Blogs • James Wright (Blog Scholar 2009)

So what do you call home? Home for me is the Hawkes Bay. The east region of the north island. Beautiful place and nice weather most of the time. If you dont know, its main town Napier is the Art deco capital of New Zealand and we have the only Art Deco Mcdonalds in the world!! Napier is a beachside town which is a prime spot when it comes to celebrations like fireworks, christmas and the new year. Its obviuosly not as up market as auckland or the capital but its a cruisy stress-free town with a cosiness to it. Many of you would have heard of the 1931 napier earthquake. It pretty much flattened napier and survived as a 'tin town' as most of the shops were structured with corrogated iron. One of the buildings that survived was the Municipal theatre, which is considered to be Napiers town hall. Many concerts, productions and school performances are held there so i guess if was to parallel with selwyn, it would be the 'Neville cup' centre of hawkes bay. Mclean Park in that case is definitely the Cameron sheild equivalent with regular provincial and international rugby matches as well as cricket matches. I guess what im trying to say is that Selwyn and home are very much the same, theres no place like it. The pride that is built and the friends that become family are the things that will stay with you for a very long time.

Like the knights of King Arthur, the students of Selwyn college have their own round table that is the student council(SCSA). These awesome people are the ultimate philanthropists when it comes to giving away their time for the welfare of the college. Doing it for mates and stuff. So there are a few roles to play as a councillor which include, the President. The big man who does a lot of behind the scenes work and is a general good sort. Then we have his right-hand man the vice president who organises the Selwyn merchandise, the court sessions where our competitors reminisce after a battle against knox.

We have the I.A. (internal affairs fellow). This guy makes sure the traditions of selwyn are upheld including organising the annual Selwyn ballet, the haka and waiata, and organising the selwyn record, a magazine with a collation of the years memories to make sure we dont forget. Next we have the social rep, this social butterfly organises all the HOPS (selwyn partys) and also the Balls (orientation and 21sters). Along with this workload the social rep also helps organise the College House exchange. The last two people on the council organise the battles with knox. The cultural rep and sport rep organise these competitions with knox for two very special prizes-the Cameron Shield(sports) and the Neville Cup(cultural). It just so happens that were winning both of them this year (wahoo!) Now last but certainly not least (cliche i know) is the treasurer who provides the financial front to make sure all these events happen!

Well thats our council so any prospective student applying for Selwyn College, your not alone and its because of these people that life at selwyn is so unique and amazing. Shot guys!!

Sorry about the wait guys, i guess another one of those things that comes with a buoyant uni life is learning the art of procrastination resistance of which i am still a rookie. Anyways, last sunday we had the delight of having the new co-leader of the Green Party, Metiria Turei, with us for formal dinner. It is becoming more and more often that famous or well-known guests are welcomed to the college. Mrs. Turei spoke of her background and how she came to be elected at parliament which, unfortunately for her, wasnt an easy task to achieve as a young mother so it just goes to show that even when the times are tough its possible to achieve what you want in life. She also spoke of the current world and economic crises that are upon us and how the Green Party is trying to find ways to 'hit two birds with one stone'. It was really good to have people like Mrs Turei in the college to get a good honest first hand opinion on what they do and i guess there are many more to come.