News & events

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.

Long before it became an industry buzzword, Keystone alumni Samantha McGavock has been walking the talk on sustainability, fortified by a deep connection and reverence for the environment through her Māori heritage.

In 2021, Asalemo Lilomaiava was spread thin. Balancing a demanding schedule of shift work to support his family, and caring for a member undergoing medical treatment, all while in his final year completing a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering with Honours.

“I am fascinated at seeing the development of schemes such as housing subdivisions. I believe that in the property industry I can contribute to development, but keep that in harmony with the environment.” That was Joshua Leckie, aged 17, applying for a Keystone Scholarship – then known as the Graeme Bringans Property Education Trust (GBPET) student study award – in 2003. How prescient he was. And how “chuffed” he is to look back on that statement today.

The former Christchurch Girls’ High School student has a cool job in an even cooler climate: she is the Construction Manager for Antarctica New Zealand.

Armed with a resourcefulness that belies her age, and a proactive approach to her education, Jamie Merrick has always been a masterclass in the growth mindset.

Supermarket worker, chemist delivery cyclist, department store salesperson, neighbourhood lawn mower, and paper boy: as a Timaru teenager, Dale Henderson did it all. Little did he know what those schoolboy skills would eventually lead to.

Not everyone who gets a Keystone Study Award accepts it. At least not immediately. That was the case for Dane Hart, who encountered a delicious collision of opportunities in his final months at school.

Corrina Gibbons-Hurinui knows the Keystone scholarship interview process from both sides of the table. As a teenaged applicant, she found the selection panel encounter “pretty terrifying”, she now laughingly admits. Later, she became a panel member herself, and while still trying to keep prospective recipients on their toes: “I didn’t go out of my way to make it terrifying.”

Thao Nguyen’s journey of achievement began long before her introduction to Keystone. Just 13 years prior to receiving her study award, Thao, together with her mother and sibling, arrived in New Zealand as refugees from Vietnam. They could not speak any English. That meant a fast learning curve for Thao in particular, who had to immerse herself in English as a second language and assume the role as both lead family interpreter and teacher.