August 29, 2013
Maori Success scholars doing hard yards for IBM
Ten Unitec students have picked up scholarships from IBM to assist their studies.
Carol Ngawati, the director of the Unitec’s Maia Maori centre, says students doing degrees in IT, business management, finance, and communication degree programmes are eligible for the $5000 success scholarships.
As part of the technology giant’s diversity strategy, this year they all went to women, including three wahine Maori.
"Some of the young women had come from minimal qualifications at school, they’d done a foundation course under the Youth Guarantees, then a certificate and then a diploma and now they are doing a degree, so some have done the real hard yards and some are solo mothers with young children who have come back for a second chance, so it wasn’t the top academic people, they were people that had really deserved through a whole lot of other things to be supported," Ms Ngawati says.
The scholarship recipients will also get mentoring and networking opportunities from IBM.
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