Māori in Engineering
Find out how the Faculty of Engineering supports Māori students, and read the stories of people who have been part of the Āwhina programme.
The Wellington Faculty of Engineering is committed to supporting the development of future Māori scientists, technologists, and engineers. A more diverse workforce in these areas will be of broad benefit to New Zealand, and will contribute to Māori development.
We support the Āwhina programme, which was founded at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington in 1999. We encourage our senior undergraduate and postgraduate Māori students to act as mentors for first- and second-year students, to ensure they flourish at university.
Kaiakiaki
Shontelle Nahona is the Kaiakiaki/Māori Engagement Advisor for the Wellington Faculties of Science and Engineering.
Shontelle Nahona
Kaiakiaki Maori Engagement Adviser
PVC Māori/Iwi Studies
Tāura
Kirita-Rose Escott and Kevin Shedlock are Tāura/Assistant Lecturers in the School of Engineering and Computer Science. They combine part-time work as lecturers with study for their PhD degrees. Kirita studying for her PhD within the School and lectures in Software Engineering. Kevin is doing his PhD through Monash University while teaching Software Development.
Lecturer
School of Engineering and Computer Science
Assistant Lecturer
School of Engineering and Computer Science
Students and former students
Naiki Pohe-Lomax
Read Naiki's story about changing from modern languages to Computer Science—and how that led to a job at Abletech.
Michael Tololi
Read Michael's story about how Āwhina offered him a whānau at university, and helped him go from a C student to an A student.