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Twelve students from Te Wharekura o Mauao in Tauranga are off to Silicon Valley tomorrow for a technology crash course at Stanford University's D School.
The week will include design projects in bioengineering, virtual reality, and income inequality, as well as hearing from entrepreneurs, investors, PhD students, and Stanford professors and lecturers.
Hemi Rolleston from Callaghan Innovation says Callaghan's partnership with Stanford has led to opportunities for other Maori groups, which are now being extended to the next generation.
New Zealand Qualifications Authority is also involved, because it is looking for ways to encourage more Maori rangatahi to study science, technolgy, engineering and mathematics.
The trip is funded by Tauranga's Kumikumi Trust, which is taking a different approach to its investment in education than other Maori land trusts.
"It's an ambitious, challenging, inspiring opportunity, it's real life in Silicon Valley where the Googles, the Facebooks, where all these technology companies have come out of it. Everyone understands Harvard as the business and Stanford as the innovation (universities). I'm looking forward to the look on these kids faces when they go to these places," he says.
Hemi Rolleston says the tauira from Te Wharekura o Mauao will bring to a unique cultural dimension to Stanford.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH HEMI ROLLESTON CLICK ON THE LINK
https://secure.zeald.com/uma/play_podcast?podlink=MzUwNTY=
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