Ngāti Porou descendent Te Aihe Butler was awarded the first Te Uru Rangi scholarship from Enspiral Dev Academy enabling him to completely dive into the bootcamp course without distraction.
Published: Rāmere, 18 Hakihea, 2015 | Friday, 18 December 2015
“I’m looking forward to acknowledging the contribution through meaningful thoughts, words and actions in the technology industry in the years to come,” said Butler.
Te Aihe is one of two recipients and says he is a shiny product of our multi-cultural country.
“I’m from Titahi Bay, Wellington, but my whānau is from Ruatoria, on the east coast so we are proud Ngāti Porou. My dad is New Zealand pākehā with English and Irish heritage. Both whakapapa have long lines of artists, craftsmen and civil servants,” said Butler.
Te Aihe became interested in information technology in his early teenage years once he realised how huge the internet was and how influential it was going to be in everyday life for just about every person on the planet.
“I’m specifically interested in web design and believe that a beautiful effective web design is just as relevant and essential as building architecture or civil infrastructure. Web sites and web applications are such a dominant form of communication and information sharing in our age.”
The Te Uru Rangi scholarships are intended to make it easier for young Māori to become web developers by helping students complete the Enspiral Dev Academy junior development nine week intensive, full immersion bootcamp course. Students leave with all the fundamentals of software development needed to be employed as junior developers.
Rohan Wakefield, co-founder of Enspiral Dev Academy has been striving to create this opportunity for some time to help train and support upcoming Māori tech and business leaders.
“With the other partners Te Puni Kōkiri, NZ Trade & Enterprise and Callaghan Innovation on board, the Te Uru Rangi scholarships create a huge opportunity for more Māori to step into a thriving technology industry, have access to higher earning jobs and value creativity, diversity and collaborative problem solving," said Wakefield.
Te Aihe said that receiving the scholarship meant he didn’t have to stress about sourcing the money so could dive completely into the course material without distraction. This made a big difference to his mental wellbeing on the course and, by extension, he says the quality of his learning experience.
“I was working my arse off alongside a cohort of talented, like-minded individuals in an awesome environment. I was blown away with the amount of things I learnt before bootcamp ended."
“I want to say a huge thank you to Te Puni Kōkiri, NZ Trade & Enterprise, and Callaghan Innovation for their support. I’ve been equipped with a totally unique skill-set that is hard to come by in the technology industry - where your code-specific knowledge is supplemented by inter-personal relationship and communication skills. I think that regardless of where my path takes me, what I've learnt and the skills I've refined at Enspiral Dev Academy will put me in excellent stead to succeed and prosper,” says Butler.
Te Aihe was one of two inaugural Te Uru Rangi scholarship recipients. The other recipient was Jory Akuhata.
Read more about the Enspiral Dev Academy and Te Uru Rangi scholarships.