RESURGAMUS – Rise Again - Some of my fondest memories are the days spent at Ashburton College.  It is where my thinking was challenged to look beyond the boundaries of our suburbs, or our town to look to the wider district and the world.  Ashburton College provided many firsts, including first love – David and I are thankful for those days. Ashburton College is for many the highest end of our formal education. I for one appreciated the school culture and the focus on citizenship and community that created a desire to serve the community now. The faculty were (and continue to be) spectacular and inspiring.  I’d like to congratulate the Alumni team for this initiative and there are many of us who are eager to give back to the School that gave us so much.

Donna Favel

While I was still at school, I was supported by our local Rotary to attend the National Rotary Science Forum which really cemented my desire to pursue science, particularly Health Sciences.

I finished Ashcoll in 2012,  headed to Dunedin, and studied first year Health Science and complete a Bachelor of Science, majoring in Neuroscience.

Towards the end of my first year, I was presented with the Zonta Young Women in Public Affairs Award, National and then International, which was an incredible honour. This was mainly for the events and volunteering I had been involved with during my time on the Ashburton College Student Executive and Ashburton Youth Council. After finishing Neuroscience, I applied for both the Honours program and the Medicine & Surgery program. I missed out on Otago Medical school but was lucky to be given a place in Auckland so there was no looking back!

My attendance at Ashburton College  formed many enduring friendships, gave me inspiration and self belief. I wouldn't be where I am, or the person I’ve become. I feel really fortunate to call Ashburton my Tūrangawaewae, because so many people from larger centres around the country don't get to feel the community love and support that I have.
I can see myself coming back to a smaller region like Ashburton, where doctors are most needed. For now however, I will tolerate the traffic jams and enjoy the hundreds of delightful cafes!

I had a fantastic time at Ashburton College and am a huge advocate of the school. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the friends you make at highschool are the ones that will stick around forever. It is definitely true in my case! Sport was a huge part of my time at the school and as is the nature with smaller town it was the same kids who played in the basketball, cricket and rugby teams, ran at athletics day and attempted butterfly to get the day off for swimming sports. It might be a bit biased but I felt our year group was unusually strong sporting wise. This was no more apparent than the great fruit wars of ‘07’ when a bunch of jumped up year 9’s (us) engaged in some friendly fire with the year 13’s. While the ‘big-boys’ had a few more years of age on their boat shoes, we had some great arms in the group with the likes of Thomas Meyrick being able to pick out a target from close to 100 metres away. Our parents were probably curious as to our sudden passion for fruit in our school lunches; if only Mrs McDonald knew what the mandarins were really for.
 
Most of the big achievements I was a part of during my time at the school were on the sports field. I was part of the Ashburton College year 9 and 10 cricket team which punched above its weight to reach the national finals. We knocked out big names like Christchurch Boys, Westlake Boys and Wanganui Collegiate but couldn’t get over the final hurdle, Palmerston North Boys High school. We couldn’t actually muster a full team so had to call in a tennis player and a year 9 to be our eleventh and twelfth men. On the other hand, PNBHS had seven year 10 teams, so we did alright.
 
I was part of the effort that revived the Ashburton College 1st XV after more than a decade of leaving the Press Cup. We didn’t get the results (in fact we won only 3 games in two seasons) but we felt strongly that we should be in that competition to develop our rugby talent and foster some pride in the school. We were up against strong local opposition and got minimal support. The clubs didn’t like the idea and some of the more narrow-minded even suggested that the true path to becoming an All Black was through grassroots club rugby and not school rugby, which is far from the truth in this era. We often felt like misfits, turning up to face prestigious rugby schools wearing cotton rugby uniforms from the 90’s. Despite all that, it was thoroughly worth it. In the years after we left Ashburton, the 1st XV started being able to compete with the heavyweights from Christchurch, getting wins over Christs College and St Andrews and making the national co-ed final. What’s more, a lot of the talent that was nurtured through the school returned to play club rugby after they left, improving the strength of rugby in Mid Canterbury.
 
Where I thought I would be
If you had asked me at Ashburton College where I would be at the age of 23, I would’ve been able to pick out a few things that I would’ve described as certainties. I would’ve finally given into the persistent advances of Elyse Andrew and accepted her as my girlfriend. We would be living in Dubai and I would be working as a Civil Engineer on some of the world's most advanced megastructures, having retired from international rugby sevens after the Rio Olympics.
 
Where I actually am now
Part of the dream did come true. I studied a Bachelor of Civil Engineering at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch although I never practiced it. Straight out of university I joined the Markets team at BNZ in Wellington, where we traded derivatives, foreign currency, bonds and interest rates. It was a rather unreal experience, with transactions over 8 figures the daily norm, however I quickly found the suit-and-tie corporate life wasn’t for me and seeked greener pastures. My career pivoted to the technology industry, where I am currently Product and UX Manager at technology start up CricHQ, based in Wellington. The funny thing is that this job barely existed when I was at high school making it very hard to predict my career path. My job application was less than conventional, they didn’t even have a job going. Instead, I reached out to the CEO via social media with a pun-laden poem which obviously struck a chord because I was asked in for a coffee and basically configured my own job description. The opportunities which have come from that fateful poem include trips to our overseas office in India and plenty of interactions with high profile business and sporting identities. I could have never have imagined this when I was at Ashburton College. In terms of my other predictions, I am still holding poor Elyse at bay and I am yet to be an Olympian. I am not going to even try predict where I will be in the next 10 years, but there is a good chance I will be based overseas in that time and will look to start my own company. If you are ever in Wellington and want to have a coffee or a craft beer, get in touch. I have a lot of time for Ashburton College students, old and new.