SPACPAC Pacific Leaders Breakfast

The (SPACifically Pacific) Emerging Leaders Breakfast recognises students who have made a significant contribution to the cultural and community life of their schools. As student leaders they are aclaimed for their ongoing demonstration of positive attributes and as ambassadors for Pacific values and culture.

sPACPAC as an organization aims to encourage Pacific success by joining together education communities with Pacific cultural communities and practices. This helps to empower Pacific students towards educational “aspirations, collaborations and success” by celebrating Pacific identities, languages and cultures throughout future tertiary education and careers.

The event also represents an opportunity for Pacific students from across the whole of Christchurch to come together and strengthen their associations with their peers.

This year’s gathering, which normally recognizes two Pasifika students from each Christchurch secondary school who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, instead featured three.

Sia Evalu, Pasifika Education Coordinator and sPACPAC member, attributes this to the fact that only three of the six planned SPACPAC events for the year actually went ahead due to COVID, so he wanted to make sure that this end-of-year celebration included as many Pacific students as possible.

Sia went on to say “Everyone that's put in for the service and leadership awards is tertiary-bound, and a big part of this is that a lot of them come from multi-generational in-home families, and often their parents are working, so as the older brother or sister, they look after the younger siblings - they're responsible.”

“The leadership roles that these young people describe in their applications are endorsed by either the Pasifika Dean or the principal of the school. We were reading the applications and we were like – ‘this person actually goes and hangs out at rest times during their spare time’, and we'll ring up the Principal and they'll say - yes, that's what they do!”

Esther Latu-Tiatia from Marian College, winner of the Memea Cultural Leadership and Meleane Tauveli from Hillmorton, winner of the Memea Service Leadership, are both planning to take the pre-nursing pathway at Ara, leading into the Bachelor of Nursing. Meleane was thrilled and surprised to win but said, “when I thought about it, I actually ended up doing quite a lot this year. A highlight was helping Etu Pasifika during the COVID lockdown – I was working with them doing admin, helping to get out food and financial aid to families that needed help. I got a lot of support from my family and teachers – I had to Zoom into some of my classes because of my time commitments.”

sPACIFICally collaborates with Ara to offer PACIFIC Memea Leadership Scholarships, which assist second-year students with their fees. Ara also offers Pacific students the ‘Pacific Higher Learning’ Childcare scholarships.