Here we celebrate student achievement and showcase activities our students are involved in around college.

SMOKEFREE ROCKQUEST

MAC students had a great night at the Central Otago Smokefree Rockquest regional final with the following students performing at the event:

Band category:

• Salty Vision: Max Byrne, Rowan Rosie, Tay Simpson, Tawa Wolfe

• Day Glow: Portia Randall, Brooke Hutchison, Bianca James, Vanessa Vickers, Miki Bercelli

• Feed The System: Toby Mills, Tommy Cotter, Archie Bruce

• Parabola: Domenico Robinson, Abby Jago, Jayden Robertson

• Superficial: Zara Weatherly, Axel Macdougall, Harrison Eastwood, Cormack Lee Smith

• Spoken: Matilda Metcalfe, Richard Denyer, Oscar Goodwin

• Mocka: Molly Wilson, Clarke West, Otis Murphy, Henry McConnell

• Izzy and the Anchors: Izzy Foskett, Chloe Murray, Lola Ritchie, Luke Gendall, Eliza Rowley

Solo/duo category:

• Paige Gawn

• Ruby Smith

All of our acts represented the college incredibly well and shared some exceptional original music, with MAC receiving the following awards:

• Spoken (Matilda Metcalfe, Richard Denyer, Oscar Goodwin): 1st place

• Salty Vision (Max Byrne, Rowan Rosie, Tay Simpson, Tawa Wolfe): 3rd place

• Domenico Robinson (Parabola): Musicianship award

From here, ‘Spoken’ will produce a 15-minute live music video showing a variety of their songs. The top two placeholders from each region will do the same, with the top 30 selected to go through to the next round. Last year ‘Spoken’ made it into the top 20 bands in New Zealand. We wish them luck for this year’s competition.

Congratulations to all the students who performed and our students who won awards - we are all so proud of you! And thank you to our Head of Music Mat Doyle for his support and guidance of our students. 

DISTRICT LIONS SPEECH COMPETITION

Year 13 students Jackson Duguid, Libby Frazer, and Nina Lee Smith competed at the District Lions Speech Competition (Central Otago and Southland) at Blue Mountain College over the weekend. Jackson placed first and Libby second. The standard was extremely high and our students represented themselves and their school in an excellent manner.

The first round was a 5-6 minute prepared speech. Jackson spoke on 'Environmentalism', Libby spoke on 'Dyslexia as a gift', and Nina spoke on 'Tolerance for this generation'.

The second round (with only a minute preparation) was an impromptu speech of 1-2 minutes: 'Your attitude will determine your success in every situation'.

It was an exciting day and Jackson now goes on to represent the district at the national competition in Rangiora in August.

STUDENTS IN THE COMMUNITY

The Big Shout Out is a new campaign encouraging organisations to give a shout-out to their volunteers this June. We will be showcasing the efforts of some of our student volunteers this month, so keep a look out here and see what’s been going on.

This week we would like to give a shout out to Sienna Jones who is in Year 13. Sienna deserves a massive shout out for all of her hard work within our school and in our wider community. Here is what she has to say about spending her time helping others.

"I’ve always loved helping people. After a rough first few months to 2023 I decided to throw myself into volunteering to forge new connections and make new friends. Volunteering has been something that I have done but this year I set myself a goal of 50 hours that I hope soon to achieve.

M!NT Charitable Trust was one of the first places I volunteered at for Students in the Community. I’ve always known a few people from MINT so it was an amazing opportunity to meet the full crew! I have made valuable connections with the MINT crew members and feel so privileged to work alongside them as a regular volunteer. The opportunity to work with MINT has helped me learn so much about others and I feel so honoured to be someone they trust to hold their hand through challenges or to have a good chat about their passions and interests! I love watching them achieve their goals and learn new skills. Every week I help them out at the gym where we play games, improve our balance and work on getting stronger. Occasionally I have helped out at their art classes or trips to explore special locations around Wānaka. I always look forward to spending time with the MINT crew and make sure to say hello when I see them at school or around town. There’s always something new to learn and good laughs to have with MINT!

I’ve also volunteered at the local Wānaka library helping elderly with technological issues. It feels amazing helping others gain confidence in themselves. Everyone is so thankful for the digital help that some even bring in treats to show their appreciation. I find it exciting showing them how to work around issues themselves. It’s awesome to know that they come in weekly not just for assistance but for a chat!

At school, myself and other Year 13 students taking Spanish have formed a group called Spanish club to help juniors increase their language skills. It’s awesome seeing so many young people keen on learning about different cultures. We use games like Kahoot, Blooket and Spot It to encourage them to use Spanish and reward them with delicious hispanic lollies. I hope that this club encourages them to continue Spanish!

Even when I achieve my Students in the Community goal I am going to continue to volunteer because I genuinely love helping others. Giving up your own time to volunteer is a truly amazing thing to do and you will find that everyone is so appreciative for your help. Volunteering is something I believe everyone should do because even though you don’t get paid in money you get paid in appreciation, experience and kindness". 

40 HOUR CHALLENGE WEEK

Mount Aspiring College students challenged themselves in various ways this past week to support World Vision's efforts to bring life-changing clean water to kids like Madalitso in Malawi, and give communities the tools to keep clean water flowing for years to come.

School-based activities run by the student committee included a movie night in the gym for Y7-10 students, a bake sale, a sponsored breakfast for staff, a disco for Y7-8 students and a DJ set one lunchtime. These efforts contributed more than $1100 to the MAC effort. Individually, student's efforts ranged from fasting for 40 hours to walking 40km or 40,000 steps, summiting Mt Iron 40 times, distributing 40 rocks painted with kindness messages around Wānaka, jumping off the jetty into the lake 40 times. Everyone enjoyed their activity and is proud to be continuing MAC's long-time involvement with this charity. Support from local businesses Kai Pai Bakery and New World Three Parks for some of these activities is appreciated very much.

The fundraising total now exceeds $6600, but there is still time to donate using the QR code below.

SCHOOL CLUBS

MAGIC The Gathering Club, Friday lunchtimes, Soc Sci 4 - between the playground and the field. Bring your best commander decks!