Sponsor

The Eureka! Programme

The Eureka! Awards provide an opportunity for the young leaders of tomorrow to showcase and refine their communication skills. At the same time, the Eureka! broadens the scientific knowledge of these students and highlights the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to New Zealand’s future economic, environmental and social wealth and wellbeing. The awards also build relationships between Eureka’s sponsors and the most talented students. For students, the Eureka! Awards and the interactions that they have with sponsors come at a time when they are making big decisions about their further education and their future careers. The Eureka! programme and the people that the students meet can have a significant impact on the decisions that they make. The relationships between students and sponsors also give sponsors early access to the next generation of the top talent in New Zealand.

Rotary Club of Wellington Eureka! Trust (Inc)

Patron

H.E. Rt Hon Dame Patsy Reddy, Governor General of New Zealand

Trustees

Debbie Chin (Chair), RCW member
Anthony Scott, Past District Governor D9940
Alex Hare, RCW member
Prof Margaret Hyland, Sir Paul Callaghan Trustee
Jennifer Palmer, Premier Eureka! Award Winner 2015 and Alumni Rep
David Johnston, RCW member
Kelvin Tapuke, Sir Paul Callaghan Trustee

General Manager

Joy Tracey

Eureka! Awards

The first Eureka! Symposium was organised by the Rotary Club of Wellington in 2012 and has grown annually since.

Following this initial success, the Rotary Club of Wellington established the Rotary Eureka! Trust in 2013. The purpose of the Eureka! Trust is to develop and manage the regional and national awards events, that showcase the talents of hundreds of young students who speak inspirationally and with great passion about the future opportunities for New Zealand from the application of science, technology, engineering and maths innovations.

The Eureka! National Finalists compete for the Sir Paul Callaghan Premier Award along with Highly Commended Awards. Following the National Final, the Premier and Highly Commended Awards are presented at the Awards Gala Dinner.

In the Eureka! Awards students can also receive Scholarships and Internships awarded for the best presentations across a range of specified subjects. The subjects of the scholarships connect back to the sponsors who support them and help to build deeper links between the students and the sponsors. Students are presented with their Scholarship or Internship at the Awards Gala Dinner.

Judging Criteria for the Eureka! Awards

Throughout the competition, at both regional and national levels, contestants are judged on their ability to demonstrate:

  • Knowledge of an area of science, technology, engineering or mathematics.

  • How their area of knowledge and interest can be (or is being) applied to enable tangible benefit to New Zealand’s economic, environmental and social wealth and wellbeing, so helping deliver on Sir Paul’s ambition for New Zealand.

  • The presence and capability to communicate clearly, succinctly and persuasively to a general audience comprising people from business and the political arenas as well as the wider public.

Also, at the national level, students are judged on their ability to demonstrate:

  • Agility and thoughtfulness when responding to questions on their presentation

 

Eureka! Alumni

Since its inception, the Eureka! Trust has actively developed the Eureka! Alumni group. The alumni group comprises those students who were selected as finalists along with any other students who have received Scholarships or Internships from the Eureka programme. In 2020 the number of alumni has exceeded 130.

The purpose of the alumni group is to develop relationships between the different years of finalists. In addition to developing relationships between the past finalists, the alumni programme also allows sponsors to keep in contact with alumni and to keep an eye on their progress through their education and into their careers.

Alumni representatives have already been appointed to:

  • the Rotary Eureka Trust (Evan Brenton-Rule 2013 – 2018, Jennifer Palmer 2019- 2021 )

  • a Ministry of Education Reference Group on Digital Technology in education; and

  • the Ministry of Education Reference Group on Maths education

 

Alumni have been very successful in gaining scholarships and grants to study overseas (including):

  • Hadleigh Frost (winner in 2012) – A Rhodes Scholarship in 2014 to study at Oxford

  • Lara Sweetapple (Finalist 2013) – A William Georgetti Scholarship to study at Heidelberg University

  • Sebastian Hallum Clark – studying at Princeton in the US

  • Scott Thomas – studying for his PhD at Cambridge University UK

  • Sam Hall-McMaster (Winner 2014) – a Rutherford Fellowship and William Georgetti Scholarship (2015) to study at Oxford

  • Andrew Tang (Winner 2016) – Girdler’s Scholarship to Cambridge University to study economics