Career programme gets funding boost
A programme that supports Ma¯ori to study and enter careers in science, technology, engineering and maths has received $975,000 of Provincial Growth Fund money.
Massey University’s Pu¯horo STEM Academy was established in 2016 to encourage more Ma¯ori into such subjects.
The academy works with students from year 11 until their second year of university so long as they stick with science-based subjects.
Director Naomi Manu said the funding would provide support for Ma¯ori students from eight Manawatu¯ schools.
It would give 250 students in Manawatu¯ training for two years and help place 50 students into internships.
Manu said the funding would help encourage and create pathways for Ma¯ori students to get high-value jobs.
She said it was not uncommon for ama¯ori student to be the only brown face in the room at university. ‘‘That can be isolating. We want to disrupt and change that.’’
Ma¯ori make up less than 2 per cent of the sciences and technology workforce within New Zealand.
‘‘So many of our young Ma¯ori are being streamed out of science, which is why the largest drop off of science participation occurs between year 11 and 12, when science is no longer compulsory at school.’’
Two-thirds of the students in the programme were not originally going to stick with academic study, but had since changed paths.
‘‘What’s important is the connection to who they are as Ma¯ori. That’s what is missing from the education system.’’
Staff spend one hour a week with the students at secondary school, both mentoring and teaching science to the students.
Mentoring included learning about time management, study skills and mental health.
It also encouraged what Manu called the multiplier effect, where first-generation Ma¯ori students going to university encouraged their friends, siblings and family members to go too. ‘‘It’s not handholding. They do the work and they’re so motivated, but they develop this self-belief and confidence that they may not have had before.’’
Meschka Seifritz, 20, joined the Pu¯horo STEM Academy in year 11 of school and has developed a tutoring company, where previous students in the programme help the new students.
It was the only Ma¯ori tutoring programme in New Zealand, and had tutors in Auckland, Manawatu¯ and Christchurch, she said.
It was important her tutors understood how to engage Ma¯ori students. Her favourite part was seeing students’ faces when they finally grasped the concepts being taught. Seifritz said she hated secondary school and went only to eat her lunch and play basketball with her friends. She initially joined the programme because she’d get time out of class and to go on trips.
She never planned to attend university, but is in her second year of a bachelor of science, with a double major in environmental science and Ma¯ori studies.
‘‘It was the best decision I’ve ever made.’’