The North Harbour Club’s annual AIMES Awards were celebrated during November. This awards programme recognises excellence being achieved by young people in the region aged between 10 and 25 years old. The programme has been running since 1995, so this was the 24th year.
AIMES is an acronym that stands for Arts; Innovation; Music; Education; Sport: Service to the Community. Awards and grants are made in these categories across four award sections. AIMES Awards; AIMES Emerging Talent Awards; Junior Excellence Awards; Sports Scholarships.
Since 1995, the North Harbour Club and Charitable Trust – the organisation behind the awards – has provided award scholarships to a total value $2.4 million.
The achievements of 27 individuals were recognised and celebrated in the 2019 AIMES Awards. The 2019 AIMES Awards Gala Dinner was held at the Bruce Mason Centre on Saturday November 9th. This was preceded by a cocktail function at the B:HIVE/Smales Farm on Wednesday November 6th when AIMES Emerging Talent Awards, Junior Excellence Awards and the Sports Scholarships were presented.
Channel Magazine’s Aidan Bennett, a passionate North Harbour Club member and former President, provided this summary of the 2019 AIMES Awards.
Having been a member of the North Harbour Club for more than two decades and having attended every AIMES Awards Gala Dinner during that period, I could probably be excused for becoming blasé. But then came 2019… wow! A standard of excellence like never before.
The AIMES Supreme Award for 2019 went to Courtney Davies. The 23 year old former Long Bay College student describes herself as a microbiologist, agricultural enthusiast and environmental educator. The AIMES Innovation Award and the AIMES Supreme Award in 2019 follows an AIMES Emerging Talent Award she won in 2017. See our special profile on Courtney in this issue.
AIMES Arts Award – Sponsored by ASB
The AIMES Arts Award in 2019 and a grant of $15,000 went to actor, singer and dancer Andrew Coshan. Like Courtney, Andrew has previously won an AIMES Emerging Talent Award, back in 2016.
The 25 year old former Takapuna Grammar student has spent the past 12 months working nonstop in productions across Australia – and has set his sights firmly on London’s West End. He says his win will assist the development, funding, production and touring of his cabaret, full of golden age musical material, tap dancing and political humour.
When receiving his award Andrew announced that he has recently been cast in two more shows. Melbourne Shakespeare Company cast him in their Taming of the Shrew, and around the same time the Australian Shakespeare Company cast him in their Hamlet as Laertes. Andrew explained that this latter role was a much greater opportunity and therefore he had to decline the role in Taming of the Shrew.
AIMES Innovation Award – Sponsored by Massey University
The AIMES Innovation Award for 2019, and $15,000 was won by Courtney Davies who also picked up the AIMES Supreme Award. See the special feature on Courtney.
AIMES Music Award – Sponsored by Yamaha Home Entertainment
To adequately describe the meteoric musical career of Matthias Balzat, you would need a novel. The 20 year old, who is based in Germany, won the AIMES Music Award and a grant of $15,000.
Matthias is New Zealand’s leading cellist. He is the youngest of seven children, was home-schooled by his piano-teacher mum Vivian, and played instrumental folk music with his family during his early years, finishing secondary education at just 13 and attending university a year later.
Matthias was three when he started formal lessons on the cello and, buoyed by the family’s competitive spirit and determination, has striven for excellence since. He won an AIMES Emerging Talent Award last year.
Matthias collected his first music prize at the age of nine and was offered a soloist spot in an Australian showcase concert at 10. By 12, he’d topped the Trinity College of London cello diploma with the highest mark in New Zealand, as well as gaining University Entrance and his AS Level Cambridge Exams at 14, again with record-breaking marks in music and art design.
On completion of his Honours degree, Matthias was invited to attend the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Dusseldorf. One week into his first semester in April 2019, he entered the Sieghardt- Rometsch Concerto Competition in Dusseldorf and - out of around 50 instrumentalists - won first prize.
