Every year Top Energy awards $10,000 to an aspiring engineer intending to study engineering at University. The application process is rigorous and students need to provide a personal statement about why they should receive the grant.
Top Energy Chief Executive Russell Shaw says the statement from this year’s successful applicant, Carter Bird of Kaitaia College was so impressive that we are sharing it in its entirely.
Mr Shaw says it embodies the spirt behind our desire to encourage and promote professional development for Far North students.
Statement from Carter Bird – aspiring aerospace engineer.
I decided to become an engineer at 11 years old. I didn’t know it at the time, but that night changed the course of my life. It was 2 a.m., and my dad and I had just finished watching a mediocre sci-fi movie about aliens invading Earth.
As we sat in the quiet, talking about space, I remember feeling a strange rush, as I was thinking about how vast the universe really was. I remember my dad asking, “How do you think we are here?”. “The Big Bang!” I blurted out, as if I had discovered it myself. “But how are we here?” he pressed. I didn’t have an answer.
This sparked something inside of me. I wanted answers. That night I lay awake, in the same bedroom as Mum and Dad, thinking up a thousand questions, about planets, stars, life and my existence, a thousand questions that I didn’t have any answers to.
That curiosity has never left me. It’s what sparked not only my dream of studying engineering but also my lifelong pursuit of knowledge. Since that fateful night, I chased every opportunity to learn.
At a low decile school with limited resources, I still pursued my passions and excelled academically. At NCEA Level 1 I achieved a Merit endorsement and academic half colours, at NCEA Level 2 I got Excellence Endorsement with full academic colours and placing overall first in both Calculus and Statistics, and second in Physics.
This year, I am on track to get a NCEA Level 3 Excellence endorsement and excel in Physics and Calculus. These achievements have helped expand my knowledge but not quench my thirst for it.
I wish to study a Bachelor of Engineering with Honours, specialising in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Auckland, driven by that mediocre movie, of which I don’t even remember the name, that I watched with my dad when I was 11.
Later, I hope to combine engineering with business in order to provide jobs and opportunities in the Far North and prove that no dream is too big.
The Top Energy Engineering Scholarship would be more than financial help. It would make this dream possible. Coming from a household where no one has completed a university degree, the cost of living and studying in Auckland is a significant barrier for me.
Gaining this scholarship would allow me to fully engage in my pursuit of knowledge; focusing on my studies instead of worrying about whether I can afford to continue to pursue my dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” I believe my dream is beautiful, and with your support, my dream will become my future. Thank you for considering my application.
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Contact Philippa White, 021 2418740
The Top Energy Engineering Scholarship Programme encourages and promotes professional development for Far North students. It provides a one-off payment of $10,000 for a local school leaver intending to study a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) at the Universities of Auckland, Canterbury or Waikato, and may include relevant holiday work with Top Energy.