KEY POINTS:
Last week the Herald covered a celebration that drew together St Cuthberts, the Pacific Business Trust and the wider South Auckland Pacific community.
Two of New Zealand's youngest and brightest students, Endeavour Scholarships recipients Te Rina Noon and Pagen Plaizier, prepared to graduate from St Cuthberts. They will be the first two students to complete the Endeavour Scholarships, which started in 2001.
As chair of the Pacific Business Trust and a member of the Endeavour Scholarships selection panel for Maori and Pacific students, I can't say enough about the incredible achievements of these two young Maori women in their five years at St Cuthberts.
They have grown into strong leaders, and together with other Endeavour Scholarship holders, are helping to create a more culturally diverse learning environment at St Cuthberts, as well as helping the school set new netball and sporting records.
That contribution to the cultural diversity of just one school community is no small thing in itself.
It helps to model, for the next generation, just how we as a community and Auckland as a city are rapidly making the transition into an exciting new future state - the culturally diverse Auckland of tomorrow.
I am immensely proud of the role the Trust and programmes such as the Endeavour Scholarships are playing in helping to define that future.
Auckland today is a city made all the more vibrant and interesting to live in and visit as a result of its unique cultural mix, much of it Pacific in origin. But a community-wide commitment to building cross-cultural understanding is needed for real diversity to flourish.
It is through increased awareness of how our backgrounds and values differ that we increase tolerance, ultimately making us a more culturally accepting and civil society.
It is wonderful to read positive stories about Maori and Pacific people, like Te Rina and Pagen. But these stories are all too rare. For example, Ministry of Education statistics show that in 2004, Pacific people made up 5.2 per cent of formal tertiary students, Pakeha made up 49.9 per cent and Maori 19 per cent.
Scholarships like the Endeavour have a valuable role to play to increase these statistics.
By 2050, is is estimated half New Zealand's population will be brown. That means with the right investment today, Maori and Pacific people will play an integral role in the economic sustainability and strength of New Zealand's future.
Much has been done to engage Maori and Pacific people in business, and so much more is planned. I am positive about the future role Pacific people, and in particular Pacific women, will play in New Zealand's economic infrastructure.
Te Rina and Pagen are wonderful role models - not only for themselves but for the betterment of our country.
* Pauline Winter is chair of the Pacific Business Trust.
