St Johns Rotary sponsored three Year 12 students we sponsored to attend the two-week live-in Rotary National Science and Technology Forum which was held at Auckland University in January.  Mya and Joshua from Glendowie College, and Peter from Sacred Heart, recapped highlights of the programme and their experiences of the Forum to a recent club meeting and emphasised how much it has already helped each of them open their eyes to so many more study opportunities when they leave school at the end of this year.  
 
Across the two weeks they attended a range of modules held by Massey, AUT and UoA such as;
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Biological Science
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Biomedical Science
  • Chemistry
  • Create & Make Workshop
  • Microbiology & Food Science
  • Molecular Biology
  • Nutrition
  • Physics
  • Psychology
  • Robotics
  • Sports Science
  • Video Science
There was also a social programme which further enabled the students to mix and mingle with other students and form a great new base of friends, many of who will in all likelihood be part of their lives forever.
 
St Johns Rotary member Peter Buchanan is one of many Rotarians who helps coordinate the Forum which attracted 170 students this year, and it has been a Rotary programme for the last 32 years.  There is an enormous amount of work and logistics to put the programme together and Rotary should be very proud of their efforts in this regard.
 
In summarising the experience, the three students highlighted that their participation in the Forum has helped to identify new interests and to better understand what they do and don't want to do in the future, and they are very grateful to the Rotary Club of St. Johns for helping give them this experience.  They feel inspired for what the future holds and they look forward to making us proud of their efforts in the years to come.