Scholarship Recipient Stories

Chelsa Walker 2010 Art Schoalrship Recipient - fourteen year old Chelsa, one of only two entrants from NZ, recently travelled to the prestigious 40ú Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne (40^th World Irish Dancing Championships) held in Glasgow, competing amongst 4500 entrants from 32 countries. The celebration of Irish dance, heritage and culture provided Chelsa with an outstanding experience and a wealth of knowledge and information that is going to benefit her peers and dance classmates back in Southland.
Ben De Groot 2009 Scholarship Recipient - Southland's very own Tool Black Ben de Groot received the 'Best of New Zealand Award" at the 40th Worldskills International Competition recently held in Calgary, Canada. Ben, an apprenctive electrician from Gore, also received a medal for excellence in electrical wiring and was supported to attend the event through a CTOS Scholarship. The Worldskills International Competition, the biggest event of its kind in the world, is held biennially and involves over 800 competitors from trades, service and technical programs.
Storm Uru 2009 Sport Scholarship Recipient - achieves his dream of becoming a World Champion and recently Storm noted these inspirational words in an upadte to CTOS "It is an incredible feeling to become the best in the world at something. Something that will live with me for the rest of my life....the finish was emotional, the presentation of the gold medal oh so good, and the national anthem being played for us becoming the best in the world was too much. So much pride, so much elation, to achieve something which four years ago I could never even think was possible. It reinstates my thought that the only barriers to achieving ones dreams is oneself".
Anna MacDonald 2009 Art Scholarship Recipient - attended the Berklee College Songwriter's Spring Break Workshop in Nashville. During the course Anna met well known American artists and technicians and visited some renowned Nashville landmarks such as the Ryman Auditorium. The course provided Anna with an increased confidence in her song writing abilities and provided an awareness and deeper insight into the music industry. Anna is currently an ambassador for Play It Strange Trust and is an artist featured in the recently released "Great New Zealand Songbook" alongside Dave Dobbyn, Bic Runga and Opshop.
Grace Anderson 2009 Outward Bound Scholarship Recipient - recently returned from a 21 day Mind, Body and Soul course for 16-18 year olds. Grace told the Community Trust that "it was great to work in a team with 12 other strangers from day 1 right till the end. By day 2 we were all real good friends and were learning to keep going even when we wanted to give up." During her three week experience, Grace worked as a team to successfully sail a cutter around the Marlborough Sounds, and completed a half marathon. Well done Grace!
Mitchell Young 2008 Community Leadership Recipient - attended The Royal Society of Victoria's "Young Science Ambassadors" programme in Melbourne in January 2009. As part of the programme, Mitchell and 52 other participants from around world took part in a flyover of the South Magnetic Pole to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the first party to locate the pole on January the 16^th, 1909. Mitchell described the flyover as an experience he will never forget. Other highlights included meeting the Australian PM, Kevin Rudd, as well as the opportunity to meet many people from various walks of life.
Raymond White 2008 Art Scholarship Recipient - recently returned from the U.K. and Europe where he has been researching the history of Celtic music and the musical ethos that Irish and Scottish pioneers brought to Southland. Raymond's research was undertaken in such libraries as the Mitchell Library of Glasgow, University of St Andrews Library and the National Library of Vienna where he had access to a number of rare historical texts, manuscripts and expert scholars. Raymond is currently working on the publication of a book on the subject, as well as an anthology of Celtic music from which he hopes a number of pieces will be performed in Southland in 2010/2011.
Tim Café 2008 Sports Scholarship Recipient - Manages to juggle skiing and study. Tim finished his first full European winter season on a high with his best slalom result ever at Isola in the south of France - 27 FIS points. He also made points results in Downhill, Super G and Super Combi, and improved his world ranking to within 20 places of discretionary qualification for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Some other highlights for Tim this season included racing in the French Champs alongside two inspirational athletes Slalom World Number 1 Jean Baptiste Grange and Number 4 Juilien Lizeroux. After completing his Marketing degree last year Tim is now tackling 3 more papers towards his Philosophy degree.
Sophie Smith 2008 Community Leadership Scholarship Recipient attended the 2008 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Young Agenda 21 Foundation of Norway TUNZA Children's Conference. Sophie is a very proud Southlander who's passion is local native flora, fauna and in particular the 'Takahe'. Sophie works hard in her own time promoting the Takahe and Department of Conservation, learning computer skills for her many presentations, writing speeches, information booklets and letters about the Takahe.
Nathan Cohen 2008 Sports Scholarship Recipient followed up on his impressive Beijing Olympics achievement, winning the Mens Single Sculls at the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta. The regatta is the world's largest two-day rowing event, which boosts more than 7,500 athletes from around the world competing in 55 different race events. Then it was off to Switzerland to compete in the Armada Cup, a very different event involving 300 boats which saw men, women, masters, youth and elite all starting together in a grid format. Nathan finished 4th in the event and came away with gold for the mens under 23 section, having competed alongside NZ's Mahe Drysdale, Olaf Tufte (Olympic champion), Lassi Karronan (Olympic finalist) and other Olympic representatives.
Alana Reid 2007 Murihiku Health Scholarship Recipient - Alana achieved her goal of becoming a qualififed Paramedic in September 2008. The final stages of her qualification involved; ‘mentoring' which saw her practicing new skills on the road with a supervisor/trainer, ‘work place assessment' - an on the road assessment demonstrating competency in new skills and 'viva' - a 15 min oral exam/interview with the St John Southern Region Medical Advisor. Alana stated in an email to CTOS "I would like to thank the CTOS for the support received from the Murihiku Health Scholarship, it has offset some of the costs associated with gaining this qualification and allowed me to purchase some good resources, some of which are now being used by others".
Verdon College Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Group 2007 Art Scholarship Recipient - received the award for 'Outstanding Use of Music and Song in Performance' at the Univeristy of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare In Schools National Fesitval, held in Wellington at Queens Birthday weekend. The Verdon College students won the right to represent Southland as winners of the regional final of the Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Competition.