A proud Tongan ta’ahine, Mele 'Ofa-Ki-Vila Mafi (pictured) is paving the way as a Pacific woman in the engineering sector.
One of nine 2022 Prime Minister’s Pacific Youth Award (PMPYA) recipients, Mele says there is a need to strengthen the Pacific community in education, and to lead once given an opportunity to do so.
“It is vital for our Pacific people to have multiple role models to help our kids, learning to work together and share our creative ideas,” Mele says.
“This will all help our community.”
The 21-year-old collected the International Scholar Award category win at the PMPYA ceremony late last year.
Sponsored by Pacific Cooperation Foundation, the award recognises a young Pacific person who epitomises the strong positive relationship between Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific through their leadership, community service (both New Zealand and home nation) and academic performance.
In 2019, Mele earnt the titles of Dux and Head Girl of Tonga High School before making the decision to move to New Zealand in 2020 to study towards a Bachelor of Engineering at the University of Auckland.
Relocating to New Zealand was challenging, she says.
“Coming here from a small school in Tonga to a huge university was hard, on top of that we had lockdowns, lots of Pacific students went back to their home islands, but I decided to stay here and grind hard for three years, it was tough but rewarding.”
Having completed three years of study, Mele has taken up an undergraduate transport engineer role for AECOM and a research assistant role for the Faculty of Engineering in the Conjunctive Water Allocation Modelling Framework for New Zealand.
Receiving the PMPYA means a lot to Mele and her family, while granting her the ability to achieve her dreams, she says.
Financially, the award will allow her to further her studies as she hopes to pursue postgraduate study in engineering, she adds.
The Prime Minister’s Pacific Youth Awards celebrate success and rewards outstanding achievement by Pacific young people in Aotearoa.
It is one of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples’ flagship initiatives.
Visit the MPP website for more information.