Samsung Scholarship for Manaiakalani students entering Tamaki College in 2015

It was a very exciting assembly at Tamaki College today. Parents and friends were gathered in the auditorium for the presentations of the Samsung Scholarships to our lucky Year 9 students. We were delighted to have Mr Dan Dale there from Samsung to make the presentations.

Here is the background to the scholarships :-

As part of its partnership with the Manaiakalani Education Trust,  Samsung NZ has offered a scholarship to leadership students from Manaiakalani primary schools who are entering Tamaki College in 2015. The Scholarship purpose is to encourage and support highly successful students from Manaiakalani primary schools to choose Tamaki College, their local Manaiakalani high school, for their secondary education. The scholarship equips each student with their uniform, a Samsung learning device and robust carry bag, and  has a value of up to $1000.

We are delighted that this opportunity has attracted 13 leading students from seven schools to enter the College’s year 9 cohort. A number of these young people were almost certainly headed to an alternative school however were impressed by the profile given to the College as a result of the scholarship process.

Each school undertook communication activities with parents and students to promote the opportunity. This included parent evenings, prizegiving profile, direct discussions between principals and parents, and presentations from current College students to year 8 students, accompanied by the excellent promotional DVD produced with Samsung to highlight the benefits of the College.

The desire to reinforce the prestige of the scholarship meant that only designated students were eligible. While this disappointed some families and students, the key driver of attracting top students by setting the bar high was integral to the approach. The successful applicants will have been one of the following in Year 8:

• School leader, prefect or house captain
• Winner of the top sports person’s (boy and girl) award at the end of year prize giving
• Winner  (first or second) of their school’s top academic award at the end of year prize giving

In 2015, the College has had 127 students entering in year nine. This is above ministry predictions for 2015. The number of students with strong leadership, excellent sporting and or academic  strengths has increased this year.

Scholarship winners

School	Student	Leadership role (2014)
Panmure Bridge School	Puke Rapata-Mohi	Prefect
	Tyler Topia-Valepo	School ambassador and learning leader
Pt England School	Gloria Tuitupou	Dux and Prefect
	Auri Kamo	Top Sportsman, House Captain
	Mele Lavaka	Prefect
	Rocky Vea	Prefect
	Wyatt Parsons	Prefect
Glen Innes School	Enosi Falekaono	Prefect
	Autymn Kanuta William	Prefect
St Pius X Catholic School	Vaitolose Manuha'apai	House captain
Glenbrae School	Danielle Mailata	School leader
Tamaki Primary School	Taylor Takilai	Prefect
Ruapotaka School	Talita 'Aho	Prefect; sports award.