Māori leader wins Hare Puke scholarship

Kate Wynyard, Wintec’s student capability and Te Kete Kōnae (learning support) manager has been awarded the Hare Puke Māori Leadership Scholarship.

 

Kate, who is of Ngapuhi descent, was chosen for her outstanding leadership in improving Māori and Pasifika student success at Wintec and engaging with the Māori and Pasifika community.

 

“Kate has worked tirelessly to support our Māori and Pasifika students at Wintec and we’re delighted to see her awarded this scholarship,” says Wintec Director of Māori Hera White.

 

“Among her achievements, Kate has been able to identify which programmes Māori students are struggling in and put in place a programme that provides targeted support by allocating kaiāwhina (student advisor) to those programmes. She’s also set up partnerships with youth services community groups - Whai Mārama and Matatahi - to provide further support to Māori and Pasifika students and to act as a transition for potential students.

 

“Soon, along with our Centre for Health and Social Practice team manager Marlana Maru, she’ll be setting up a leadership support network of Māori Wintec staff.”

 

Kate said it felt amazing to be selected as this year’s recipient.

 

“I have a lot of respect for Hare Puke and the work he did around Wintec and the community. Everyone speaks of him with such high regard here, so to be a recipient of the scholarship is pretty special. It also recognises and validates the importance of building Māori staff capability at Wintec.”

 

Wintec established the scholarship in 2008 for staff to recognise and honour its late kaumātua, Dr Hare Puke. Its goal is to enable Māori staff to gain further leadership and management skills.

 

Kate is planning to utilise the scholarship to establish a leadership forum and values-based mentoring initiative for Māori women, using indigenous models. She will be working on this initiative with colleague Marlana Maru.

 

Kate said the pair were inspired to establish a forum after taking part in a leadership programme through Wintec last year.

 

“We identified that we were two of only a small handful of Māori managers across the institution. We wanted a way to retain and recruit Māori staff, empower them to thrive in this organisation, and who in turn would have a positive impact on our Māori students' experience at Wintec. We fleshed out the idea to create a forum to supercharge the development of wāhine Māori leaders and aspiring leaders, which the scholarship will pay for.”

 

Kate said the forum will involve current and emerging Māori women leaders to develop a best practice Māori Women's leadership model. The model will look at understanding values and strengths and how they align with career advancement; balancing whānau, hapu and iwi obligations with professional commitments; and overcoming career challenges and obstacles through a collective community.

 

The scholarship has a value of $15,000 per year and one additional week of professional development leave.