Olive Watherston applied to our foundation in 2021 and received the top sports scholarship.
She writes below how this scholarship impacted her:
"I was beyond lucky to have received one to out of two top scholarships from the Kate Moetaua Foundation in 2021. This scholarship has had a massive impact on my goals of becoming a professional athlete and has helped guide me in the right direction.
I applied to this scholarship with the aspirations of becoming a professional sevens rugby player and representing our country. When I applied for the scholarship I was still based in the Wakatipu region but had plans set in mind to move to a location where I was able to play more rugby at a higher level to get more experience and move towards my goal. That season I had played for the Otago Spirit womens team in the Farah Palmer Cup competition as one of the youngest at 17 years of ages. This was a great opportunity for me but was hard to work with the trainings where based in Dunedin so it was a 3 hour drive there and the costs of this added up.
One of my first plans was to put the scholarship money towards fuel costs but I then another opportunity came up to move to Tauranga for the last year of school and take the next step in my rugby career. I made the move up north at the end of Janurary and am homestaying with a lovely family who have taken me in. This has been a huge change in my life which I never once thought would actually happen but with the help of the Kate Moetaua Foundation scholarship it has happened. The money I received has gone towards rent/living costs. It has impacted me a lot as rugby has been full on so I haven’t had time for a job so being able to cover rent/living costs has allowed me to live up here. I have recently been selected in the Bay of Plenty Volcanixs womens team which play in the Farah Palmer cup and made my Debut on the 24th of July, playing a full game with jersey 11. This team has many black ferns in it who I get to play along side and learn from which is something I found amazing as I am learning from the best. .
I have also just finished the women's club season, I played for the mount marlins and we made it to the semis. I got the chance to have a training session with the Black ferns, they came and trained at Mount Maunganui College which is my current school and invited me and two other girls to train with them. It was their first time ever inviting people to train with them so it was a very special moment for the Black ferns, us girls who got invited and Mount College.
I have seen major progress in my skill level and fitness and the move has 100% been worth it so I am very grateful to have had some help from the Kate Moetaua Foundation and think it is something huge they are doing and very very special."
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