Students from Western Bay of Plenty schools are celebrating following being made the recipients of a significant scholarship.

On Thursday, July 4, 22 students from schools across the Western Bay of Plenty received their graduation certificates for completing the 2024 Acorn Foundation Dale Carnegie Youth Programme.

The estate of the late Mary and Roy McGowan has funded these scholarships for the last fifteen years.

“Acorn is so pleased to once again support the Acorn Foundation Dale Carnegie Youth Programme through the generosity of Roy and Mary McGowan," says Acorn Foundation CEO Lori Luke.

"Through 2024, nearly 350 local students have been provided a scholarship to attend a youth version of a course that has taught skills to improve the personal and professional lives of millions of people around the world.”

11 Western Bay of Plenty schools provided their Year 13 students the opportunity to attend this course.

This three-day course teaches the Dale Carnegie five drivers of success: building greater self-confidence; strengthening people skills; enhancing communication skills; developing leadership skills; and reducing stress and worry.

The Acorn Foundation has long partnered with Dale Carnegie BOP Waikato and Priority One’s InStep programme to offer this youth-focused course that helps young people improve their self-confidence and personal communication techniques.

The graduation ceremony featured a short speech from each student about what they had learned, and their experiences – with a particular highlight for many being the ability to learn new skills that will help them at all phases of their life.

Ava Dickison, a student from Tauranga Girls College, says about the programme that “[they] learnt a lot of very valuable practical skills that are applicable not just to your professional life, but also in your social life with new people you meet".

For Simranjot Kaur from ACG, the confidence that the programme has given her has helped make all the difference.

“For me it was just boosting my confidence for sure, as someone who over thinks a lot, I tend to stress about what other people think of me," says Simranjot.

Being here helped me learn that people worry about how they are judged by others a lot more than other people actually judge them, which has transformed the way that I think."

Congratulations to the following scholarship winners:

ACG Tauranga: Mei Lee and Simranjot Kaur

Aquinas College:  Caitlin Cooper, Harry Fearn, and Ryan Williams

Bethlehem College: Amelia Newsom   

Katikati College: Josh McGinty and Matija Ford

Mt. Maunganui College: Ashlee Callander and Mary Bragg 

Otumoetai College: Jack Page and Rebecca Parkes

Papamoa College: Laylah Theron and Luke Blow

Tauranga Boys’ College: Michael van Lieshout and Seb Heath

Tauranga Girls’ College: Ava Dickison and Maddy Whitburn

Te Puke High School: Anahera Mark and Jess McGowan

Te Wharekura o Mauao: Kyraux Tata and Manaaki Thomas

The Acorn Foundation:

The Acorn Foundation, the Western Bay of Plenty’s local community foundation, enables generous people to make a bigger impact in their communities, by investing the funds and distributing the returns to causes that matter – forever.

Since 2003, the Acorn Foundation has distributed over $16.5M to the Western Bay of Plenty community and beyond, supporting the work of more than 300 local charities.

Last year, the Acorn Foundation gave away over $3.3M to 226 local and national charitable organisations and scholarship and award winners. Scholarships and awards surpassed $700,000 in total and include the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, given annually at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

Find out more at: www.acornfoundation.org.nz