A Stratford student was one of the recipients of a scholarship awarded by Freemasons to celebrate their 125 years in New Zealand.
Recipient Steven Woollaston of Stratford is 26 years of age, yet has crammed more into the last eight years than most people would in a lifetime.
Steven is now studying towards Honours in psychology at Massey University with a research project, 'Investigating the effect of gratitude on wellbeing in schools across cultures', and is destined for a career as an educational psychologist and researcher.
At Massey, Steven achieved a conjoint Bachelor of Arts majoring in psychology and a Bachelor of Science majoring in computer science, and at Victoria University of Wellington he achieved a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics with Distinction.
He also has a Certificate in the Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages from the International Pacific College in Palmerston North.