fruean.
"I'm humbled by the result," she said.
A strategist is currently working with her to give her "expert coaching" on how to apply to "the right university" for her.
She is not sure yet what university she hopes to attend. She was currently narrowing down choices of universities based on her interests, strengths in extra-curricular activities and each university's "academic level".
Fruean originally thought about studying law in the United States. But she had been advised this would not be as "transferable" to New Zealand and serving Māori and Pasifika communities. Her strategist had suggested instead looking at studying diplomacy or international relations as both of these options had key elements of law which were more transferable to using in New Zealand when she returned home after completing her studies.
The strategist said what would also strengthen her application is her focus on film directing which uses her strengths like leadership, speaking, analysing and creativity.
Meanwhile, the three other recipient winners of the scholarship included: Luke Westrupp from Rotorua Boys' High school, who intends to study politics at either Yale or Harvard; M'lago Morris from Whangārei Boys' High School, who wishes to attend New York University's Tisch School of Arts, and Jared Lasike, who is the second recipient this year from Rotorua Boys' High School. He wants to do medicine at either Harvard or Johns Hopkins University.
