"Uni for a Day" is legendary - MATES Junior mentees look forward to it all year. This much-anticipated outing is held each year to give Year 8 students something to aim for as they prepare to begin High School. After being postponed twice due to the second Covid lockdown, they finally got to experience “Uni for a Day” in October. 

From workshops about leadership and teamwork to creating Dream Boards with Deuce Sneakers (Merchant 1948) and having an Amazing Race around the campus, it was a day jam-packed with learning and fun.

One of the highlights was when Deuce team members spoke to the mentees about some of the challenges they had faced growing up, and offered some inspiration to “dream big”. The mentees then crafted their own dream board.

One of the teachers who attended told Sonya Masoe, MATES Programme Manager, “Uni for a Day is gold. It exposes students to areas of study that they didn’t even know existed.”

The teacher spoke about one of her young Pasifika students who happened to walk past the Pacific Studies building on the University campus. This student had no idea that such a thing existed, and became really excited that she could study about her own people at Uni. She said she will be coming back to do that when she finishes school.

“‘Uni for a Day’ gets them dreaming.”

  

  

  

A huge thank you to Merchant 1948 and Deuce Sneakers for helping make this day possible.