Amazing things happening here in our MAC community.

CENTRAL LAKES TRUST SCHOLARSHIPS

Congratulations to all of the MAC students who were awarded a Central Lakes Trust Scholarship. A list of names of those awarded scholarships are as follows (in no particular order): 

• Hayley Yule
• Kate Richards
• Peta McKay 
• Otto Burrows
• Stellar Nepia
• Jaime Toepfer
• Annabel Fairbairn 
• Jessie Fothergill 
• Christina Lamb 
• Tyler Greeks

ENTERPRISE IN ACTION - Y.E.S

In June this Year three Year 13 students from Mt Aspiring College - Sam Teal, Olivia Bates and Christina Lamb represented Southland at a national Enterprise in Action competition run by the Young Enterprise Trust in Wellington. This Enterprise in Action weekend is the Young Enterprise Scheme on steroids! It is a weekend full of learning opportunities, discovery of personal skills and the diversity of the skills of others, and it provides endless opportunities to network and build friendships. Christina was part of the winning team in Wellington in June and then went on to represent New Zealand at a Global Enterprise Challenge in Chile during the last school holidays.

During this all expenses paid trip to Chile, Christina learned so much about the culture and the Chilean way of doing business from the jam-packed week of business meetings and activities. Businesses in Chile focus on having a relaxed and social working environment where they have longer working hours but get more done whilst enjoying the company of their co-workers. This is something that Christina thinks New Zealand could be better at, as we tend to focus on just getting the job done then going home rather than having social connections with our co-workers. On reflection Christina believes the trip has truly been amazing and has given her knowledge about the local culture and an insight into global entrepreneurship as well as skills which she will be able to apply to her future studies and career.

Sam, Christina and Olivia would recommend any future budding entrepreneurs to put themselves forward for the many opportunities that can come your way from being a participant in the Young Enterprise Scheme.

THE LION FOUNDATION YOUNG ENTERPRISE SCHEME 

In 2019 Mt Aspiring College once again participated in The Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme as part of the Southland Region. This year we had 61 students who formed 12 companies. Students developed and took to the market a variety of sustainable and innovative products such as earthquake kits, sproutable pencils, reusable zip lock bags, upcycled car air fresheners, nutritious baking mixes and redefined soap.

Throughout the year students engaged in entrepreneurial experiences, developed a range of skills to help them in their future careers while gaining valuable life skills such as teamwork, negotiating and the importance of taking calculated risks.

As well as this, students were competing for Regional Excellence Awards and aiming to be the Southland Regional Company of the Year. At an awards ceremony in Invercargill held last week four Mt Aspiring College companies won four of the six Regional Excellence Awards:

• Award for Environmental Sustainability - Eco Essence, Mt Aspiring College (upcycles air fresheners)

• Award for Sales & Marketing - Berzelius, Mt Aspiring College (reusable ziplock bag)

• Award for Solving a Development Problem - Alpine, Mt Aspiring College (earthquake kit)

• Award for Innovation - Sapo Soap, Mt Aspiring College (redefined soap)

Two companies SAPO Soap and Alpine placed in the top eight in the region and had the opportunity to pitch their businesses to a panel of ten judges to see who would be crowned Regional Champion. Both teams did extremely well with Alpine placing third. The top spot went to Head First from James Hargest College who will now represent the region at the National Awards in December.

Our students could not have had this amazing experience this year without a huge amount of support from our local business community. THANK YOU!
We would like to thank the Ignite Wanaka Business Chamber for their continued support, both their financial support and their time given to work with and support the student companies. Also thanks to the many business mentors and sponsors this year - Wanaka Lavender Farm, Mitre10 Wanaka, Pure New Zealand Ice-cream, Lake Wanaka Tourism, Multi Peak Fitness, Ashton Wheelans Wanaka, Flux Capacity, Jodie Rainsford Photography, Allerton Recruitment, Wanaka Library and Southern Wild Wanaka.