NORTH HARBOUR CLUB 2011 AIMES AWARDS
Biomedical Engineer takes 2011 Supreme AIMES Award
The annual North Harbour Club AIMES Awards were presented at a black tie gala dinner, attended by over 400 people, at the Bruce Mason Centre on Saturday October 29th. The AIMES Awards celebrate excellence achieved by young people in the North Harbour area in seven different fields. The Arts; Innovation, Science and Technology; Music; Education; Sport; Service to the Community. Since 1995 over $1.3 million has been provided in grants to AIMES Award winners by the North Harbour Club Charitable Trust.
The overall winner for 2011 was 22 year old former Northcote College student and Biomedical Engineer Richard Stebbing. Richard flew back from the UK, where he is studying, especially for the black tie awards evening. Richard has recently commenced his second year as a DPhil student at the University of Oxford in Biomedical Engineering. Richard is a former Head Boy and Dux of Northcote College and, upon leaving school, was awarded an NZQA Outstanding Scholar Award, an NZEST Scholarship, and a University of Auckland Scholarship. Based on his high school results, he was given the opportunity to skip his first year of a Bachelor of Engineering (BE) programme at The University of Auckland, enabling him to complete the degree in three years while still fulfilling the same course and work experience requirements. He graduated top of his class. Based on his work at high school and university, he was awarded a 2010 Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford. His intention is to use his AIMES Award to help fund his attendance at training programmes and conferences available to him while pursuing postgraduate study, and to assist with the costs of attending an Oxford University course on high performance programming. Richard picked up the AIMES Innovation, Science and Technology Award (sponsored by Massey University) as well as the Supreme AIMES Award. Richard received $20,000 from the North Harbour Club Charitable Trust.
The AIMES Arts Award, sponsored by ASB, went to another former Northcote College student, actor Elliott Christensen-Yule (23). At Northcote he performed in school plays, theatre-sports teams, Stage Challenge productions, and Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Competitions. In 2006, he received both the Jan Fraser Award for Student-directed Ensemble Work and the Dymocks Award for Special Individual Performance at the National Sheilah Winn Festival in Wellington. He maintains his contact with his old school, tutoring current drama students. Elliott has gone on to build a respectable résumé on both the stage and screen. Elliott received $10,000 from the North Harbour Club Charitable Trust.
The AIMES Music Award, sponsored by Albany Toyota, went to singer and former Rosmini College pupil Moses McKay (21).
A former Rosmini pupil, Moses describes himself as ‘a young artist with big dreams’. He completed a Bachelor of Music majoring in Classical Performance at the University of Auckland, and has been selected to be one of the three 2011/2012 PWC Dame Malvina Major Emerging Artists. Making his operatic debut at 19, in NBR New Zealand Opera’s 2010 production of The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart), Moses has since appeared in the chorus of Xerxes (Handel) and Macbeth (Verdi) where he was cast in the role of Assassin/Servant. He was the soloist in Schumann’s Mass in C minor with Choir and Orchestra (Bach Musica) and has previously been a member of The University of Auckland Chamber Choir and the New Zealand Youth Choir. Moses has been selected to attend the NZ Opera School in Wanganui in January 2012 where he will gain further experience and training. He is to start his honours at University in 2012 and then furthermore will look to study his Masters at both Manhattan School of Music or Juilliard School of Music.Moses received $10,000 from the North Harbour Club Charitable Trust.
Scholar Blake Hansen (23) received the 2011 AIMES Education Award, fittingly sponsored by Kristin School, where he attended until 2005, when he was Head Boy. Blake was awarded Kristin School’s Senior Achievement Trophy for All-Round Achievement including Education; the school’s Senior Sciences Trophy for the top sciences marks; an ASB Bursary for educational achievement; a University of Auckland Scholarship; and, 41 out of a possible 45 points in the International Baccalaureate Diploma, placing him among the top 5 per cent of worldwide students taking the diploma. Shortly after starting a biomedical sciences degree at the University of Auckland, Blake was awarded the Girdlers’ Scholarship, a scholarship awarded for overall ability and given to one New Zealand student annually for full-time undergraduate study at Corpus Christi College, the University of Cambridge, England. During the first two years of his course, Blake carried out research projects in human immunology and on Cancer Research UK’s prestigious summer studentship scheme. Both his bachelor’s and master’s dissertations reflected an interest in infectious disease; researching fragment-based drug design in the creation of novel medicines targeting tuberculosis, and the effect of dimerisation defects in reverse transcription in HIV-2, respectively. Both dissertations were awarded a first class. Blake’s intention was to study natural sciences at the University of Cambridge, leading towards a career in infectious disease research (HIV/AIDS and TB primarily). Five years on and he has graduated from Cambridge with a First Class Masters in Biochemistry. Blake intends to use the support of an AIMES Award to continue improving his skills as a youth worker, with the ultimate goal of working toward providing just care for adolescent HIV patients in developing nations. Blake, who has previously received an AIMES Emerging Talent Award, received $10,000 from the North Harbour Club Charitable Trust.