Matthias is currently living in Dusseldorf to complete his Masters. He is extremely busy with his studies and music, and was unable to travel back to New Zealand for the AIMES Awards Gala Dinner. His AIMES Music Award was collected by his mum Vivian.
AIMES EDUCATION AWARD – Sponsored by Kristin School
The 2019 AIMES Education Award was a family affair, going to identical twin brothers Jack and Harry Alexander. They recieved cash grants of $15,000 each.
Jack and Harry’s education journey started at Coatesville Primary School, then onto Albany Junior High School, before completing their final years of schooling at ACG Senior College in Auckland’s CBD.
In 2012, when it was time to head to University, Jack and Harry chose to take different paths – Jack started a law degree, while his brother Harry chose medicine.
Jack Alexander is a lawyer and researcher. After completing his law degree, with Honours, Jack secured a sought-after position as a Judges Clerk at the Court of Appeal, where he attended hearings, undertook legal research and delivered judgments for some of the country’s leading judges. He currently works full time as a lawyer at Gilbert Walker, representing clients in significant commercial disputes.
Jack balances full time work with his interests in research and teaching. He is a teaching an assistant at University of Auckland Law School and has had eight peer-reviewed papers published in legal journals in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Several of his papers have been cited by the High Court. Next year, Jack will travel to the United Kingdom to undertake a Master of Laws, before returning back to New Zealand to practise.
Not to be outdone by his brother, Jack’s identical twin Harry Alexander is a doctor and internationally published medical researcher, currently completing a Post Graduate Diploma in Surgical Anatomy.
Harry is passionate about the field of interventional radiology – he spent three months of last year working in the interventional radiology department at Saint Mary’s Hospital in London, observing cutting edge procedures that inspired him to specialise in this area. When he finishes his post-graduate study, Harry hopes to secure a position on the radiology training programme where he will learn the speciality. Harry’s recent research in the field included a clinical study on imaging and management of portal vein thrombosis, and in coming years he hopes to use his research to develop a Surgical Safety Checklist for interventional radiology procedures to improve patient outcomes.
Harry’s long term goal is to live on the North Shore and work as an interventional radiologist, using his skills to serve his community.
AIMES Sports Award – Sponsored by AUT Millennium
Eighteen year old discuss champion Connor Bell has just completed year 13 at Westlake Boys High School – and now has his sights firmly set on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and beyond.
Connor is the current New Zealand Track and Field Championships Under-20 Men’s Discus champion, and a member of the High Performance New Zealand squad. He holds the New Zealand record for men’s discus in the U17, U18, U19 and U20 categories, and also holds several secondary schools’ national records. Perhaps most notably, Connor currently holds the world U20 discus record, with a throw of 70.13 metres.
Ultimately, Connor hopes to top the world with a world record beating discus throw of 75 metres.
Connor’s training is supported by AUT Millennium and High Performance Sport NZ, but most of his travel for training and competition is self-funded. He will use his AIMES grant of $15,000 to cover costs such as equipment, travel and accommodation.
AIMES Service to the Community Award – sponsored by Albany Toyota
Brown’s Bay resident Nancy Yuan is passionate about serving her community. As a first generation New Zealander, Nancy says her calling is to create better conditions for migrants and refugees seeking to improve their livelihoods – and she is working hard to do just that. Nancy received the AIMES Service to the Community Award – and a grant of $15,000 – in recognition for her contribution to New Zealand’s migrant and refugee communities.
Nancy’s recent roles include Oxfam NZ climate migration intern, Pacific regional representative for humanitarian affairs for the United Nations and director of the Oxford Society for International Development Events. She provided substantial support to the victims of the Christchurch mosque attack, using data analysis to inform decision making around the provision of food, supplies, accommodation and other services to bereaved and injured members of the community.
Nancy will return to Oxford University in 2020, to complete an MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, followed by a Master of Public Policy. After that, her goals include working with the Red Cross, and ultimately as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
North Harbour Club Ross Finlayson Award
18 year old Tayla Woolley has just completed Year 13 at Westlake Girls High School, and is planning to study law and politics next year at Victoria Univerity of Wellington. Tayla’s long term goal is to enter politics, serving the North Shore community as a Member of Parliament.
