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I te marama o Hepetema i waimarie etahi tauira o nga kura tuarua o Ngati Porou me a ratau kaiako te haere ki Amerika ki te tirotiro haere ki Silicon Valley me te Whare Wananga o Stanford.
Koinei te hunga i haere, no Te Kura Kaupapa o Kawakawa-mai-Tawhiti ko Danielle Ruha raua ko Henare Brooking nga tauira a, ko Campbell Dewes, Makere Henare ratau ko Kerry-Ann Matahiki nga kaiako. No Te Waha o Rerekohu Area School ko Poutu O Te Rangi Taiapa me Iritana Taniora nga tauira, ko Caron Taana te kaiako. No Ngata Memorial College ko Maria Ngarimu me Exodus Haig nga tauira, ko Hannah Hohepa te kaiako. No Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Te Waiu o Ngati Porou ko Kaitiaki Walker-McClutchie raua ko Te Paea Dalton-Reedy nga tauira, ko Gerry Heeney te kaiako. No Tolaga Bay Area School me Kahuhuranui ko Rangituia Potaka raua ko Costa Blackman nga tauira, ko Hoana Forrester te kaiako.
E ai ki te mapu i haere, he haerenga miharo rawaatu ta ratau i haere ai. He momo mahi whakahihiko i te hinengaro, whakapuare i nga whatu, whakakipakipa i nga mahi a kura i roto i nga marau hangahanga me te ao matauranga. He mihinui tenei na nga tauira me nga kaiako o Amua Ao ki Te Runanganui o Ngati Porou, Ngati Porou Holding Company, J N Williams Memorial Trust, NZQA me Callaghan innovation mo te tautoko i ta matau haerenga. Otira ki nga Kura me nga Poari a Kura, nga hapori, nga whanau me nga hapu o Ngati Porou whanui tena koutou katoa.
I whiwhi i a māua ko Kaitiaki Walker-McClutchie te hōnore nui kia hāere hei māngai mo Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Waiu o Ngāti Porou, ā māua whānau, hapu, iwi hoki.
He hāerenga mātauranga tenei, hei ako i ngā āhuatanga mo ngā kaupapa STEM, arā, te Pūtaiao, Hangarau, Hanganga me te Pāngarau. He āmio hāere hoki ki te rohe o Silicon Valley, e kiia nei ko te pūtaketanga o te ao Hangarau.
Ko Callaghan Innovations me NZQA nga rōpu whakahāere o tēnei kaupapa. Na, ko o rātau kaimahi hoki ngā kaiārahi o tā mātau rōpu, me te kaupapa a Āmua Ao. E rima ra te roanga o a mātau mahi. He hāerenga rerekē i ia ra, he akoranga hou hoki.
I whai wā mātau ki te korero tahi i te taha o wētahi tauira Tākutatanga Roia, Kaipūtaiao Koiora, ki te Kura Waihanga o Te Whare Wananga o Stanford me ngā kaimahi o wētahi tūmomo kamupene/pākihi kātahi anō ka tīmata (start-ups). Pēnei i a Nearpod me tetahi rōpu Kiwi Landing Pad, he rōpu o Aotearoa e tauawhi ana i ngā kamupene hou o Aotearoa tonu ki te whakatū pakari, me te whakatipu ki San Francisco.
Ahakoa wā rātau kaupapa mahi, kei runga rātau i te kaupapa ōrite. Kua māro te titiro ki te ao o ngā ra e heke mai nei, i roto hoki i te ao Pūtaiao, Hangarau, Hanganga, Pāngarau. Ko ta Josh Steinman, “Kei runga te ipurangi te nuinga o ngā taputapu hei timata i tāhau ake pākihi”. Na reira, mahia ngā mahi e kaingakau ana ki a koe, ā, mā te hangarau e ārahi pea i a koe ki tetahi tūmahi hei oranga māhau.
Ko te Whare Wānanga papai rawa tuarua tēnei o te ao whānui. He mīharo tona āhua, me tona rahi nui rawa. I whai wāhi mātau i tetahi ‘Scavenger Hunt’ ā ipu-rangi, arā, he whakataetae hei hurihuri hāere ki te kohikohi taputapu me tango whakaahua. Nā tēnei, i whai mōhiotanga mo ngā wāhi matua o te Wānanga. Ka mutu ka toa te rōpu i whakautu tika ngā pātai, i kohia ngā rawa maha rawa. Ehara nāku taua rōpu toa.
I nekehia mātau ki roto ki a San Francisco ki te Exploratorium; he whare taonga Pūtaiao e tautoko ana i te tikanga ako ‘wero hinengaro’ (inquiry based learning). Mā te haututu hāere ki ngā taputapu Pūtaiao, ka pūta ngā pātai, kātahi ka rapa whakautu, ka wero hāere te hinengaro, ka āta whakatika raru, ā, ka whai mōhiotanga. Mā te tauira tona ake huarahi ako e whakahāere. Mā te Kaiako tonu e ārahi e āwhina.
