On The Up: Bay of Plenty locals accepted into the world’s most prestigious universities

Jared Lasike, Kelly Brown and Luca Ririnui have been accepted into the world's most prestigious universities. Photos / Supplied

Harvard, Oxford, Yale and Princeton are famed and prestigious universities, and three young Kiwis are making their way overseas to study with the best of the best.

Luca Ririnui, Kelly Brown and Jared Lasike have been accepted into arguably the best educational facilities in the world.

Luca Ririnui – Harvard, Yale, Princeton and MIT

Luca Ririnui, a former Mount Maunganui College student, has the decision of a lifetime to make after being wooed by multiple prestigious schools, receiving admission to Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Ririnui finished high school last year and was named Dux. He represented New Zealand in Kazakhstan at the Biology Olympiad, travelled to Serbia to compete in a world schools debating competition, achieved multiple NZQA scholarships and received a NZQA Premier Scholarship, ranking in the top 12 Kiwi students last year.

In February, Ririnui began studying towards a biomedical science degree at the University of Auckland.

He got the news of his acceptance to Harvard midway through a Zoom call interview for a separate programme and had to try to keep a straight face to mask his excitement.

“It’s still very difficult to process because, coming from New Zealand, Harvard is this mythologised thing that’s in the movies.

“It’s a huge shock and a huge honour.”

Luca Ririnui has been accepted to Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Photo / Supplied

He was still in a “limbo period” and didn’t have a “cemented plan” on where he would be attending.

“There’s a lot to weigh up.

“I just take things as they come, give it my best shot, and see where I end up.”

Ririnui plans to work in neuroscience.

“I want to do something that is going to be impactful and support mental health to find treatments or work on what’s causing those conditions.”

Kelly Brown – from Syracuse to Oxford

Talented Tauranga rower and North Island women’s singles winner Kelly Brown has spent the last four years rowing at a university in America on an athletic scholarship.

Brown rowed for Tauranga Girls’ College and the Tauranga Rowing Club as a teen before heading to Syracuse University in the United States, where she majored in political science and journalism.

There, Brown’s rowing crew won the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship for the first time in Syracuse’s programme history.

She will be graduating with First Class Honours in May, and her academic and rowing successes have led to an offer to study for her Master’s at the prestigious University of Oxford.

Brown told the Bay of Plenty Times she had dreamed of this opportunity since primary school.

“I remember in Year 6 we had to write an autobiography, and I said I was going to go to Oxford and study archaeology.

Kelly Brown rowed for Tauranga and is now heading to Oxford University to study for her Master's and race in the famous Oxford-Cambridge boat race. Photo / Supplied

“In some ways, I still don’t think it’s sunken in and it’ll take me getting there before I realise what I have signed myself up for.”

Brown will have the chance to row in the world-renowned Oxford-Cambridge boat race and said this opportunity felt as if her life had come “sort of full circle”.

“This was something that was one of those far-off, wild, little kid dreams,and now this is the icing on the cake. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

She said being able to row in the boat race would be a “dream come true”.

“The best athletes in the world have rowed for it, and it’s easily the biggest rowing race in the world, 250,000 people watch it from the banks.”

Jared Lasike – Harvard and Princeton

Jared Lasike, former head boy of Rotorua Boys’ High School, was named Dux in his final year and has made it into not one but two Ivy League universities.

He was one of five students to win a Te Ara a Kupe Beaton scholarship, helping him get into Harvard and Princeton.

Lasike said when he found out about his acceptance, he immediately called his parents and had a “euphoric few minutes of astonishment”.

Jared Lasike, former head boy of Rotorua Boys' High School, has been accepted into Harvard and Princeton. Photo / Supplied

“It was just a few minutes of real intense emotion that I don’t think I can do it justice in words, to be honest.

“I could not believe I was accepted to those schools.”

Lasike is of mixed Tonga and Māori heritage and plans to study medicine so he can create positive and inclusive change.

“My vision for healthcare is a holistic system in which Western medical practices are carried out with the integration and acceptance of Māori and Pasifika practices.

“I feel blessed to have been surrounded by people who saw things in me that I didn’t see in myself and feel humbled to have been able to take the good hopes of people around me.”

He believed there was great opportunity for youth to excel at the pinnacle of academia.

“I hope this is a symbol of looking for opportunities, and working really hard, because with those two principles, you really can’t go wrong.”

Kaitlyn Morrell is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.