On Friday 8th September our Student Executive Council hosted a leadership conference with three other Junior Colleges. This was the first ever Junior Leaders Convention in New Zealand and was planned and executed entirely by Mission Heights Junior College’s (MHJC) executive council.

Earlier this year, six MHJC students travelled to the 23rd Student Leaders’ Convention in Singapore and returned buzzing with ideas and the self-belief that they could drive initiatives to make a real difference to our society. The event on Friday followed a similar format to the global conference and students from Albany Junior High School, Ormiston Junior College in Flat Bush and Hamilton’s Rototuna Junior High School traveled to MHJC to work collaboratively through five themes:
Education – critical thinking, relying on digital devices
Cultural preservation – why is it dying?
Technological restraints – robots, employment
Humanising mental health
Youth contribution and involvement

Last Monday  we hosted our first ever ‘Women’s Change Makers Breakfast’. The event was a sell-out and Assistant Principal and organiser, Kate Lambert, believes this is the first of many to come. “Our female students came away with many inspirational messages about the power of women and girls to be creators and change-makers.”

Eighteen year old, Alexia Hilbertidou is CEO of her company Girl Boss and is passionate in encouraging girls to consider the opportunities the STEM courses offer in sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics. Her key concerns are the lack of women in CEO roles globally and how the future of females in the workplace needs to ensure more women make it into growth areas.

Dr Pralene Maharaj’s story was very moving, when as a 26 year-old, part  way through her medical studies, she contracted Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a rare and debilitating disease. Her journey to many achievements and her recovery was truly inspirational.

Two-time Olympian, ex-New Zealand Hockey player and coach, Christine Archer, was an entertaining speaker sharing her strong  mantra of the four C’s: Courage, Commitment, Choice and Confidence – helping young women be the best they can be.

During the breakfast students were seated alongside additional table guests – all successful young women in careers of Publishing, Marketing, Agriculture, Design, Engineering, Infrastructure, Electronics and Bio Medicine.

MHJC students excelled in the recent NIWA Science Fair with an outstanding high level of awards.  The Fair is an annual event, celebrating the excellence in scientific and technological investigation carried out by Auckland Year 7 to Year 13 students.

Congratulations to all those from MHJC recognised for their hard work in 2017:

1. Double winner Joanne Ting won Highly Commended in Years 9 to 13 Secondary Consumer Science as well as First Prize in the Award for Best Project Using Flour.

2. First Place Winners in the category Years 9 and 10 Living World – Leane Te Boekhorst and Solana Carpenter with presenter Lynn Dunbar.

An excellent result from our Year 7 & year 8 boys Basketball Team! After six fast-paced games, MHJC beat rival Farm Cove by 6 points to reach the semi-finals. They then went on to defeat St Kentigern Boys 17-12. This saw our team placed third overall in yesterdays South Eastern Zone Tournament.
Captain Denzel Pereira stepped up to become top points scorer and both Harrison Shao and Leandro Arabelo scored valuable 3 pointers. Great effort from the entire team.

Dr Fu, the National Advisor for Chinese, visited our College in August to present awards to the winners of the Chinese Bridge Speech Competition. Congratulations to winners Elsa McCormack (8M2) and Aadi Singh (9C1) shown below, receiving their prizes. Dr Fu was impressed by our facilities and our Chinese Teaching Programme. Later, he taught a Year 7 class how to use chopsticks with first prize of the Chopsticks Challenge going to Leo Cao (7C1).

Congratulations Nathan Zheng (8C2) for being placed first in the Kelston Deaf Education Centre Year 7 & 8 Speech Competition. Nathan is really happy to have won as he set himself this goal after placing second last year. Organisers described his presentation as outstanding!

Year 9 students took part in an exciting day trip to the Capital this week. First up was a visit to the Beehive, New Zealand’s parliament buildings. With the 52nd general elections looming, this was perfect timing to learn more about our country’s electoral system and a chance to visit the House of Representatives – where Ministers of Parliament (MPs) and Select Committees meet to debate and vote on matters of national importance. The MPs weren’t sitting at the time of our visit as they were campaigning for their Party in their own electorates.