On Tuesday the 6th July seven Year 12 Māori students went to the University of Canterbury for an introduction to what is available to study. When we arrived there was a mihi whakatau welcoming us to the university.

We then went off to different colleges, depending on what was most interesting to us. There were subjects like engineering, health, law, business, science, arts and teaching.

I went to engineering and got introduced to the other people in my group by playing some icebreaker games. I then got introduced to a small part of chemical engineering. We were with two current students who are in their 4th and 5th years and a lecturer. The students taught us how to make solar cells out of blueberries. So with my lab coat and safety goggles I attempted to make one. I was very surprised when it worked. It was fascinating and the labs at the university were pretty amazing with all the different equipment they had in there.

We were given a tour of a little part of the university. The whole place was massive and each building had something impressive about it. The one thing that fascinated me the most was the amount of food places or cafes there were around the campus. I felt like my culture was really represented around the place as each building had a Māori name with a meaning behind it. There were many paintings and carvings throughout the campus. The students also told us about the Māori community in the school. It seemed like a great place to study but you also have the support of teachers and other Māori students there.

There was free food for lunch from Fush and it was delicious. Overall it was a very eye opening experience as well as being interesting and fun. I really enjoyed my day at the university and I would definitely recommend next year's Year 12 Māori students to give it a go. I mean who wouldn’t want a day off school with free food and a wonderful experience.

By Eise Walker

Ngāti Awa