In 2019, Tayla attended Youth Parliament as the North Shore Youth MP, and worked alongside North Shore MP Maggie Barry. She also raised funds for Cure Kids New Zealand, served on the organising committee for the Auckland Schools Strike for Climate, and attended a number of UN Youth events. Tayla has been a leader at Westlake Girls, involved in a wide range of clubs and activities, and the recipient of a number of awards. With the Ross Finlayson Scholarship, Tayla will take part in an OutwardBound New Zealand Course, funded by the North Harbour Club.
Ross Finlayson was a key founder and a driving force of the North Harbour Club. He passed away in 2009.
Footnote: All overseas-based winners were flown back for the AIMES Awards Gala Dinner by North Harbour Club sponsor, Air
New Zealand. As well as the cash grants, all 27 AIMES Awards recipients in 2019 received a 12 month gym membership from North Harbour Club sponsor AUT Millennium.
AIMES Emerging Talent Awards – Sponsored by Bellingham Wallace
North Harbour Club Emerging Talent Awards in 2019, each also getting a grant of $7500, went to:-
Amelia Ullrich (Arts Award) – Amelia Ullrich is an award winning competitive dancer. She has been dancing competitively since the age of eight, and recently placed first in all her solo performances for jazz, contemporary and jazz impromptu at the New Zealand Dance Awards. As a result, she was selected for the New Zealand team to dance at an international competition in Portugal in June.
In the future, Amelia hopes to become a recognised expert professional dancer and choreographer. The AIMES Emerging Talent Award will assist in funding Amelia’s training and study, local and with leading overseas programmes.
Tess Costil (Arts Award) – Tess Costil is an artist, designer and youth mentor. She uses fashion, illustration and photography to create art and design works that have won her an international design competition in England, seen her complete a Bachelor of Design, and allowed her to exhibit work locally and around the world.
In 2019, Tess won a scholarship to fund an eight month solo trip to Europe, including a Semester at Koln International School of Design in Germany, and interned at Mokum Textiles in Sydney. She has also worked with well-known New Zealand companies, and is a youth mentor, ambassador and creative director for Heartspeak Collective, a core programme of the Bridge the Gap Project Charitable Trust. Tess will use her grant to produce art, and hopes it will enable her the financial freedom to produce art on a larger scale, and to be more experimental with her work.
Tayla Alexander (Music Award) – Tayla Alexander is a classical singer, known as the “Kiwi songbird”. In the last year, while studying classical voice at Waikato University, Tayla has performed live on television, sung to crowds of more than 200,000 at Cola Cola Christmas in the Park and launched an album of classical music favourites. She releases music through iTunes and her YouTube channel, where she achieves more than 120,000 views per video, and has amassed a whopping one million views on her release of Wuthering Heights.
Tayla was selected as the youngest soprano to receive a full scholarship with the Auckland Opera Studio, and receives coaching from Frances Wilson-Fitzgerald and Dame Malvina Major.
Emilly Fan (Education Award) – Emilly Fan just completed her first year at Harvard University, studying environmental science and public policy. She is on the board of the Harvard Undergraduate Clean Energy Group, and volunteers for several organisations supporting disadvantaged children. While at Harvard, she has worked with groups including the China Forum, Harvard College Association for US-China Relations, Harvard Business and Environment Group, and Natural Resources Defense Council in Beijing.
Just 4.6% of the 42,749 applicants for Harvard were accepted in Emilly’s year – and she was one of them. She was accepted based on exceptional academic results, numerous awards, her SAT score, and extensive extra-curricular involvement. Studying at Harvard as an international student costs US$50,000 each year.
Kanah Andrews-Night (Sport Award) – Kanah Andrews-Night has represented New Zealand as a competitive weightlifter since the age of 13, at events such as the 2019 IWF Junior World Championships in Fiji, where she won New Zealand’s first gold medal at the event. She was the flag bearer for New Zealand at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Argentina.
