Former Mount Hutt College head student Anna Tu’amoheloa said she felt ‘‘grateful and very blessed’’ to receive a newly-established $5000 scholarship.
The 19-year-old from Methven is in her second year studying Law and Commerce at Victoria University of Wellington.
Unable to attend a presentation ceremony last week for the inaugural van der Kley Family Scholarship, her mother Mele accepted it on her behalf.
The scholarship was among many presented by Advance Ashburton Community Foundation at the Ashburton Event Centre.
She said it was a reminder that despite being so far from home, she could continue to serve her community and family.
‘‘One of my biggest goals is to ensure that I can reduce the financial burden my parents have gone through over the last few years to get me to where I am today,’’ Tu’amoheloa said.
‘‘As the first on both sides of my family to attend university, I owe everything to the sacrifices and courage they have made to support me in my journey.’’
She has a passion for advocacy and hopes to in future gain a role to help influence policy and business practices that uplift Ma ¯ori and Pasifika people.
Tu’amoheloa was the first Pasifika head student at Mount Hutt College, where she had other lead roles and was a netball coach. In 2022 she was the first recipient of the Volunteering Mid & South Canterbury cultural and environmental youth volunteer award. She was also a member of the Ashburton Youth Council and represented her school twice at the New Zealand Model Parliament in 2021 and the Aotearoa Youth Declaration in 2022.
She supported by the Future Leaders Academy to attend the Pacific Student Leadership Programme in the Cook Islands in 2022.
Foundation executive officer Carolyn Clough said the scholarship, founded by Heather and Walter van der Kley, focused on Pasifika youth, reflecting the van der Kley family’s long relationships with volunteering in the Pacific Islands, particularly Samoa.
