Friday 22 April 2022 8:50am
The three scholarship recipients are, on the left, Ilaisaane Fakapulia, while top right is Jasmine Wells, bottom right is Ella Silk.
The School of Biomedical Sciences has awarded its Pacific and Māori Scholarship to students Ilaisaane Fakapulia (Pacific) and Jasmine Wells and Ella Silk (Māori).
Ilaisaane Fakapulia is the recipient of the “School of Biomedical Sciences Pacific Peoples Postgraduate Scholarship” and plans to use the $7,500 to do a Postgraduate Diploma in Science in the Department of Anatomy.
Originally from Tonga, Ilaisaane is the first in her family to achieve this level of tertiary education and plans to use her scholarship to conduct qualitative interviews using Talanoa to understand how the Department of Anatomy might better support Pasifika students academically, as well as collecting feedback on their overall learning experience.
“I am so grateful to have received this scholarship and hope that my findings can be used to create and improve support systems for Pasifika students, further enhancing Pasifika student success,” Ilaisaane says.
“At the University of Otago, I have always been well connected to Pasifika students, through mentorship programmes and creating relationships with other Pasifika students, and so I would like to contribute to something bigger than myself and help all and upcoming Pasifika students have a fulfilling learning experience in science so that they can step into fantastic areas of research that can be used to contribute to Pasifika communities as well as create careers for themselves in the area of biomedical sciences.”
Currently, she is working on a research project with Dr Erik Wibowo and Dr Latika Samalia, taking an in-depth look into the education experiences of Pasifika students in anatomy.
This year’s School of Biomedical Sciences Māori Scholarship will see the $7,500 award split between two equally deserving recipients, Jasmine Wells and Ella Silk.
Both Jasmine and Ella are based in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. They have received an Otago Scholarship in Science before, graduated from the University with a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Microbiology, and plan to use their portion of the scholarship fund to further postgraduate studies in pathogens.
Of Ngāti Hauā descent, Jasmine plans to identify a new chemical platform for the inhibition of human and animal fungal pathogens.
“The environment that Te Huka Mātauraka has made at the University of Otago is remarkable and it is something I am very proud to be a part of,” Jasmine says.
“I hope that I get the chance to give back to them and the University of Otago for all of the great memories, friendships, and knowledge they have gifted to me.”
“My ideal pathway is to complete my BSc Honours degree in Professor Gregory Cook's group this year and create more opportunities for myself to continue agricultural-based research here in New Zealand.”
Ella Silk’s (Ngāti Kahu and Ngāpuhi) research plans to take a different direction, as it involves the use of bacteriophage, a virus which kills a bacterium, to target the kiwifruit pathogen, Pseudomonas syringae pv. Actinidiae, or Psa.
She plans to use a range of molecular, biochemical and bioinformatic approaches to do this research, with her goal being to help combat the negative effects this pathogen causes the kiwifruit industry.
“Microbiology is involved in just about every research and work field imaginable and there is a prevalent need for Māori microbiologists in research due to their broad distribution,” Ella says.
“Providing different perspectives on topics is extremely important in shaping research projects and designs, especially within New Zealand, where Kotahitanga has been widely demonstrated.”
“This means we should all come together as one to make important decisions regarding research and science.”