Lochie Cowles - Preforming Arts Prefect

Kia Ora,

My name is Lochie Cowles and I’m the performing arts prefect at Waitaki Boys’ for 2020. My role is to help organise many events and performances we have throughout the year as well as encourage boys to get involved in any aspect of performing arts. We are a school with a rich history of artists and it is a tradition I intend to help continue. As Covid-19 has been a major interruption, many of our annual or bi-annual events have had to be canceled or reinvented to increase the chance of them happening. Unfortunately our school musical had to be cancelled this year but we are still going to be doing a show that is a combination between our Winter Concert, SCRANO, and Talent Quest. This will be in mid-term 3 and should be an amazing night so I encourage you to come along and encourage your son to get involved.

There were many goals I had for the year that unfortunately could not be achieved because of lockdown. I was looking forward to playing the lead in the school musical as it was a role larger than I had ever had before and a great challenge. Another one of my goals was to get SKC involved in our Waitaki Combined Choir which I ended up managing to achieve. Academically, my main goal is to achieve University Entrance as I am planning on attending The University of Canterbury for 2021. I am also hoping to leave my mark within the school this year. I really am wanting to try and get the arts pushed and seen as a legitimate road and career path for someone. Certain students excel in subjects such as science and maths but some are a lot more creative and artistic.

There were many different reasons as to why I wanted to become a prefect. I see it as an opportunity to develop and really display your leadership abilities within the school which is obviously helpful in later life. Many of my friends who have already left school were prefects in their year 13 and all told me that it was an amazing experience and has significantly affected them. To me being a prefect means representing your school with pride and being someone that the other boys can respect. I think that nowadays respect from the boys looks like you being someone that they can joke around with and see as a friend. The idea of prefects somehow being above their fellow students is old and not suitable to a modern environment. Essentially a prefect should be like an older brother to the younger boys and a mate to those closer to year 13.

As a part of this all of the prefects were given a template with certain questions that we should answer within this introduction. We were asked to speak about a role model of ours and how they inspired us. For me the first person who comes to mind is the Green Party MP Chlöe Swarbrick. She is a young woman in Parliament who has done more in her single term than many lifelong politicians. She is someone who is in no way afraid to stand up for what she believes in and actively fights for the rights of the people. She is also someone who seems easily approachable and is willing to have a conversation about any number of issues in our country. My long-term goal is to eventually work in Parliament within some capacity and she is someone that I strongly look up to. Not many 25 year olds have made an impact on the youth of a country and the country in general as she has so that is why I think she is an amazing role model.

As you can probably tell, on top of performing arts I am very passionate about both local and country wide politics. I'm very involved as I am a member of The Waitaki District Youth Council as well as volunteering for Liam Wairepo, the Labour Party candidate for Waitaki. If anyone wants to get a hold of me about performing arts at Waitaki Boys' or anything else related to the school feel free to email me at either 127018362@waitakibhs.school.nz or at lochlan.cowles@gmail.com . I'm happy to tell you about what's coming up and ways that your son can get involved with performing arts in our school!

Ngā Mihi,

Lochie Cowles