AMP scholarships help dreams come true

KATHERINE HOBY on three achievers who hope to give something back to the community that has helped them achieve long-standing ambitions.


When adventure kayaker Mark Jones returns from paddling the length of the Antarctic Peninsula, his first stop will be a video parlour.

The 36-year-old teacher, one of 10 recipients of an AMP Scholarship, is determined to get Kiwi kids out of the virtual world and back into the real one.

"We live in the most amazing country in the world, he says, "yet young people would rather be in the virtual world than the real one.

"I want to get them out of the video parlours and into life."

Mr Jones, who will launch his Antarctic kayaking odyssey next summer, has been an outdoor leadership teacher at Auckland University of Technology for three years.

He is addicted to adventure.

"Man can withstand anything except a succession of ordinary days. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said that in the 1700s. It is as true today as it was then," he says.

Mr Jones plans to sea kayak 800km around the Antarctic Peninsula with two other men, starting from Hope Bay and heading as far south as the ice will allow.

He hopes to make it to Marguerite Bay.

The trio will fly to South America, where they will board an Antarctic cruise vessel.

The kayaking trip is expected to take six weeks and is scheduled for some time in December-February.

The kayaker says he has been inspired by Kiwi adventurers such as Sir Edmund Hillary and Graeme Dingle.

"I hope our own quest will similarly inspire others to chase their dreams, whatever they might be. None of us dreams alone. One dreamer breathes life into the next."

Mr Jones and his companions still require sponsorship of about $40,000 to complete their trip.

The scholarships also went to two other Aucklanders - Richard Cooper and Reina Webster.

Mr Cooper, aged 37, is an artist who is in the final year of a master of fine arts degree from Auckland University. He will use his $3000 scholarship to write a book about his journey from forestry worker to artist. He hopes the book will inspire others, especially Maori and Pacific Island youth.

His latest project is creating Manukau City's millennium sculpture.

Reina Webster, 28, is in the final year of a masters degree in film theory at Auckland University.

She hopes to be the first New Zealander to study at New York University's Tisch School of Arts film production masters programme.

After her studies in New York, she plans to return to New Zealand to make film and television programmes with a uniquely Maori-bicultural perspective.

Other scholarship winners were: Trish Muldrock, of Kaikohe (powerlifter), Rene Vaz, of Hamilton (fly fisherman), Chris Pither, of Palmerston North (race car driver), Catherine Muller, of Wellington (scientist), Amy Cameron, of Wellington (student-teacher), Catherine Dwan, of Christchurch (nurse-researcher), and Rachel Carrell, of Dunedin (student-debater).

There were more than 800 applicants for the scholarships, ranging from an 8-year-old Highland dancer to an 84-year-old novelist.