Ara | Te Pūkenga Pacific Bloom empowers students to consider new career choices

A secondary school teacher who has a long-standing involvement with the Ara | Te Pūkenga Pacific Bloom holiday programme for ākonga says its impact is powerful. 

A record 180 high school students from across Canterbury and South Canterbury joined the latest holiday study and cultural connection event at Ara – many choosing to live-in for three days at the Te Puna Wānaka marae on campus. 

Christchurch Girls’ High School Deputy Principal Maria Lemalie joined other secondary school teachers on the ground alongside Ara’s Pacific Team, seeking to tautoko (support) the programme and help ensure tutoring aligned with the NCEA curriculum. 

Having been involved with Pacific Bloom for three years, Lemalie had seen three-fold growth in participation and said Ara’s leadership and visible connection with communities and schools was paying off.  

“It’s a whole package. The access to resources and space for our Pacific students to get some study done and the team of mentors who provide the tuakana-teina or big-brother big-sister support all combine to help so many,” Lemalie said.  

She noted that many Pacific families don’t have devices easily available to enable concentrated work on assessments but also added “simply hanging out with others studying in this way raised the profile of achievement through a Pacific lens.” 

“I’m all about the kaupapa of ‘how can you be something you can’t see’?” she said. “Here our students meet older ones studying architecture, electrical engineering, nursing, midwifery and quantity surveying. These are jobs perhaps not traditionally in the scope of Pasifika but jobs our fast-growing community needs to be exposed to for the next generation.” 

Feedback from students echoed the sentiment. 

Hagley High School Year 13 student Esiteri Senibulu came to Pacific Bloom for help with calculus, physics and English. “It’s great to meet with other students needing the same help as me, as well as get closer to other people in the Pacific community,’ she said. “It’s my first time at Ara and it’s been good to see the opportunities and career pathways that might be open to me.”  

Stevie Chinnery, a Year 11 student from Rangiora High School said she decided to come to Pacific Bloom after attending the recent Pacific Careers Expo at Ara.  She said both experiences helped her grow confidence in her culture.  

“I found out in Year 8 that I was Niuean and I’ve become interested in doing more with people that are from my culture,” she said. “It makes you feel good and less divided being around people who understand you and your beliefs.” 

“It’s also good to get help with my maths!” she said smiling. “Finding out about future jobs and the courses that relate to them has been helpful too. The architecture session working on drawing boards and with 3D was really cool.” 

As well as experiencing one-on-one tutoring, workshops, course tasters, fun and prizes, 40 ākonga were invited to take part in a new collaboration between Pacific Bloom and the Recycle a Device (RAD) organisation. 

Guided by rangatahi tutors from Remojo Tech, the group learned digital technology skills by refurbishing recycled laptops which they were then able to take home. 

“We are delighted to have partnered with RAD and incorporated this great initiative into our Pacific Bloom programme,” Ara's Director of Pacific Achievement Sua Tauti said.  “Pacific families who are significantly impacted by barriers to accessing technology are very much in RAD’s target market.” 

“It was wonderful to see 40 ākonga take their own laptop home with them. We hope this relationship will grow into the future,” Tauti said.