Te Kawa a Māui senior lecturer Dr Ocean Mercier says the annual summer scholarship programme allows students to research current questions and pressing concerns amongst communities, academics and iwi.
“They’re a great group who have worked well together and exchanged ideas with each other. Victoria attracts students from all over Aotearoa New Zealand and so we had students working with Kahungunu, Taranaki Whānui, and lots of different iwi projects around the country. It was great to have a group of students representing that diversity.”
The students worked alongside an academic, researching a specific part of the academic’s project, while developing skills and knowledge to prepare them for further study.
“They’ve gained a lot: skills, connections with each other, with academics here, people they’re working with in iwi and other organisations. The programme has set them up for a great career.
“It’s been an awesome opportunity for me,” says summer scholar Jacob McGregor. “Not only in terms of developing research skills and putting into practice what I’ve been doing the past few years at university, but also in terms of developing network connections and getting to go to the places I’ve been researching, and having this physical and emotional connection with everything I’m learning. It’s been so rewarding—not only academically, but emotionally, physically, and spiritually.”
Dr Mercier says the academics also gained new perspectives.
“For a start, the scholars were younger and fresher with enthusiasm that they brought to the projects. When we got all of the scholars together you could feel excitement amongst the group. There is also that slightly different youth perspective on some of the issues that is really crucial for how questions are answered.”
The students worked on a variety of projects, including New Zealand’s youth voting system, different iwi languages and dialects, Māori identity and how that’s construed.
Dr Mercier says one of the greatest benefits is students were able to experience what it is like to work on a research project.
“The summer scholars programme gives students confidence. They are given a project and different steps to complete and milestones to achieve in it. It means they can see what a project looks like and that gives them insights into how they can formulate their own projects. I think the main thing that they get is confidence that they can be researchers—because they are researchers while they’re working with us.”