Kickstart a career in Nursing with $1000

“I have wanted to be a nurse since the age of eight,” she said. “I was inspired by nurses who took care of me in hospital when I was younger.”

The dedicated ākonga has been the lead student in organising school and community knitting projects for premature babies through the Rai Valley School Leo’s club. The school was able to donate some beautiful items of clothing to the Nelson Hospital Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

“The knitting club was a project that I helped to lead, and we managed to make a large donation of around 35 knitted items to help at the NICU,” Lillyarna said.

“This involved reaching out to the community and was overall a really rewarding project.”

She has worked hard to achieve success in her Level 3 studies and was very surprised and appreciative to receive the NMIT award.

“I want to study at NMIT because it’s local. It means I will still be able to help my younger siblings and be closer to home in general.”

Lisa Hooker, Careers and Gateway Coordinator, said the prizegiving ceremony was lovely and Lillyarna was very deserving of the award.

“She is a very generous and hardworking student,” Lisa said. “There was little doubt that Lillyarna was the student who most deserved the award.”