Māori and Pasifika young entrepreneurs spend their school holidays navigating a 36-hour One NZ Business Challenge
Last week, 45 exceptional rangatahi Māori and Pasifika young minds from high schools across Aotearoa were united in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland to attend the entrepreneurial education programme, ‘Young Navigators,’ by Young Enterprise Trust.
The initiative, sponsored by One NZ, alongside Pacific Business Trust, and New Zealand Māori Tourism, is designed to immerse Māori and Pasifika taiurua (students) in three days of enterprise-focused activities to connect, collaborate and learn. The programme is a fusion between the organisation’s flagship programme, ‘Young Enterprise Scheme,’ and a fast-paced startup weekend.
In teams, the students were hosted by1 of 7 New Zealand companies; One NZ, ARA Journeys, Spark Foundation, Deloitte,Grid Auckland, Pacific Business Trust and Ngahere Communities who mentored thestudents as they tackled ‘The One NZ Business Challenge’. Students werechallenged to create a business leveraging technology and innovation to build aresilient food system, improving any aspect of the food supply chain with theaim to address and alleviate the burden of food insecurities for whanau inAotearoa.
Team Ara Journeys took out first place in the 36-hour businesschallenge with their innovative solution addressing the challenge. The winningteam members were Rimu Tayor (Mount Albert Grammar School), Mariah Taungapeau (OtagoGirls High School), Akkadian Winterstein (Aorere College), Hu’i vaka (WesleyCollege), and Alize Ross-Araia (Hastings Girls High School), Lotia Lio (ChanelCollege), Thurston Ngametua (De La Salle College). The team was guided by therealumni mentor, Rosa Merideth, and company host from Ara Journeys, Amber Taylor.The judges were impressed by the teams plausible business plan and thescalability of their idea
Young Navigators student, Nikora, reflected on the programmesaying, “it was really good to share that experience with Māori and Pasifika asit’s not very common to have that same environment in our school businessclasses.”
“The One New Zealand Foundation and One NZ are proud to sponsorYoung Navigators this year. This programme ensures Young Māori and Pasifikastudents can ‘be’ and ‘see’ themselves in entrepreneurship. It also equips ouryoung people with the tools to create intergenerational change,” says Ezekeil, Headof Foundation at Te Rourou One Aotearoa Foundation.
Young Navigators participantswere chosen from applicants who are all participants in The Lion FoundationYoung Enterprise Scheme (YES) programme. They represented a total of 25 schoolsfrom 11 regions. The YES programme has over 5000 participants, who create andrun their own businesses throughout the school year as a part of theentrepreneurial education programme.