Veronica Wall. Photo supplied.Ashburton rowing ace Veronica Wall has been accepted by one of the best universities in the world and will head off to the USA at the end of the month.

Wall has gained a place at Ivy League university Yale, consistently ranked in the world’s top 10.

She scored high in the university scholastic assessment test (SAT), which evaluates written, verbal and mathematical skills, and was also supported in her application by Yale rowing coaches who have monitored her performance in the boat over the last few years.

Wall has just returned from Florida, USA, where she finished fifth in the New Zealand quadruple sculls boat at the U23 World Championships.

She has 21 national rowing titles to her name and dominated junior rowing in her last three years at Ashburton College.

She finished her college studies last year and has been rowing out of the Southern Rowing Performance Centre.

She honed her talents at the Ashburton Rowing Club and has spent many early mornings practising on Lake Hood.

Veronica said she was excited to be accepted by Yale and was looking forward to studying and living in the USA.

She was securing a student visa and expected to leave home at the end of August.

She had chosen Yale for its obvious academic credentials and also because of the opportunity to continue her rowing.

Yale had good rowing coaches and had finished ninth at the intercollegiate (NCAA) championships.

“I want to continue on my rowing journey and to see what else I can achieve in the sport.

“Yale gives me that opportunity and also the chance to get a first class education.”

The university offered liberal arts and science courses and for the first couple of years she would be taking a broad range of subjects, before then having to decide on a major and minor.

Her major was likely to be a science subject, she said.

Yale University has close to 3000 international students from over 120 countries and a total student population of more than 13,000.

Yale does not award merit-based scholarships, but assesses the finances of applicant families to determine any scholarship amount.

Tuition and fees for undergraduates at Yale costs around US$55,500 per year.

By Mick Jensen - © The Ashburton Courier - 38 August 2019

Ashburton canvas fabricator Tom Marriott has been recognised as the top apprentice in his trade. Photo Linda ClarkeFive years ago Tom Marriott was the after-school boy at Ashburton canvas fabricator Peter May; now he’s the country’s top qualified apprentice in the industrial textile fabrication trade.

Marriott, who turns 20 in October, was named top tier two apprentice and overall apprentice of the year at the recent national Motor Industry Training Organisation apprentice competitions.

The awards were presented at the Outdoor Fabric Products Association national conference in Napier at the weekend.

To win the title, he designed and made a workproof seat cover, which included a certified air bag seam, a dome, zip and Velcro closing.

The work was assessed by a panel of judges.

Marriott said he spent a day working on the cover, taking extra care with the one-way pattern and other tricky details.

In the process he used a computer to design and cut the fabric, then sewed it perfectly together on an industrial machine at May’s factory.

He said he made seat covers on a regular basis at Mays, but his work included a wide variety of projects from making huge 30m-long haycovers to small sunshades.

His after-school job five years ago included sweeping the floor, but it also allowed him to see the workshop in action and he left Ashburton College at the end of 2016 and took up an apprenticeship in the canvas fabrication business.

He was a natural fit with his attention to detail, love of numbers and skills passed on from his builder dad.

Owner Peter May said Tom had shown he has the ability to be a very skilled tradesman with lots of potential.

“We are thrilled that he has been recognised at the awards.”

Marriott said he enjoyed the variety of work, which saw him mostly working with PVC and vinyl.

He is responsible for the whole production process, from measurement to finished item.

He is also responsible for his own clients, which is teaching him another side of the business.

It was rewarding to construct new products, but also to give new life to old ones with a fabric make-over, he said.

Marriott’s apprenticeship has involved practical and theoretical modules and courses away, but he said a lot of his learning had been in the workshop with May, who had over 40 years’ experience in the trade.

He said May and his wife Toni had been great support.

The couple accompanied him to Napier, where he also won a $750 cash prize and a hot air plastic welder worth over $1000.

Marriott is the fourth May apprentice since 2002 to have won the national award.

By Linda Clarke - © The Ashburton Guardian - 7 August 2019

Ashburton College principal Ross Preece tells former students and teachers about plans to replace the school’s leaky library. Photo Linda ClarkeThe architect for Ashburton College’s $50 million rebuild will be announced soon, though building work on the new campus will not begin for another two years.

Board of Trustees chair Jeremy Savage said the footprint of the 76 new classrooms and administration block had not yet been decided but options included the existing netball courts, playing fields and former community pool site (now a gravel carpark).

Savage said the Ministry of Education would manage the project and the school would be able to have its say on the space functioned.

He also hoped local businesses would engage when it came to awarding contracts for the work, which is timetabled to begin after the Ashburton District Council’s new building is constructed.

“We can get a school we think will suit our community and the needs of our community in the future.”

Savage talked about the significant build to former students and staff at an Ashburton College Alumni event on Friday.

He said the school had changed a lot since their day and was now a multicultural reflection of New Zealand with a roll that included 14 per cent Pacific Island students, 14 per cent Maori and 14 per cent Filipino.

Alumni chair Peter Gluyas said the gathering marked 50 years since the laying of the foundation stone at the Walnut Avenue site, not to be confused with the 50th anniversary of the merging of Ashburton High School and Ashburton Technical School in 1965.

The two schools functioned over two sites until the college was built.

The concrete block design served it well at the time, but has been found to be too hard to remodel.

The current classroom and technology blocks, and the administration area, will all be demolished once the new school is complete.

Principal Ross Preece said the campus would be built to cater for 1350 students and flexible learning spaces for large groups and individual cells, as well as specialist rooms for subjects like hospitality and woodworking, where subjects used commercial machines they would find in the workplace.

He said the curriculum was changing to ensure students had the soft skills and disposition needed for the modern workplace, where they were more likely to have a succession of short-time employment contracts rather than be in the same job for 40 years.

He said computer labs would be a thing of the past as almost all students now brought their own digital devices.

“They don’t need to remember the periodic table, they can just ask Siri.”

The alumni group visited several classrooms and the school library, where staff had prepared for an expected overnight downpour with buckets positioned to collect water that dripped from the ceiling when it rained.

The event also included the opening of a time capsule, created by the class 3BT for an English project in 1996. Teacher at the time Denise O’Halloran did the honours, then invited four former students to read their work – students had been asked to write about themselves and what they thought would happen in the future.

The former students, Steve Carr, Jackie Hurst, Amy Clark and Laura Davidson, were a bit nervous reading their 14-year-old thoughts aloud, but did, with some minor editing to avoid embarrassment.

Steve, now an accountant, had predicted he might become a builder or a mechanic and own a Harley-Davidson motorbike.

Former teacher Lynne McDonald had a surprise of her own and presented a framed and embroidered Ashburton College crest (a raffle prize from the 25th jubilee) to alumni chair Peter Gluyas, to act as his badge of office.

By Linda Clarke © The Ashburton Guardian - 6 August 2019