I was born and raised in the coastal city of Tauranga where I lived my entire life up until early last year. Moving up to Auckland in Year 11, our family found attending Rangitoto College highly appealing due to their evident level of proficiency in secondary education which can be seen from the results the college garners in academics, sports, and performing arts.
Coming to Rangitoto College I was able to take NCEA Level 2 Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and History classes. Under the guidance of the teachers here at Rangitoto, I emerged from the NCEA curriculum with Excellence Endorsements in Levels 1 and 2. I was able to finish both NCEA Levels 1 and 2 at a respectable standard before I made the transition to the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme in Year 12 this year.
Last year for me was very academically successful. For my third and final year of competing at the Otago Junior Mathematics, I came out in the top 30 in the Year 11 division. I was also selected to represent Rangitoto College at the annual Auckland Mathematical Olympiad. In the New Zealand Mathematical Olympiad, after prevailing through two rounds of intense competition, I received an honourable mention. My Year 11 academic year was then rounded off with NZQA Scholarship Calculus. My success in the exam can be attributed to the effectiveness of the Scholarship Calculus sessions. Because of this, I was able to be accepted into the University of Canterbury STAR Course for Mathematical Science this year and I hope to advance myself even more in this field.
Recently, with the help of Mr Victor Dai, my friends and myself were able to establish the Rangitoto Mathematical Olympiad Society where we aim to promote and foster an environment where young students are encouraged to get involved in mathematical Olympiad contests.
Choosing IB has been and will continue to be a decision I will not regret. The transition from NCEA to IB was smooth and seamless, and my time in the IB curriculum at Rangitoto College will provide me with a solid foundation to go overseas with my tertiary education.
In the future, I want to study aerospace engineering, preferably at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Afterwards, I am looking at returning to New Zealand and would like to work for Dawn Aerospace which is headquartered in Christchurch. At the same time, I do want to keep up with my sporting activity and am looking at becoming an elite slalom canoeist in the coming years. This kind of dual pathway in my field of sport is not uncommon.
This year has seen its fair share of sporting highlights for me. I started off the year by competing at the Oceania Canoe Slalom Championships held at Auckland’s Vector Wero Whitewater Park. I finished fourth in the junior division. Domestically, I also competed at the New Zealand Secondary School Canoe Slalom Championships for Rangitoto College in both 2022 and 2023, where I was a triple bronze medallist in the senior division. Currently, I am working in close collaboration with the local Auckland Slalom club to start a kayaking programme dedicated to Rangitoto College students. We are aiming to send a full team to the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships next year after preliminary preparations have been made.
I am also part of the Rangitoto College Chamber Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra where we are working towards participating in the KBB Music Festival.