Listen Now: 
December 21, 2022
Kupe scholarship puts Hemana into Ivy League
Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira
Posted On December 21, 2022
Download AudioA Rotorua Boys’ High School student who will become just the second Maori to study medicine at Harvard hopes to bring his skills back to serve his people.
Koan Hemana, from Te Arawa and Tuwharetoa, won a Crimson Education Te Ara a Kupe Beaton Scholarship, which he used to enhance his prospects of getting in to a top United States university.
He will start his undergraduate pre-medicine degree next year.
His ultimate goal is to study general surgery and tackle the health inequities he sees in his community here.
“By going to a place like Harvard that has the best resources possible I may be able to achieve that faster or achieve that at all. I don’t know how it will turn out but I do plan to come home straight away and use the skills and knowledge I’ve cultivated in my time there to tackle these problems,” Mr Hemana says.
RELATED NEWS
