Emily Beniamin and Mariam Matti have uncannily similar backgrounds, but it wasn’t until they were half a world away from their homeland that they discovered their shared roots.
“The Keystone scholarship completely changed my university experience. Keystone are incredibly supportive and excellent mentors and role models.” – Mariam
That international straddling of cultures has now extended into the workplace, with both making their futures in law.
Underpinning the link is the Keystone Trust, which was instrumental in bringing the pair – now firm friends as well as sharing a professional collegiality – together. It’s a bond that has an enduring quality to it, says Mariam.
How did it all come about? Baghdad-born Mariam was just a young child when she and her parents migrated to New Zealand from war-torn Iraq in the mid-1990s. The early days illustrated the challenges the family was exposed to: they had to learn a new language, adjust to a different culture and a new life in New Zealand.
Going to a Christian-Catholic close-knit school is something Mariam recalls fondly, as despite the difference in backgrounds, all the children came from families with similar religious values to hers.
Back then, she didn’t contemplate a career as a lawyer.
But that’s what she did: studying a Bachelor of Laws and Property conjoint at the University of Auckland and subsequently being awarded the Keystone Bayleys Property scholarship in 2016 which enhanced her university experience and supported her career progression. “The Keystone scholarship completely changed my university experience,” says Mariam. “Keystone are incredibly supportive and excellent mentors and role models.”
Mariam is now an associate at Greenwood Roche where she can expertly combine her two degrees in the workplace. And it was here that she got an email that would connect her with her past.
Keystone was seeking someone to mentor another of their students, Emily Beniamin, who was studying law at the University of Auckland. Says Mariam: “It came as a complete surprise that Emily is Iraqi as at first glance I presumed her last name had been misspelled, but then I found out that she too was from a Christian minority group in Iraq.” It then emerged that Mariam and Emily’s parents knew each other through their church and community backgrounds. Mariam has since mentored Emily – currently in her third year – through her studies.
Emily’s parents arrived in New Zealand as refugees, and although Emily was born here, she and Mariam have similar backgrounds in every sense, she says. It was while Emily was in Year 13, at McAuley High School, and looking to study law, that she heard of the possibility of a Keystone scholarship. After becoming an awardee in 2022, she met Greenwood Roche partner Bob Roche (the project law firm is a Keystone sponsor) at a trust networking function. Bob and Keystone general manager Amanda Stanes effected the introduction that has now been cemented both personally and professionally.
“Mariam has walked me through a lot of stuff at university, and it’s been really reassuring having her alongside.” The pair also socialise together. “We’re more like friends,” says Emily, who is full of admiration for her mentor. “Mariam’s career has grown like a novel. I would like to have the same success as her.” Emily currently works part-time at TBB Legal – another Keystone sponsor – and hopes to complete her degree in 2026.
Of her association with Emily, Mariam says: “I feel like she’s my younger sister. We connected on so many levels.”
“What’s really cool is that we met through Keystone, and we will always have that bond through Keystone.”
The pair’s connection also has a timely link to their tertiary institution. Keystone has recently been recognised by the University of Auckland’s Chancellor’s Circle as a member of the Sir George Fowlds Society. This upgrade acknowledges donations from the trust in excess of $1 million over the past 30 years. “Members of this Society have made substantial commitments to university teaching and research. Their generosity has played and continues to play an important role in sustaining creativity and ingenuity,” notes the university on its website.
