Four Bream Bay students awarded Refining NZ scholarships

From left, Thalia Heiwari, Grace van Cingel, Jack Stewart from Refining NZ and Benjamin Lansdown. Brenna Forsythe was absent.

Four Bream Bay College students have been awarded tertiary study scholarships from Refining NZ at the school's senior prizegiving.

The recipients were Year 13 students Grace van Cingel and Thalia Heiwari and first-year university students Brenna Forsythe and Benjamin Lansdown.

The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) scholarships will help van Cingel study environmental science at Massey University in Palmerston North next year while Heiwari will study molecular pathology at Victoria University in Wellington.

Forsythe and Lansdown are already studying engineering at the University of Canterbury and science at Auckland University respectively.

Each scholarship is worth $11,500 a year for the duration of a three year undergraduate course.

Under the Refining NZ scholars programme, scholarships are awarded each year to two Year 13 Bream Bay College students enrolling in a three-year STEM course at any New Zealand tertiary institution.

The scholars' programme is part of a broader support package offered by the Refinery to the Ruakākā based college.

This includes funding for materials used in its robotics classes and online tutorials explaining career paths taken by Refining NZ staff.

Chief executive Mike Fuge said the company recognised the important role it had to play in the well-being of the Ruakākā community and the realisation of local aspirations, particularly the educational hopes and dreams of talented young people.

"The partnership we are developing with Bream Bay College through the scholars programme embodies that support," Fuge said.

"The type of study undertaken by our scholars will contribute greatly to industry, but especially the role the Refinery and Northland will play in New Zealand's energy future.''

Refining NZ's STEM scholarships came into effect at the end of 2017.

The company's other education and support in the community include funding for the I Have a Dream Charitable Trust to provide mentors for around 600 children in four low-decile schools in Whangārei, financial support for the Taitokerau Education Trust's training for teachers in low-decile schools and Chrome books for students.

It also sponsors Rugby for Life, a Northland Rugby Union initiative.