Kaikohe student makes the elite

RISING STAR: Northland College student William Hohepa is one of just six in New Zealand to win a place on an enterprise challenge in Singapore later this year.

A 17-year-old Northland College student is one of just six from throughout New Zealand to win a place at an international business challenge in Singapore later this year.

William Hohepa will head overseas in August to represent New Zealand in the FedEx Express Junior Achievement International Trade Challenge, after making the top six in a nationwide competition in Auckland.

The Kaikohe teenager said he was "extremely excited".

"It's a fantastic opportunity to see what the world has in store for people with a business mind. And it'll be awesome to see a bit of the world," he said.

As excited as he was personally, he was even more excited that a Northlander had won. The five others are from high-decile schools in the main centres.

"I didn't enjoy me winning so much as Northland winning. There's a stigma about coming from Northland, about being poor cousins," he added.

If anything, however, William believed coming from Northland had worked in his favour. People with comfortable lives didn't have to struggle for what they wanted; Northlanders had to improvise and be inventive, he said.

He was one of 80 students accepted for a three-day Enterprise in Action competition, run by the Young Enterprise Trust at Massey University's Auckland campus. The students were split into teams of eight and told to come up with two business plans, one for an exhibit on the benefits of lighting technology, the other for exporting an oil-based product to Saudi Arabia.

William was one of 21 to make it through to the next round, where he was given 10 minutes to come with a plan for making a funding-dependent, not-for-profit online bartering system pay its own way (which he described as "crazy hard,") followed by an anxious overnight wait to find out who had been made the final six.

"I was shaking all night. I only went for the experience; it was never my aim to go to Singapore. I never even thought about winning," he said.

Next year William plans to begin a Bachelor of Management Studies degree at Waikato University. His ultimate goal is to become an international chief executive.

In Singapore he will compete against young business minds from 32 countries around the Asia-Pacific region.

Northland College principal Jim Luders said William's win was "huge".

"It shows the potential our kids have, that they can be up there with the best. And his mum's over the moon," he said.