A huge door has opened up for Whangārei thespian M’lago Morris and he hopes to use his Te Ara a Kupe Beaton Scholarship to make his mark in the world of theatre.
Morris was one of four extraordinary Māori students from across the country who have been named as this year’s Te Ara a Kupe Beaton Scholarship winner.
The four winning students came out on top of 180 applicants to walk away with scholarships worth $25,000 each to help them gain admission to top global universities.
This year’s winners come from Rotorua, Whangārei and Inglewood in Taranaki, and all are intending to head to the United States to study, including at prestigious ivy league universities.
Morris, from Whangārei Boys’ High School, has his sights on New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
The Year 13 student recently won an award at the Shakespeare Festival in Wellington for his re-interpretation of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.
“It feels like a door has opened and that my dreams are actually achievable. A pathway has opened up and I can follow my dreams.”
Morris said he has wanted this since 2022 and worked hard in the last two years to achieve his goal.
“I have really focused on what I love to do, which is directing. I love everything to do with performing arts.”
He said he is particularly excited about sharing his country with the world.
“My ultimate goal is to become a world-renowned stage director bringing Māori and New Zealand culture to theatres and screens around the globe.
“New Zealand can be quite overlooked. Even though a lot of things are filmed here, there is not much New Zealand talent and it would be great to get us seen more and bring some of our issues to light.”
His mother Sarah said she was very proud of her son and would continue supporting him in the pursuit of his dreams.
“M’lago is very rewarding for me as a parent, I feel both a sense of achievement and relief in his successes.”
She said she helped him out by “unconditionally loving and supporting while never sugar coating anything”.
Sarah added that while all families were unique, support from those “key people in our lives is absolutely vital to our outcomes”.
“The best thing I can do to support M’lago right now is to step back and allow him to move forward independently. I will continue to love and support M’lago unconditionally.”
This year’s Te Ara a Kupe Beaton Scholarship winners join 30 previous recipients who’ve been awarded a total of $725,000 of education services.
The scholarship, which is in its seventh round, was founded by Crimson Education with the aim of supporting Māori high school students to gain admission to top-ranked global universities.
Past winners have been admitted to top US universities including two to Harvard, one to Duke University, one to Columbia, and a highly coveted 80% tuition-fee scholarship for a Mt Holyoke student-athlete.
Last year the scholarship expanded to help young New Zealanders with Pacific heritage to advance their studies and secure their top university admissions.
- NZ Herald