Applications Now Open To Te Ara A Kupe Beaton Scholarships

New Zealand’s first Māori Student Scholarship reaches over $500,000+ milestone - Past recipients are awarded Dux and accepted into the Ivy League

Students across the country are encouraged to put themselves forward for New Zealand’s only scholarship to support Māori high school students to gain admission to the world’s most competitive universities. Past recipients have hailed from all over the country including Kaitaia, Auckland, Rotorua, Palmerston North and Christchurch. Entries close in April.

The Te Ara a Kupe Beaton Scholarship was founded five years ago to encourage young Māori representation on the global stage. Whether it be Law at the University of Auckland or Computer Science at Stanford, these scholarships encourage local students to follow their passion and pursue their most ambitious dreams.

Each winning student will receive personalised mentoring and education services worth up to $25,000 to help them apply for and get accepted into their dream university. The awards gala will be held on Sunday 22 May.

One of last year’s recipients, J’adore Harris-Tavita, and Year 13 graduate of Saint Kentigern College eagerly awaits her U.S. university offers after choosing not to accept a generous scholarship from the University of Otago.

“America is my first choice and I still dream of becoming a psychiatrist. The liberal arts education in the U.S. will allow me to explore other interest areas too,” she says.

J’adore explains the support she has received from her personalised Crimson Education team has been priceless. “Everything is put on steroids and is fast-tracked when it comes to the support you’re given to strive to achieve.

“One of my strategists and mentors Kristen is awesome, so brilliant. It really helped having her. She was so onto it and very understanding of my workload and would cater to whatever I needed. She also pushed me to say, ‘you can do this’. There was no limitation of what I could do because she was always there as I considered applying to get accepted by a university overseas.”

Koan Hemana from Rotorua Boys’ High School also shares the dream of pursuing Medicine in the U.S. He will be applying at the end of this year and his advice is to keep focused and humbled.

“Give it as much forethought as you can. I didn’t understand the magnitude, work ethic and how busy it’d be. Crimson has shown me a path and now I have to walk it,” Koan says.

Other winner’s journeys have included Anais Magner (Aquinas College in Tauranga) who secured a scholarship to the prestigious Mt Holyoke College in the U.S, with over USD $250,000 of on-campus study costs covered.

Mount Maunganui student Samuel Taylor, who was awarded the scholarship at 15 and,with aspirations to become the first Māori Prime Minister, went on to secure a perfect SAT score before accepting an offer from Harvard University after three years of mentoring and tutoring with Crimson. .

Crimson Education CEO and Co-founder Jamie Beaton, who founded the scholarship program in 2017 said it continues to guide and mentor an exceptionally high calibre of students to access priceless education opportunities.

He explains, “I started the Te Ara a Kupe Beaton Scholarship because I saw a gap in support and opportunity for ambitious Māori high school students within New Zealand. Through social equity initiatives like these scholarships, we’re aiming to provide students a platform, mentoring and resources so they can follow their dreams, raise the bar and be impactful leaders in our local and global community.

“One of the pre-requisites for applicants is that they’re not only academically ambitious, but are also connected with their whakapapa. We are proud to have had a number of trailblazing students come through the scholarship program so far - from an aspiring doctor who wishes to improve health outcomes for the Māori community to a future Prime Minister with a mission to create inclusive policies to elevate Māori voices.

“Five years on, the need and appetite for ambitious students continues to grow and I’m excited to see the 2022 cohort’s vision and ambitions for their education and long-term impact on the community, ” he says.

Judges in the 2022 scholarship include: Shay Wright, the Rt Hon Sir John Key, Jamie Beaton, Karen Ross, Sam Taylor and J’adore Harris-Tavita, one of last year’s winners.

Crimson Education believes in the power of personalised education and mentoring. The Te Ara a Kupe Beaton Scholarship programme is designed to support students with expert guidance and resources that enable young New Zealanders to shine. The scholarship was created to honour the adventurous spirit of Kupe, a tribal warrior who journeyed to discover New Zealand, while evoking in young Māori students, a similarly bold spirit.

Fact Sheet - Social Impact from Te Ara A Kupe Beaton Scholarship

• 2 High School Dux Appointments
• A perfect SAT Score and Admission to Harvard University
• Scholarship to Mt Holyoke College - 80% financial aid tuition secured to the value of US$267,000
• University of Auckland Top Achiever Scholarship to the value of NZD $20,000 comprising a guaranteed funded place, catered accommodation and tuition payments
• Victoria University of Wellington - Academic Excellence and Spark scholarships to the value of $15,000 Spark scholarship for women in technology and a $5,000 Victoria Academic Excellence Scholarship

Biographies of featured judges

Shay Wright (Returning judge)
Shay Wright is Co-Founder of Te Whare Hukahuka and is a Forbes 30 Under 30 winner. He is currently a Fellow with the Edmund Hillary Fellowship and an Asia Pacific Leader with the Obama Foundation. He is also a Board Member with the Maori Economic Development advisory Board and the Science for Technological Innovation National Science Challenge. Shay is a passionate advocate for innovation, entrepreneurship, indigenous growth, education and youth development.

Jamie Beaton (Returning judge)

Jamie Beaton graduated from Harvard University, Magna Cum Laude in 2016 (two years ahead of schedule) with a double-degree in Applied Mathematics-Economics and Applied Math. He was also one of the youngest in the world to be accepted to Stanford’s Graduate School of Business at age 20.

In June 2019, Jamie graduated from Stanford with an MBA in Computer Science and Education Technology - the youngest ever recipient of the Arjay Miller Award (Top 10% of his class) - having simultaneously begun his PhD as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford.

As Co-Founder and CEO of Crimson Education, Jamie now helms a company dedicated to levelling the playing field in world leading university admissions.

Karen Ross 
Karen is the national director of the Duke of Edinburgh in New Zealand. She also sits as an International Trustee for the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award, globally.

About Crimson Education

The world’s most successful college admissions company, Crimson now boasts a global student body of 2,000 students who are mentored and tutored by over 2,4000 tutors who themselves have graduated from the world’s best universities including all Ivy Leagues, Stanford, MIT, Oxford and Cambridge.

Crimson students, who come from over 20 countries around the world, are now 4 times more likely to gain admission to an Ivy League university and 2-4 times more likely to gain admission to Oxford or Cambridge than the global applicant. Since Crimson‘s foundation, some 1000 students have received offers from world leading universities in the US and UK including Stanford, MIT, UChicago, Duke, UCL, Imperial College London, LSE, King’s College London and more. Crimson has also assisted its students in securing over $68M USD in scholarship funding and financial aid.

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