News & events

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.

With applications for the 2025 Keystone Study Awards shortly to close, it’s worth noting that two members of the selection committee could not be better qualified for their roles.

Why did Kākati Te Kākākura Royal reach out to Keystone? “Because I have never received a scholarship before,” he wrote on his application form. There were many other things Kākati had not received – principally a stable upbringing that nurtured a love of life and learning. By his own description, he was exposed to “different experiences” as a child: a turbulent mix of family discord, run-ins with the law, school expulsion, homelessness and time spent in pre-youth prison.

Growing up in Tāneatua – a small town just south of Whakatāne in the Eastern Bay of Plenty – Jordan Marr-Henry found limited opportunities and challenges shaped his early years.

It was just a casual comment – but the end result spoke volumes. In 2002, Mary Henry was in her final year at Long Bay High School on Auckland’s North Shore. Her career advisor happened to mention the opportunity of a Keystone scholarship, and the sporty head girl, prefect and high-achieving student decided to explore.

At his family home on Great Barrier Island, surrounded by birdsong and some of the country’s last unspoiled landscapes, a young Brendan Judd knew more had to be done to protect the country’s spectacular natural world.

For as long as he can remember, Blair Rutherford has felt an intrinsic connection to the outdoors, a feeling he has nurtured his entire young life through elite sports and outdoor hobbies.

When Rowan Fraser left his boyhood home of Havelock North for university in Auckland, he struggled to navigate his way around the city. Now he knows his way around the world, which has indeed become his career oyster.

This is a story about putting the cart before the horse.
Richard Smales was fresh out of high school. He was a true newbie: an inaugural recipient of a Graeme Bringans Property Education Trust (GBPET) award. And he had determined to study surveying at the University of Otago.
There was just one problem: Richard failed University Entrance by one mark – seemingly barring his automatic admission to tertiary study.

Changing career lanes takes guts, but as Keystone Trust alumni and 2019 Study Award recipient Kamal McEntee-Amziane discovered, magic happens when you lean on your network and take a risk.

Jethro Giles made his first financial killing when just eight years old.
Rather than simply seeking a contribution from his parents for a school fundraising scheme and leaving it at that, he maximised the profits by signing up donors at the local supermarket. Kitted out in his school uniform, day after day, he garnered contributions by the thousands – and made himself some handsome pocket money on the side, thanks to an incentive scheme offered by his school.

It’s a long way from being a ‘bush kid’ on the West Coast of the South Island to heading an inner-city Sydney office, but that’s where Steve Bushby has landed.