The voice of students The Whai Ake programme at Unitec was recently profiled by Ako Aotearoa – the National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence – as a successful retention programme. Former Whai Ake students and Director Ma ¯ori Community and Student Engagement Carol Ngawati explain why.
STUDENT SUCCESS
Whai Ake students form a kapa haka group, and perform at various events throughout the year, including the Maori graduation event in April. Opposite page top: Whai Ake student Jaycee MaunsellMcMenamin has now completed her studies, and is working for her iwi Nga¯ Puhi. Opposite page bottom: Photography student Te Toki Te Paki (Nga¯ Puhi/cook islands) was involved in the production of the Ako Aotearoa video.
"It's more than just a scholarship it's a life-changing experience." That’s what recent students have said about the Whai Ake i te Ara Tika mentoring programme at Unitec, now in its fifth year. The programme, based around the tuakana-te ¯ina model of older and younger sibling mentorship, aims to provide a strong support system for Māori students new to the tertiary environment. Director Māori Community and Student Engagement Carol Ngawati (Nga¯ti Po¯rou) says the underlying goal has always been Māori success. “We know that if they stay, Māori students are successful, so keeping them here is critical. In the last couple of years we’ve had between 95-100 per cent retention of our students on Whai Ake.” The Whai Ake programme involves a $2,000 scholarship for the first year students who are accepted (generally 20 mentees), a 15-credit paper in Te Reo, plus on-going support, including a weekly Thursday night gathering at the Unitec Marae. It’s designed to create an environment where the students feel comfortable and bond with each other. “It’s deliberately a specific age group,” says Ngawati. “They’re young people, meaning they’re generally under 25. There’s enough of a range that there are older and younger ones – because the tuakana-te¯ina idea is a powerful tool – but they don’t feel like they have their mothers or aunties with them telling them what to do.” And the reason they’re creating this particular environment is very specific. “The Whai Ake
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programme is about ensuring that Māori students, wherever they come from and whatever their background, have a smooth transition from their home and school life to their new tertiary environment,” says Ngawati. “It provides a home, it provides a family, and it provides connections and a place to belong. We do all this because we want to grow Māori student leadership capability, increase first year completions, and increase Māori student retention in tertiary study.” The basic foundations of Whai Ake include whanaungatanga – a connection to each other, manaakitanga – an environment of care, and whakapapa – their family connections. These core elements are a critical part of the Whai Ake model, and staff ensure they exemplify these elements every day. “We want our students to know they’re valued and appreciated, whatever world they are in. It’s not about teaching them in the traditional sense, but just being in an environment that values all things Māori. And they grow within that.”
It's more than just a scholarship - it's a lifechanging experience. Another vital part of the programme is the older-younger sibling mentoring, says Ngawati. “The younger one follows the older one, and the older student has the whole responsibility of leading. We learn to stand on one foot before we can teach someone else to stand on two. So the mentors get trained, there are deliberate teaching methods they use as a mentor. But the other aspect of it is that if you know someone else is watching, you try harder. You have