The 2011 AIMES Sport Award, sponsored by AUT Millennium, was won by basketballer Tom Abercrombie (24). There is an interview with Tom in this issue of Channel. Tom received $10,000 from the North Harbour Club Charitable Trust.
The 2011 AIMES Service to the Community Award, sponsored by Auckland City, was presented to community worker Amanda Judd (25). Amanda, who attended Northcote College, is a very active young person in our community. As the first appointed director of emerging trust YouthworX, she shaped the direction and mission of this key North Shore community organisation and has been involved with many projects and initiatives in the trust’s first three years. As part of her role with YouthworX, she actively built a network of more than 150 organisations and 200 people who work with North Shore’s youth. In 2008, Amanda founded LOVEnotes as a concept, taking used paper, turning it over, making it into ‘new’ stationery, and delivering it back to whoever it was collected from to re-use and give a second life. With three others, Amanda initiated the New Zealand Youth Delegation project (NZYD), a platform for young people to have a voice in international climate change politics and join in with the global youth climate politics movement. NZYD has also launched a sister organisation – The 2050 Alliance – which will provide power, leverage and supporters which the NZYD can spring off each year to enhance their advocacy and lobbying work. In 2009, Amanda set up the application process and infrastructure to appoint our first ever youth delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Negotiations in Copenhagen. She co-lead the delegation. Amanda was a recipient of a North Shore Civic Award in 2009. Amanda received $10,000 from the North Harbour Club Charitable Trust.
At the 2011 AIMES Awards, a Judges Special Award was made to Alisha McLennan. Alisha is a 23-year-old dancer, support dance tutor and mentor for Touch Compass Dance, New Zealand’s premier integrated dance company. She has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair during her performances. She grew up on the North Shore where she attended Wilson School, Belmont Intermediate and Takapuna Grammar School. Alisha first performed with Touch Compass at the company’s launch at the Auckland Art Gallery in 1999 going on to perform in the youth aerial performance My Room in 2000. As a 14-year-old, Alisha toured with Lusi’s Eden in 2002 to Taupo and Christchurch, and featured in Lighthouse later that year at the Aotea Centre. In 2003 she performed in Acquisitions 2003 and Nightswimmers with Splash Dance Company. In 2004, she performed in Flying Tales 2004, and later with Six and SLIP in 2010. Alisha has recently completed the Triple Bill tour to Hastings and Wellington. In 2009, Alisha undertook a teacher training workshop with Candoco, an internationally acclaimed UK based integrated dance company. At the beginning of 2010, Alisha began being mentored by Touch Compass. She volunteered in the office, worked as a dancer and support dance tutor along with being seconded to the trust board. She is a member of the inaugural Be.Leadership Programme 2011, a one-year programme that strengthens and promotes a cohesive and significant disability leadership community. She is also a passionate skier and won the Viv Martin Trophy in 2008 and 2009 for Most Outstanding Female Skier along with a number of gold medals in 2007, 2008 and 2009 at the New Zealand National Championships. Alisha intends to spend her AIMES Award funds to travel to the United Kingdom where there are opportunities to expand her knowledge of aerial performance with Wired Aerial Dance, as well as a diverse range of integrated dance companies, including Candoco. Alisha intends to pursue an international dance career and, in the longer term, wants to work with New Zealand’s disability and dance communities to ensure that dance is accessible for everyone. Alisha received $10,000 from the North Harbour Club Charitable Trust.
At a special cocktail function held at the Spencer on Byron Hotel on Wednesday October 26th the following were awarded North Harbour Club AIMES Emerging Talent Awards, sponsored by Hayes Knight. Alexandra Foster (20) Dancer/Singer/Actress; Adam Gerrett (19) Actor/Musician; Seok Jun Bing (18) Scientist; Aine Kelly-Costello (16) Musician; Lydia Ko (14) Golfer; Rebecca Dubber (18) Swimmer. Each received their award and $5000 from the North Harbour Club Charitable Trust.
............................................................................................................................
For more information on the North Harbour Club Charitable Trust
visit: www.northharbourclub.co.nz.
