Tauranga teenager wins Prime Minister's Scholarship to Asia

Niemke Cloete won a Prime Minister's Scholarship for Asia. Photo/Andrew Warner

Niemke Cloete is looking forward to learning the art form she loves more than 8500km from home.

The Tauranga teenager was awarded the prestigious Prime Minister's Scholarship for Asia for a one-semester exchange to Nanyang Technological University in Singapore studying visual design.

Cloete, 19, studied a Bachelor of Design and Visual Communication at Massey University and enjoyed the print design aspect of visual arts.

"I love what I study. I love static imagery, just being able to see something on paper," she said.

"It is amazing to be able to put something together that someone else had envisaged, putting their words into something visual."

The Namibian-born teenager moved to New Zealand with her parents at age 8 and was looking forward to exploring more of the world.

"I can't wait to meet different people and start connections up in a different place," she said.

"The more people you can connect with, the more you learn from."

The teenager had been looking at doing an overseas exchange before applying for scholarship.

"I am pretty excited, it has been a long time coming," she said.

Cloete applied for the scholarship this time last year and had found out she had won about two months ago.

When the email came through, she panicked. "I was like, 'Am I reading this correctly?' It was pretty amazing," she said.

The course will start on August 13 and the exchange was valid until November, but Cloete was hoping to stay and travel further for another month.

She wasn't sure where to though. "It is kind of one of those open-ended plans," she said.

"I would love to go back to Vietnam, Thailand would be cool too."

Cloete said Nanyang Technological University in Singapore was one of the top universities in Asia.

"It is amazing to get to go to such a prestigious uni," she said.

"I am hoping I will experience a different teaching style... It is neat to get different people's perspectives. I think it will broaden my design career."

The university was "English-based" but she had hoped to immerse herself in the culture.

"I have never been there, but I have heard it is a really Utopian place, clean, modern and refined. I love different cultures."

Cloete will get to join in celebrations of the National Singaporean Day on August 9.

Tauranga woman Lorilee Lusby, 30, was also awarded a Prime Minister's Scholarship for Asia to study the Japanese language for one-semester in Keio University in Tokyo, Japan.

The individual PMSA awards include:

- An eight-week medical elective for ophthalmology and dermatology at the Seoul National University Hospital,
- A two-year Master's degree at Ewha Woman's University in South Korea with a focus on development co-operation, and
- A four-month internship with the Asia Internship Program (AIP) in Singapore, a leading social enterprise.