Tauhara College dux 2024: Harrison Pointon to become ‘little boy in big city’

Harrison Pointon, Tauhara College’s dux for 2024, is preparing to study at the University of Auckland next year.

It’s hard to imagine Harrison Pointon, Tauhara College’s dux for 2024 not smiling or being enthusiastic or studious.

Harrison was the top student in all five of the subjects he was taking, netting him the coveted head boy/dux double.

“It’s been a busy year but very fulfilling and a lot of fun, as Year 13 always is I suspect,” he said.

His subject choices – English and English scholarship, history, calculus, physics and chemistry – have led him to hedge his bets as he heads to tertiary study.

Harrison is going to travel Robert Frost’s “two diverging roads in a yellow wood” for as long as he can, embarking initially on an arts and science conjoint degree at the University of Auckland.

“This week I’m majoring in physics and political relations but that’s apt to change. I have no idea what it might lead to. It’s just those are things I enjoy and am interested in. I just want to learn more,” he said.

“Decision-making is hard. I’m mainly just trying to get a mix of things I enjoy. Who knows I might after the first year just pursue the arts or sciences, but I don’t want to go there saying, ‘I want to become a physicist’ and then get there and think this isn’t what I thought it would be.”

A scholarship from the university will cover his accommodation and go some way towards fees.

Beyond his pursuit of academic excellence, Harrison plays trumpet in the Taupō Youth Windband and Taupō Concert Band.

He’s also a keen underwater hockey player and helps coach a junior team – an interest he intends to keep pursuing in Auckland.

“I love it, it’s so much fun. There are lots of clubs in Auckland, there’s a good underwater hockey scene.”

He also enjoyed his two lines in the school’s 2024 production Aotearoa – A New Zealand Rock Musical and assisting backstage with props – a job he and a friend were “voluntold” for after making the mistake of doing a bit of backstage tidying up during some rehearsal downtime.

With no close family in Auckland, he is happy to be moving to the big smoke with fellow students from his Year 13 cohort.

“I am looking forward to it, but I will miss Taupō. It’s been the place that I’ve grown up, so it will be strange going from somewhere very familiar, where I know a lot of people, to being the little boy in the big city.”

Tauhara College’s proxime accessit for 2024 was Rebekah Porteous who gained first in Level 3 social studies and second place in Level 3 English. In 2025, Rebekah will begin studying criminology in Australia.