Kanah now has her sights set on the Tokyo Olympics – and she is confident she will be selected. She holds an impressive 140+ New Zealand Olympic Weightlifting records, and several Oceania and Commonwealth records.
Kanah’s training is entirely self funded. She will use the AIMES Emerging Talent grant to assist with travel and competition costs, and well as meeting day to day costs associated with training full time.
Mae Everitt (Service to the Community Award) – Mae Everett is dedicated to community service. She is currently studying, and hopes to eventually achieve a Masters Degree in Business Law.
Mae balances her study with extensive work in our local community – she works alongside the Takapuna North Community Trust, the Takapuna Devonport Local Youth Board and Shore Junction, and has dedicated many hours to these groups. At Shore Junction, Mae is the youth advisor who co-designed floorplans, facilitated design ideas and co-created a strategic programme around ensuring youth would be provided with the necessary resources to achieve their potential.
Junior Excellence Awards – Sponsored by Precise Homes
Lesina Eneleo (Judges Special Award, Arts) – 11 year old Lesina Eneleo already has outstanding singing and performing talent. In May, she won the ‘Glenfield Primary School has Talent’ event, and went on to win the top award in the Glenfield area competition involving 10 local schools. She leads the school’s Kapa Haka and Pacifica Groups.
Lesina’s cash grant of $1,000 will assist in funding singing and performing lessons with New Zealand singing icon Suzanne Lynch.
All the following Junior Excellence Award recipients received the award and a cash grant of $3000.
Lianne Kim (Innovation Award) – When 12 year old Lianne Kim’s grandpa collapsed at home while alone last year, her family were very worried about his safety. The Murray’s Bay Intermediate Student responded by developing a software application in javascript and HTML languages that could detect her grandpa’s movements and alert the family instantly if he was not moving for a certain timeframe.
Lianne is a keen scientist, winning multiple awards in the NIWA North Harbour Science and Technology Fair, the David Peace Prize and the Miles Maxted Award for her recent science projects and investigations.
Andre Smirnov (Music Award) – Andre Smirnov has been playing the piano and piano accordian since his mum took him to piano lessons at the Music Education Centre in Glenfield at age four. Now 11, Andre has been a member of the Hauraki Primary School orchestra, is in a school rock band called Exploding Emus, and won the Hauraki School Talent show in 2017. He is now at Belmont Intermediate, where he is involved in a wide range of extra-curricular music activities including rock band and orchestra. Outside of school, he is a member of a number of youth orchestras and has performed across Auckland and in other parts of New Zealand.
Over the past few years, Andre has performed in the South Pacific International and New Zealand National Accordian Championships and Festival, and this year he won a number of prizes. He will continue to compete in this competition, and hopes to compete and perform overseas.
Nathan Jin (Music Award) – 13 year old Nathan Jin started playing the drums when he was seven, keyboard at nine, and piano at 10. Recently, he has also taught himself to play the bass guitar.
Nathan has received many awards – distinction in every exam he has completed, the Big Band Cup and Top Rock Band Drummer at Murrays Bay Intermediate, and selection for the APO Christmas Concert – and hopes to join Westlake’s Premier Big Band and Stage Band in 2020.
Liam Richards (Sport Award) – 11 year old Liam Richards has been skiing since the age of two. At just seven, he attended his first New Zealand Junior Freeski Nationals and last year was selected for the Snow Sports NZ national development team – two years earlier than the target age of 12-14. Just this year, Liam won gold medals at the USA Freeski Nationals and the North Island New Zealand Slopestyle Series, and silver at the NZ Slopestyle Series in the U14 category. His future goal is to win a medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Liam is also passionate about sailing, competing in the Optimist fleet over the past three years at national and international age group level.
Daichi Lizuka (Sport Award) – Daichi Lizuka is dedicated to two sports – karate and football. He started karate at age seven, and now competes at national and international level. Daichi also coaches and mentors younger students, and says he enjoys seeing the younger students develop. He is aiming to win the Oceania Karate Champs in 2020, and longer term goals include representing New Zealand at the 2024 Olympic Games.
