Meet our Education Champions
Find out about the Foundation's Champions Programme
Corin is a teacher at Arahoe School, in the suburb of New Lynn in Auckland. As part of the school's language learning programme, Corin teaches and is also learning, Korean.
John is the principal of Henley School in the Nelson region and has been proudly involved with the Foundation since 2009.
Jane is a food technology teacher in sunny Hawkes Bay. As a Champion, Jane is looking forward to a focus on cuisine and culture from a range of Asian countries.
Lianne says that one point of difference at her kura is their commitment to global, indigenous education. Lianne believes an understanding of Asia, specifically language and culture, serves to strengthen this country's own cultural identity, and grows a genuine appreciation of other beliefs, customs, contributions and world views.
Tom Collin is an English teacher at Tauranga Boy's College. After living in Ho Chi Minh City for 18 months, getting Asia on the mental map of his students is one of Tom's major goals.
Dot was motivated to become a Foundation Champion through growing up in Indonesia. Her family returned to Aotearoa when she was about 7 years old, and now lives in Waikato teaching a range of languages at Waihi College.
Andrew has been a teacher since 2000 and has taught in New Zealand and overseas, including seven years in Kuwait and two years in China.
Peter is deputy principal at Cobham Intermediate in Christchurch. He has an ongoing interest in Asia, having spent a significant proportion of his teaching life working with students from the region.
Born and raised in South Korea, Catherine Hyo Myung has had a varied career path, beginning in teaching, landing in animation while overseas, before returning to education in Aotearoa. She is currently seeking to introduce more Asian elements to her school and its wider community.
Originally from Tokyo, Daiji has been teaching Japanese in New Zealand high schools for the past 15 years.
Andrew is the principal at Oropi School in Tauranga and believes it is essential to equip students to prepare them for engagement with Asia.
Amanda is a teacher at Nayland College in Nelson, as well as a doctoral student. Her specialisation is in global citizenship education in the secondary-school sector.
Courtney is very passionate about New Zealand education engagement with Asia and has taken students and teachers on numerous trips to China.
A teacher at Takapuna Primary School, Vicky wanted to become a Champion because she sees this as a chance to help create opportunities that bring awareness of Asian culture to children and their community.
Lynne works at Greenpark Primary School in Tauranga as a classroom teacher, senior teacher and international manager. Her passion for Asia stems from extensive travel, and planning and guiding groups of students and their families to South Korea as part of their unique sister school exchange programme.
Mathew O’Hagan is a learning leader at Thorndon School Te Kura o Pipitea. He first went to Asia as an AFS exchange student to Thailand in 1994/5 and began his teaching career as an assistant English teacher in Japan in 1999.
Carolyn is a teacher at Tauranga Intermediate School in the Bay of Plenty. She has been a primary school teacher for just over six years and prior to this was an ESOL teacher for children and adults.
Bridget teaches economics and enterprise at Glendowie College. Her journey with the Foundation started when she went to Shanghai with a group of teachers in 2012.
Having called New Zealand home for the past 17 years, Renu has dedicated her entire life to education. She has worked in various leadership roles at Aotearoa schools at all levels.
Adrienne currently teaches at Western Heights Primary School in Rotorua. She returned to Aotearoa at the end of 2017 after spending well over a decade living and teaching in Taiwan.
Natalie is a Year 7-8 teacher at a large school on the Kāpiti Coast. She has been passionate about languages, culture and travelling since she started learning German at college as a 13 year old.
Linda's work background is as a secondary school principal of three schools spanning over 20 years, and she is currently the principal of Golden Bay High School and co-lead of Kāhui Ako ki Mohua.
With two brothers and four nieces and nephews living in Japan, Steve has had a strong connection to Japan for over 20 years.
John is the Head of Physics at Burnside High School in Christchurch. John's interest in Asia began with a three-month trip to Hong Kong and China in 1991, and was reinforced by subsequent visits to China, Japan and S.E Asia.