In Week 10, students Conrad Moemoe Seiuli, Feofaaki Sau, Zeb King - Tamihana, Melissa Halaleva and Isileli Sau were involved in PMP - Programming Māori and Pasifika Potential.

This programme is a digital start up accelerator using hackathon and design thinking methodologies, to create digital technology solutions to solve big community problems. It has an elongated start up weekend spread across six weeks with a Show Case Wānanga where rangatahi use hackathon methodologies to create digital prototypes to pitch to potential investors. Further details can be found on the PMP website.

Other schools involved in the Ōtautahi PMP kaupapa were Avonside Girls' High School, Shirley Boys' High, Kaiapoi High School and Villa Maria College.

The students' business name was 'Pasifika Connect' and they created an APP called 'SEY', an acronym for 'Seriously Encouraging Youth'. The concept was for the APP to be a one-stop shop for students to find information about a variety of topics such as healthcare, careers and leisure, and could all be translated in to different pacific languages.  

Conrad Moemoe Seiuli won the overall He Rangatira award, which is only given to one student. He was presented with a backpack of goodies and a smart watch. 

The evening was finished with a lovely meal and all the students mixed and mingled with each other. It was a late but fantastic evening!

The overall winning businesses were RAFT (Villa) and Ino-vision (Shirley + Avonside) - they will attend nationals in Napier later in the year.