I kite mātau i ngā kaupapa rangahau o ngā whiringa toa o te whakataetae Pūtaiao a ao o Kūkara. Pēnei i te whakatika i ngā raru i te ao matekai (world hunger) me ngā tauraki tino roa ki ngā whenua o Awherika. He tauira Whare Wānanga katoa te rōpu tino 9 o te ao.
I tiro hāere mātau ki tēnei kamupene a ao e mahi ana i ngā rawa hanga. Ko te kamupene nui rawa tuatoru o te ao ki te whai kanataraki mahi rawa tēnei. E 90 ā rātau kamupene i ngā whenua e 23, me te kaute kaimahi 175,000. He kamupene waihanga i ngā momo matu, parahitiki, mētera, mihini rorohiko karetao (robots) me ngā pureretā āhua ahu 3 (3D Printer) me te maha anō.
I mutu wā mātau mahi ki te Piriti Koura (Golden Gate Bridge). He arotake, he whakawhiti kōrero mo ngā mahi pārekareka ki te whenua ra. Ko ngā mahi, he whakarite whainga mo te mutunga o tēnei tau, me ngā tau e heke mai ana.
Na mātau o Āmua Ao te hōnore nui ki te peka atu ki kōrā, kia kite atu ai i ērā āhuatanga mīharo! Ka noho pūmau ēnei mātauranga, ēnei mōhiotanga ki toku taha mo ake tonu atu.
We travelled to Stanford University and our first challenge there was a scavenger hunt where my team won the ‘pukana’ challenge and I received my first but not last gold medal.
Following this we met with one of the students attending Stanford University who studies biology. He is currently working on research about cultural evolution and the way that creativity shapes the change in human technology. Then after him was another student attending Stanford who is a PhD graduate student in the biology department. She showed us her very interesting study of the fruit fly which was cool because other than her I’ve never heard of anyone studying a fruit fly, which shows you can study anything as long as you know your science and maths because those play a big part in biology. The biggest message to me was to always try your best in those 2 subjects because you will need them later on in life.
Later that afternoon we met Professor Baba Shiv, who has travelled to NZ many of times, who said by the time he finished high school and moved on to college he had changed his subjects so many times before he found what he was really passionate about and pursued that goal. He is now an American Marketing Professor and an expert in the area of Neuroeconomics. Inspiration for today – you are more than what you think you are worth.
We went to Jabil which is a global manufacturing services company. It is the third largest contract manufacturer in the world with 90 facilities in 23 countries and 175,000 employees worldwide. It is also very top secret as some of the things in there have not yet been released in any tech companies. It was cool to be the first people to actually see these kinds of products and technological advances. Something I found interesting was a basketball that was in one of their meeting rooms. It counts how fast you are going with the ball and how many times you are bouncing it. The NBA basketball teams use this ball but only in training.
In another room there was a huge screen that shows the world. It is linked to buoys fitted with the latest technology that detects ocean movement and so we get tsunami warnings early thanks to them. Then later on that day we met with Josh Steinman, a young entrepreneur, who started up his own sock company online using the internet. He was one of the first online sales companies and is very rich as a result of his innovation and use of technology.
Today was a very emotional day, mixed emotions, but a very good learning curve for everyone. Ashanti the fellow that runs the programme had us all sit around in a circle and get up close and personal. We first listened to some of his life stories then later talked about ours and that’s where everything went emotional! We learnt how to respect each other more because we now understood how other people actually felt beyond first appearances. There was a much deeper side to their smiles and laughter.
Out of all the days, this day was my most favourite where I learnt how to be more respectful towards other people and to not judge a book by its cover. It made me feel much more comfortable with my other peers and like I could open up more freely about things.
Later on that day we visited the Exploratorium where we didn’t have to be held down by the Koka’s and had to be in there sight 24/7 which was real cool since we were allowed to touch everything and anything. My favourite thing there was an emotion changer ball each colour made your emotion change which really ‘tripped me out’ and there was ordinary looking lockers but they had a twist the handles on them were pianos!!!! This day overall was just amazing.
Today we met Gary Bolles the co-founder of e-parachute a start-up company focused on helping job-hunters and people who want to change careers. He had us all in a group discussing what we would like to pursue as a job career. It was really interesting seeing what some of the other students had for ideas for their careers. It’s alright to change careers because it’s all about trying things out and that’s where you learn and grow.
Then we visited Google and when you become a part of Google and work for them you are called a ‘Googler’. You get a special weird plane looking hat to wear and we had a turn on some virtual goggles which was really cool. I had to get up and walk around which led to bumping into to people and running into tables but it’s all for the experience. We saw some really interesting things stuff that has not yet come out on the market. Google is the most visited website in the world it beats Facebook/YouTube. Google take big parachutes over to places where there is no Wi-Fi or service. The parachutes actually have satellites that allow these isolated places to connect to the internet. A single google search requires more computing power then it took to send Apollo 11 to the moon. This day was very educational and adventurous.
