Waterloo teen wowed by view

Lucy Chen liked the view from John Key’s parliamentary office. ’’ You could see out to the sea, it was quite cool,’’

The 17-year-old, and the seven other Hutt City Youth Award winners, had morning tea there on October 13 as part of a special prize.

Along with $500 prizemoney, which the Chilton Saint James student will use to buy a laptop for her university’s engineering course, this year’s winners met the Prime Minister.

Lucy won the science and technology award for creating engineering events at her school and a local theatre, because the Waterloo resident wanted to change her school friends’ views on engineering.

There were a lot of misconceptions about engineering, especially at her all-girls school.

‘‘They think engineers fix engines or pipelines, or are in Apple Stores, and this is true to an extent, but is just a narrow slice of what engineers really do.’’

Chen wants to be a bio-medical entrepeneur. ’’They say doctors save a life every day, but engineers are saving multiple lives by making medical equipment in the background.’’

The event on July 30 for Years 7, 8, and 9 students, was attended by 110 people, and another one for Year 11,12 and 13 students attracted people from across the region.

The year 13 student said she had had no idea what she had been getting herself in for. ’’I had zero experience of organising an event and everyone around told me it would be easy. I thought it would take a week but having to organise sponsorship and all the logistics was hard.’’

The positive feedback from parents made it worth while. ’’It would have been worth it even without the award, although it is nice to be recognised.’’

She had been impressed by all the youth award nominees, who came from varied backgrounds, but were ‘‘all driven by passion’’.