Lessons in aiming high

By SIMON COLLINS

When Melissa Laban-Tia arrived at the head office of Ford Motors NZ in Manukau three years ago, workers on the production line could not believe that she went to their old school, Aorere College.

"Are you serious?" they asked.

She was. Ms Laban-Tia, who had just finished her sixth-form year at Aorere, was - and still is - the only student from the school selected to get help to go to university under a unique mentoring scheme run by Auckland's First Foundation.

Ford Motors, one of 18 companies that have taken on students under the scheme, agreed to give Ms Laban-Tia $3000 a year towards her university tuition fees plus holiday work for three years.

Only three of the third-formers who started at Aorere with her in 1996 have gone on to university.

Today she is one of 100 "emerging leaders" among 450 delegates at a national leadership forum organised by the Knowledge Wave Trust.

A new project, Social Investors NZ, is being launched at the forum to encourage business people to lend their expertise to non-profit groups.

The First Foundation, started in 1998 by business people Steven Carden and Vikki Brannagan, is the new project's first "client".

Ms Laban-Tia was paired with Amanda Rae, who worked in Ford's finance department. They have maintained the mentoring relationship even now that Ms Rae has moved to another company.

"She was a familiar face, a first point of contact," Ms Laban-Tia said.

At first, Ms Rae's main role was helping her "mentee" adjust to the alien world of a computerised office - "understanding basic processes and trying to acclimatise to the whole new environment".

Through the next 12 months, Ms Laban-Tia's seventh-form year, Ms Rae helped her to focus on her studies.

"Getting work experience is important. You also have to make sure your first consideration is that you have to achieve well at school," Ms Rae said.

Ms Laban-Tia said: "It helped me immensely with time management and organisational skills and general life skills as well."

She is about to start her third year of a bachelor of commerce degree in information systems and international business at Auckland University.

In a speech at the First Foundation awards ceremony late last year, she said Ms Rae gave her "the greatest possible tool ever - self-confidence and self-belief".

"My first day at Ford, I remember walking in with my head down, feeling slightly intimidated," she said.

"If you see me now, I walk into Ford like I practically own the place. Well not really, but my head is no longer fixated with the ground ... my confidence and self-belief have soared.

"They've planted a seed of desire in me, to aim beyond the stars and to achieve the moon."

Quoting another hero - inspirational writer Marianne Williamson - she said: "When we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

"As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Herald Special Report - February 18, 2003:
Knowledge Wave 2003 - the leadership forum

Herald feature: