Excitement builds for scholarship winners

Monday 18 January 2016

Excitement builds for scholarship winners

The winners of this year’s Tai Poutini Polytechnic Schools Awards are all set to get stuck-in to study and plan their careers.

Draven Ormsby, former Greymouth High School student and winner of a $1000 scholarship to study Carpentry, says there are plenty of options for him once he finishes his training.

“I was doing carpentry at school one day a week through the Trades Academy because I like working with my hands and building things. I wanted to enrol at Tai Poutini this year anyway, but winning the scholarship has made a real difference for me.

“I’m really looking forward to starting the course and meeting new people. Getting the qualification is the key – as soon as I finish I’ll be looking at securing an apprenticeship and I’ll be much more likely to get it with most of the paperwork out of the way and some basic skills under my belt.”

TPP has been offering scholarships to West Coast high school students for the past 10 years, to help with their study and encourage their plans to enrol in tertiary training. The $1000 contribution towards programme fees is offered to students who apply and can show clear goals and aspirations to train and work in their chosen industry. The awards are open to high school students across the West Coast and applications will reopen for next year in August 2016.

Another winner, former Westland High School student Olivia van Dissel, has big plans of working in the outdoors. She has always loved kayaking and being outdoors, and her high school outdoor education programme showed her how she could turn that passion into a career. She says winning a 2016 scholarship is a real bonus and will help in her studies.

“I’m so excited about starting the course, I can’t wait. After this year, I might go for the second year or go overseas and travel and work. I want to travel and do my own thing for a few years then come back and do some higher-level training, probably with the polytech.”

Olivia says she is keeping her future options open, with careers in guiding or teaching both possibilities. “I’m not setting anything in stone at this stage, I want to be flexible. I’m really just so excited about starting the course this year and meeting heaps of people that are like-minded and really in to the outdoors.”

The winners of the 2015 TPP School Awards are:
Shae Bruning, Buller High School, Engineering (Fitting and Turning) Westport
Marlee Hauraki-Nelson Clarke, Buller High School, Jade & Hard Stone Carving
Bradain Ramsay, John Paul II High School, ICT L4
Olivia van Dissel, Westland High School, Outdoor Education
Draven Ormsby, Greymouth High School, Carpentry

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