John Beijen is a guy that you just instantly like... He is quirky, he is driven, he is a helper, he is intelligent and he is super happy just being himself. 

I decided to find out a bit more about the man representing the current students as a speaker at Hagley's 50 Year celebrations held last weekend.

John was a natural choice to represent the current Hagley students at the 50 Year celebrations. He is the kind of guy you know you can rely on. John informed me that he couldn’t wait to be involved in the celebrations and jumped at the chance to speak when Ros Jackson approached him. He was looking forward to passing on to a captive audience his love for all things Hagley. He singles out the unique learning environment as being something he is particularly proud of and is relishing the opportunity to tell everyone about it.

You could be mistaken for thinking that John, being so passionate about Hagley, has been here forever... In actual fact he came to Hagley College mid Year 12 from a private boarding school in the Wairarapa. He informs me it was sports orientated and quite narrow in its outlook of education. John moved to Christchurch with his parents and saw Hagley as a logical choice. This was based around it being unique and a place that would allow John to be himself. John calls his first experience a ‘culture shock’. He states, “There were all these colours, it was liberal. It was also very inviting.”

John said he found it easy to identify with a group and followed that up by saying that there is a group for everyone at Hagley, there are so many students.

Hagley’s strengths according to John are that it lends itself to individuality and that’s not to take anything away from the learning environment as it is student-focused and flexible.

What does the future hold for John? Well, he is currently studying Painting, Art, Drama and doing a STAR course at university in Politics. John has big goals, he wants to study politics and he wants to do it at Cambridge or North Carolina. He is considering applications for these schools now. Why Politics? He is concerned, concerned about the future and sees himself as being socially aware. John is a capable student, he achieved NCEA Level 2 with Excellence and is on track to do the same at Level 3. When he talks about scholarships and overseas colleges and political science you just somehow know that he will get there, he will be somebody and be involved in making this country better. He puts it all down to learning to apply himself at Hagley, being responsible for his learning and his success.

In ten years' time, John will be on his way to making a change. He is unsure how that will manifest itself for now but he will be positioning himself to go places.

His advice for new Hagley students included not being afraid that you will fit in or be an outcast, there is no such thing at Hagley. There is a group for everyone.

He sums Hagley up with,

“It’s not conventional, but conventional is not always better and Hagley is testament to that fact.”

John, in recent times has joined the Student Council and we have thoroughly appreciated the contribution he has made. He is a doer and we have been focusing on gathering student voice around wellbeing to help focus our work for next year.

It is such a privileged position having the opportunity to meet and speak with such inspiring students. Thanks John for a chance to get to know you better.

Rowan Milburn