Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship Programme Inspiring excellence, all-round development and leadership August 2011 From the Vice-Chancellor Special Thanks The Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarships are the University’s way Thanks to NBR New Zealand Opera, our unique partnership with NZ Opera enables of nurturing talent, whether it be in sport or the performing artistic Hillary Scholars to arts. While many of our Hillary Scholars would like to have go 'inside' their latest opera a career in their chosen Sports or Arts fi eld, it’s also important CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA & to have options when facing an uncertain future. PAGLIACCI, be involved in rehearsals and learn from We know it can be difficult juggling academic requirements, training the company members. or practice, and competition and performance, and so we have support structures in place and the capacity to be flexible with deadlines. Hillary Scholar, Dellie Dellow (above), will gain insight into NZO production management. Often Hillary Scholars find “talking out” their situation with their high performance manager or a lecturer is all they need, while at other times they may need help to negotiate their way through an issue or problem. Despite their heavy workloads, Waikato’s Hillary Scholars are succeeding. This is evidenced by the number Sir Edmund Hillary of ‘A’ grades they achieve each semester. Scholarship Programme Recently the University joined the Athlete Friendly Tertiary Network, which formalises our commitment to high performance athletes. The network is made up of tertiary institutions that adopt a set of guiding WHO CAN APPLY? principles to support New Zealand’s athletes to combine their sporting and academic aspirations. » Students who excel academically and in That is something we’ve been doing for a number of years through the Hillary Scholarships but the sports or creative and performing arts network will enable a more structured and effective system for both athletes and tertiary staff. » School leavers » Current tertiary students I would like to congratulate students who travelled to Wellington in July to receive New Zealand University Blues for excellence in their chosen field. This year at the University of Waikato we’ll be » Students intending to study at the University of Waikato at either the celebrating 40 years of Blues and I look forward to seeing many of you at that event in September. Hamilton or Tauranga campus. Professor Roy Crawford WHAT DO YOU RECEIVE? Vice-Chancellor » Full fees Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship to study at Waikato University » Personalised academic support » Leading coaches/tutors in your Musical Talent area of sports/arts Sir Edmund Hillary Scholar and » A Leadership and Personal Development Plan Bachelor of Music student, Andrew » Free gym membership and physical Leathwick, has been accepted in to conditioning and more... the Vlassenko International Piano Competition, to be held in Brisbane Follow us on between 14 and 27 August. www.facebook.com/ HillaryScholarsWaikatoUniversity For the audition Leathwick, 18, had to prepare and perform almost an hour of music which included some of the most difficult for the Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship piano: Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata and applications close 31 October 2011. Prokofiev's Piano Concerto no 3, as well as two virtuoso Romantic works – a Scriabin etude Application forms available and Chopin's Bb minor Scherzo – along with via www.waikato.ac.nz/hillary a Haydn Sonata. Leathwick is in his second year of study at the University, having left Hillcrest High School after Year 12 to continue his musical studies with top-ranking pianist Proudly sponsored by and teacher Katherine Austin. Hillary Scholar, Andrew Leathwick. Our Student in Nepal Comfortable swinging a golf club, Hillary Scholar Charlotte Willson moved well away from her comfort zone during semester break and headed to Nepal. There she taught English to monks in the Mahayana Monastery in the Kathmandu valley. “I was teaching 120 young monks, the oldest was through bad weather, but it cleared the next day She chose to visit Nepal because she’s a Sir Edmund only 18. I also taught them how to throw a frisbee. and the view was incredible – 360 degrees and Hillary Scholar and Sir Ed had long and strong They’d never seen one before so the surprise and incredible to think I was standing higher than the links with Nepal. “To be able to visit here feels like wonder on their faces was pretty cool to see. It’s top of Mt Cook.” a privilege.” She organised her trip mostly through also lovely to see their faces light up when they the internet with Hillary staff at the University While in Nepal, Charlotte also took the chance to helping