Rocket Lab awards scholarships to aspiring Māori health professional, aerospace engineer

Rocketlab

Space company Rocket Lab has awarded scholarships worth a total of $30,000 to a student aspiring to become a Māori health professional and a young woman determined to become an aerospace engineer.

Matangirau Whaanga (Rongomaiwahine/Ngāti Kahungunu), who has ancestral ties to Māhia where Rocket Lab operates and launches its Electron rockets in New Zealand, has been awarded the Rocket Lab Scholarship to support his goal of becoming a Māori health professional through a Bachelor of Health Sciences degree at Auckland University.

“I’m committed to my studies and to achieving my goals and this scholarship will allow me to do that,” Matangirau said.

“I am really appreciative of Rocket Lab and their support. My family’s reactions have been so positive and my parents are really proud and happy for me.

“I’m also very keen to meet the expert scientists at Rocket Lab. A one-on-one mentorship with a scientist who has real-world experience in such an exciting field as rocket science is a rare opportunity.”

The Rocket Lab scholarships support and encourage students from the regions that surround Rocket Lab’s launch site in Mahia to pursue science, technology, engineering, or maths (STEM) at tertiary level, and has been granted annually since 2017.

The scholarship covers tertiary education costs for up to four years of study and includes mentorship from Rocket Lab where applicable.

Ivy Doak, from Auckland, was awarded the Rocket Lab Women’s Scholarship to support her pursuit of a mechanical engineering degree through Auckland University to become a spacecraft designer in the aerospace industry.

The scholarship was recently established to encourage more young women to become leaders in aerospace.

It also covers tertiary education costs and includes mentorship from a female Rocket Lab engineer.

“Matangirau and Ivy are two fantastic students who impressed me in different ways — Matangirau, with his dedication to Māori health and giving back to his community, and Ivy, with her palpable enthusiasm for rockets and determination to work in the space industry,” Rocket Lab chief executive Peter Beck said.

“Our scholarships were created to provide the encouragement to make a difference in the world and help relieve the burden of expensive study, and we’re proud to be enabling that with this year’s two exceptional scholarship recipients.”

Rocket Lab also extends its congratulations to 2018 Rocket Lab Scholarship recipient Mya Mataki-Wilson, who recently graduated from Auckland University with a degree in engineering.

Mya is now working as a civil engineer on the Te Ahu a Turanga Alliance highway project in Palmerston North.

Across Rocket Lab’s Scholarships, $150,000 has been dedicated to eight young students studying tertiary degrees in STEM since Rocket Lab began granting scholarships in 2017.

Applications for the Rocket Lab Scholarship and the Women’s Scholarship open in term three each year at rocketlabusa.com