Alumni – AIMES Awards

KRISTIN ALUMNI

Kristin Alumni Shine at AIMES Awards

Congratulations to Kristin Alumni Zoe White and Murdoch Thomson, who received scholarship grants at the North Harbour Club AIMES Awards Gala Dinner in May.

Gifted dancer Zoe (class of 2017) was the recipient of the 2021 AIMES Arts Award and was also awarded the coveted Supreme AIMES Award. Murdoch (class of 2014), a legal expert with unique expertise in privacy and information security, was the winner of the 2021 AIMES Innovation Award.

Provided by the North Harbour Club and Charitable Trust, the awards celebrate excellence in the areas of Arts, Innovation, Music, Education, Sport and Service to the Community. Each year, around 20-25 young people from the region are awarded scholarships in their chosen fields. Kristin sponsors the Education Award at the ceremony, which was originally due to be held last year but was postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Zoe, an AIMES Emerging Talent winner in 2017, studied in London for three years at the prestigious Rambert School of Ballet & Contemporary Dance. Her third year, due to be filled with stunning performance opportunities, was cut short due to COVID-19 cancellations. However Zoe pivoted (or pirouetted!) to use this time to achieve a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Contemporary Dance from the University of Kent via correspondence. Zoe's AIMES Award grant of $30,000 has helped towards her preprofessional year with the Sydney Dance Company and will support her creative and professional endeavours going forward.

Zoe says it was a complete surprise to win the Supreme Award: “It’s incredible to be recognised among all the other people and what they have achieved. Dance is a hard road so it is amazing to see that it is valued.”

Zoe says she skills she acquired at Kristin stood her in good stead for her experiences to follow. “The education I had and skills I learnt in analysis and critical thinking really set me up for my education at Rambert. The Kristin teachers believed in me and supported my work to give me the confidence I needed in performing arts,” she says.

Now that she is back in New Zealand, Zoe is reconnecting with the local dance scene and hoping to spend some time giving back to the community through teaching. University of Buckingham Law School (UK), finishing top of his class with first class Honours. Next, he went on to complete an LLM in international and commercial law, graduating with Distinction. Murdoch then followed his passion for emerging technologies, completing an advanced LLM in cyber space and telecommunications law at the University of Nebraska (USA). After a varied career advising Fortune 100 organisations and governments on space policy and security in the UAE and USA, Murdoch recently returned to New Zealand.

He is currently the Governance, Risk & Compliance Manager at Cyber Research NZ and he also spends time supporting emerging talent, mentoring students and lecturing on emerging technologies.

Murdoch received a $15,000 grant, which he will use to seek admission to the New Zealand Bar. Murdoch says: “I am genuinely very humbled to be awarded the AIMES Innovation Award; it’s a vote of confidence that the work I’ve been doing the last few years is paying off.”

Murdoch says the support, opportunities and guidance that he received at Kristin has been invaluable. “What I learned at Kristin, I have carried through to my career. It’s also great that Kristin is involved in the AIMES Awards through sponsoring the Education Award and being part of a community that celebrates excellence.”

Kristin Executive Principal Mark Wilson says: “Kristin is immensely proud of our 2021 AIMES Award winners. It is wonderful to see their incredible achievements recognised and we look forward to seeing what they do next in their careers – congratulations Zoe and Murdoch!”