out with travel tips and advice. She saved make progress with their English.” stay in the Thamel area and explore the monkey plenty to pay for it and her mother also chipped in. temple. “The locals call it Swayambhunath and Charlotte went to Nepal through VIN – Volunteer there are 365 steps leading up the mountain Charlotte is studying to become a physical Initiative Nepal, but alongside the teaching, she to the temple, or stupa, at the top. The view education teacher, but her dream job would be a also took the chance to trek to two Himalayan from the top was amazing; you could see all of playing golf on the women’s professional tour and base camps, Machapuchre and Annapurna. She Kathmandu Valley. I also got used to bargaining, coaching up and coming players as well. “Coming climbed to a height of 4,130 metres. “That was I planted rice with some local women and I visited to Nepal has been a real eye opener. Nepal is hard work, but the feeling I got when I arrived was the biggest stupa in all of Asia. It’s overwhelming, one of the poorest countries in Asia; 40 per cent amazing. It had been a hard three days walking in size and beauty.” of teachers are untrained and many children do not get an education. People here work hard but always seem to smile. It made me appreciate my life back home and the fact I have choices.” Like the Waikato, there are plenty of cows in Nepal. “The difference in Nepal is that the cows are sacred, so they’re free to wander, hold up traffic, lie in the middle of the road. If you kill a cow in Nepal you can actually go to jail.” Charlotte says the trip has whetted her appetite for more travel – and if she can break into the pro circuit then who knows where she’ll be flying to next? Hillary Scholar, Charlotte Willson (inset), experiencing the Everest landscape. Flying Wood Chips! It’s Luke van Veen If you visited the Waikato University stand at Fieldays, the marquee on D Street, you may well have seen a young woodchopper out the front, axing and sawing big logs, and making it look easy. The man with the axe was Luke Van Veen, a Sir Edmund Hillary Scholar whose favoured sport is the timber kind. He’s represented New Zealand in three national under 21 teams since he was 15. He’s a former head prefect from Mount Maunganui College and is studying for Bachelor of Management Studies. Timbersports involve sawing and wood chopping events – Luke excels at both. His current speciality is the “underhand” cutting method where the axe man stands on top of the log and brings the axe down between his feet. However, he also competes in standing cut events and single and double saw divisions. Fieldays was great training for Luke who’s preparing for a competition in Adelaide in September which will see him compete in 26 different events over eight days. He became involved in timbersports in Year 9 when the sport was relatively new to the school. He was intrigued at first, but became hooked as he became more competitive. “I really enjoy the challenge of timbersports; you never know what type of log you’re going to get and you have to work out how you’re going to approach each one, because each log is different. The sport’s a great part of New Zealand culture.” Hillary Scholar, Luke van Veen. 2 Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship Programme | August 2011 Blokarter Heads to the US Gabe Young, world lightweight blokarting champion will not have to travel far to defend his title at the next world championships in Las Vegas. He’ll already be working in the USA working for Microsoft. The Sir Edmund Hillary Scholar wraps up Gabe’s home town is Papamoa and he his Bachelor of Computing and Mathematical attended Te Puke High School. He says he Sciences at the end of the year and will liked computing at school and that’s why he head to the US to work as a software chose to study computer science at university. developer at Microsoft’s headquarters in “Only when I got to university I found it was Seattle, Washington. nothing like I’d done before. I was just fortunate that I really really liked it.” Gabe’s official title will be software development engineer. “I’ll be writing testing In July this year, Gabe’s blokarting skills software, but as a graduate they bring you were acknowledged when he was awarded in under a broad category and expect you to a Distinguished Performance Award at the specialise later on, becoming part of a team, New Zealand University Blues celebration so I could be working on maps, or hotmail in Wellington. Other current students and or whatever.” Hillary Scholars, netball’s Laura Langman, Gabe says it was last summer’s internship rowers Graham Oberlin-Brown and Tobias Wehr-Candler, and New Zealand badminton HIgh Performance Student Manager, with Google in Sydney that helped secure Greg O'Carroll, mingling with Hillary Scholars the Microsoft job.