Daichi also plays football for East Coast Bays 12th Grade rep team and Kristin School team, and was selected in the Wyner’s Football Academy squad that travelled to an international tournament in Korea earlier this year.
Amy-Lee Pateman (Sport Award) – Amy-Lee Pateman plays almost every sport – touch, tag, netball, swimming, cross-country, dancing. You name it, and Amy-Lee loves it.
Amy-Lee is currently a member of the Basketball Oceania U15 squad, a New Zealand Tag representative, a North Harbour age group representative touch player, and an age group representative netball player. Amy-Lee’s goals include being part of the New Zealand basketball team for the 2022 World Basketball Championships.
Zoe Ellis (Sport Award) – Twelve year old BMX Rider Zoe Ellis started riding her BMX bike at age four, racing at age five, and competed in her first world championships at age six. In 2018, Zoe was selected in the New Zealand BMX Test Team, to compete against the top Australian riders in 2018 and 2019.
Next year, Zoe hopes to attend the World Championships in Houston, and says maybe one day she could possibly go to the Olympic Games. Financial constraints mean it is difficult for Zoe to travel to competitions, and her cash grant of $3,000 will be put towards this.
Benedict Thomas (Service to the Community Award) – Ten year old Benedict Thomas uses his violin playing skills to support community causes – by busking! Benedict starting busking a few years ago, and since then has raised money for St John Vianney, Starship Foundation, families of the victims of the Christchurch mosque attack and Mangawhai Fire Station.
Benedict will use his cash grant of $3,000 to replace his violin, which is getting too small as he grows, and use any leftover money to replace two broken benches outside the retirement home on his street.
North Harbour Cub Sports Scholarship – Sponsored by Vantage Windows
North Harbour Club $2000 Sports Scholarships in 2019 were awarded to:-
Cameron McTaggart – Weightlifter Cameron McTaggart has dreamed of making the 2020 Olympic team, and is looking to make that dream a reality. Over the past eight years, Cameron has won medals at a number of junior competitions, has broken more than 100 national records, and won an impressive range of senior awards.
To make the Olympic team, Cameron has to compete in a minimum of six international competitions over a 14 month period. He has three to attend in the first half of 2020 – Brisbane, Nauru and Ohio. He is confident that if he shows steady improvement over these three competitions and stays injury free, he will be selected for the Olympic team.
Mikayla Smyth – Alpine ski racer Mikayla Smyth has been competing since age six, and is currently the 2019 Whistler Cup Giant Slalom gold medallist and the Zagreb International Youth U14 Giant Slalom Champion. Mikayla is currently training and racing in the northern hemisphere, and recently joined an elite all-female ski racing academy in Italy, where she trained for four months with top level international coaches. She aspires to compete at world-class level and to one day represent New Zealand at the Winter Olympics.
Seb Menzies and Blake McGlashan – Sailors Seb Menzies and Blake McGlashan have been sailing together for two years, after meeting at the Murrays Bay Sailing Club. Together they have won gold at the 420 Youth World Championships in Poland and the 2018 World 420 Championship in Newport, and silver at the 2019 World 420 Championship in Portugal.
Long term, the pair hope to represent New Zealand at the Olympics – winning medals – and to sail in the America’s Cup. In the short term, in 2020 they aim to win more competitions in New Zealand, represent the 2020 New Zealand Youth Team, and finish on the podium at the Open and Youth World Championships.
Taine Murray – 17 year old Taine Murray is a talented basketballer. He is a Harbour representative player, and was selected in the New Zealand Tall Blacks long list for the build up to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo – Taine says this is his greatest achievement to date.
Taine has been invited to attend the Nike All Asia Camp in China and India and the Steven Adams High School Invitational. He hopes to gain a college scholarship in the US, so is focusing on developing his skills to the highest level over the next 18 months. His $2,000 grant will go towards funding development opportunities in New Zealand and overseas.
