UC student Alyce Lysaght has been an active advocate for Māori in Engineering and for supporting Māori youth. She has won the Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waiponamu Youth Award for Rangatahi Māori at the Waitaha – Canterbury Youth Awards.
Twelve UC students and recent graduates have been recognised across a range of awards, sponsored by Selwyn Youth Council, Leadership Lab, Environment Canterbury, Pacific Youth Leadership and Transformation (PYLAT) and Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu.
Alyce Lysaght, a final-year Natural Resources Engineering student minoring in Water and Environmental Engineering Systems, has been an active advocate for Māori in Engineering, and was recognised for her work supporting Māori youth. As well as producing her podcast series, she has been the Engineering representative for Te Akatoki, and was on the Infrastructure Commission Te Ao Māori testing panel, as well as mentoring Māori EngMe students at UC. Alyce won a Blues award earlier this month for her work in the Māori community. She talked about the motivation of “setting an example for future tamariki and rangatahi” and her work with the SVA in an article with ACE NZ earlier this year. Her runners-up in Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waiponamu Youth Award for Rangatahi Māori are also current UC students: Erana Riddell and Rosa Hibbert-Schooner.
UC Arts Master’s student and youth disability advocate Eleanor Hurton won the Selwyn Youth Council Commitment to Wellbeing Award. Eleanor has Auditory Processing Disorder, and, in addition to her studies, she has taken on many leadership roles in the disability sector. She has previously won Blues awards for her work championing diversity and equity.
Commerce student Ofa Puleiku, a member of CUTSA (Canterbury Tongan University Student Association), won the PYLAT Award for Pacific Youth Leadership, with Engineering student Lufilufi Lene a runner-up.
Among the award winners was former UCSA Vice-President and Master of Political Science graduate Katie Mills, who won the Te Tohu Hihiri Taumata (Working for Youth) award for helping to establish the Knowledge Commons.
The Director of the Christchurch Knowledge Commons at the University of Canterbury, Professor Ekant Veer, has praised their efforts. “The amazing work by these rangatahi shows the passion UC students have to go above and beyond to be leaders and changemakers in our community. They are testament to the impact that UC continues to have as an engaged university that is committed to the wellbeing of our city and region.”
Congratulations to all the incredible UC ākonga and rangatahi award-winners and runners-up in the 2021 Waitaha – Canterbury Youth Awards, including:
- Chloe Betony
- Rosa Hibbert-Schooner
- Finn Hitch
- Eleanor Hurton
- Lufilufi Lene
- Ai Nee Looi
- Alyce Lysaght
- Katie Mills
- Ofa Puleiku
- Erana Riddell
- Chelsea Skinner
- Dominic Wilson (Star student 2021)
