Throughout my life I have seen a link between education and opportunities. As a young fella I was often asked what I wanted to do when I grew up. My answers varied from fighter pilot to Bruce Lee the 2nd, but when I arrived in Form 5 (Year 11), I realised that it was time to get more serious about what I wanted to do. When I was offered a trainee position on a Maori carpenter trade training school back in the seventies I remember thinking, “Wow! If I am offered this now, then what will happen if I go back to school?” So with the support of my parents, I went back to school the following year and during Year 12 I was offered a surveyors training apprenticeship as well as a Sanford’s commercial fisherman trainee position.
I didn’t achieve well enough to get into Year 13, so the next year I went back to Year 12. I often tell people that the best two years of my schooling both occurred in Year 12!
During that year I considered becoming an officer in the Army and attended a Regular Army Selection course but decided it just wasn’t for me, despite my father and grandfather serving overseas. The following year I was in Year 13 and I was offered a place on the Woolworths management training programme. I was also fortunate to be selected to attend Massey University on the first Tu Tangata programme where I completed a Business Studies degree in Marketing.
After I completed my Business degree my first full time position was not as a carpenter, surveyor, commercial fisherman, army officer, Woolworths manager, fighter pilot or a movie star, but with the multinational oil company Mobil Oil.
My education however, did not stop there because I changed career paths from the corporate world to education and completed a Diploma of Teaching (secondary) to become a secondary school teacher. Later on I completed a Masters Degree in Education which opened doors to the tertiary profession where I became a lecturer, academic adviser and later a senior manager at a Polytechnic. More recently I have completed accreditation training to become a Professional speaker which has enabled me to travel the world being paid to speak and help people, which is something I thoroughly enjoy. The Institute of Directors Certificate in Company Direction I completed last year is opening Governance positions and opportunities.
My educational pathway has been an interesting one – and it isn’t over yet. I am sure there will be more intellectual challenges ahead than the Euchre game I find myself playing on my phone! I have not written all of this to boast but to let you know that somewhere in all the opportunities I was given and the decisions I made was a person like you. Someone who sowed the seeds of education and helped them grow. Someone like you, who made a positive difference in my life. On behalf of the many you have helped can I say a big huge THANK YOU!
Furthermore, my life to date is testimony to that old Maori proverb that says “Ko te manu e kai I te miro, nona te ngahere. Ko te manu e kai I te matauranga, nona te ao.” The bird that eats of the miro berry replenishes the forest, but the bird that eats of knowledge replenishes the world. Please continue to sow your education seeds of hope because education is worth chewing over.