North Harbour's Youth Excellence Celebrated

AIMES Awards inspire talented youth to achieve even higher

16 November 2015 – With the aim of becoming a neurosurgeon in his sights, the excellence of young talented doctor Carl Hume has been recognised with top honours and the Supreme Award at this year's AIMES awards.

The annual AIMES (Arts, IT, Innovation & Science, Music, Education, Sport and Service to the Community) awards are the innovation of the North Harbour Club, a group of local business people aspiring to help talented youth achieve even higher, and 2015 sees the celebration of 20 years of rewarding youth excellence in the region.

Since its inception the North Harbour Club has made awards and grants of more than $1.8 million to talented youth, and this year's winners will collectively receive $180,000 in support to attain even higher excellence in their fields thanks to the Club's 160 plus members.

Supreme Award winner Carl (24) graduates from the University of Auckland today and although only just beginning his career he has already making a name for himself in the field of Medicine. He has consistently achieved class awards and top grades throughout his degree and the former Orewa College student is heavily immersed in research and has already submitted close to 5 research papers before even graduating from university - a significant number for anyone within the medical field.

Carl says he was humbled at winning the AIMES Supreme Award and is grateful for the recognition as well as the grant, which will help further his career. "I was quite surprised to win, the standard of all the other finalists was extremely high."

He is looking forward to starting work at North Shore Hospital and helping make a difference in the community, as well as continuing his study towards his ultimate goal of becoming a neurosurgeon.

This year there was a record number of 186 AIMES applications - easily surpassing the previous record of 93 and presenting a challenging task for the team of judges.

AIMES Chair of Judges Andrea Davies says that the depth of youth talent emerging from the North Shore continually amazes the judging panel. "Every year at the AIMES awards we think we've reached a pinnacle, yet we continue to be impressed, it's a very humbling experience to be involved with such talented youth.

"For the size of New Zealand our talent punches well above its weight on the global stage and the pride these young people have in both the North Shore and the country is fantastic."

With double the number of nominees this year the judges were presented with a tough task to select the category winners and overall supreme winner. Finalists in the new Junior Award category absolutely awed the judges with their talent.

Supreme winner Carl faced tough competition from fellow Excellence Award recipients; soprano Emily Scott (25), Sian Simpson (24) in the field of technology, double bass player Alexander Verster (25), rower Michael Brake (21), Olympic yachter Gemma Jones (21) and Mattea Mrkusic (20) in the field of human rights and climate change.

The AIMES awards are divided into categories of Excellence (the Supreme winner is selected from within this group), Emerging Talent and 2015 sees the addition of a new Junior Awards section. To be nominated for an AIMES Award, recipients (aged between 10 & 13 for a Junior AIMES Award and 14 & 25 for an Emerging Talent or AIMES Award) must display excellence in the areas of the Arts, IT, Innovation & Science, Music, Education, Sport and Service to the Community.
The annual AIMES Awards Gala Dinner was held at Auckland's Langham Hotel on Friday night to celebrate the seven AIMES Excellence Awards recipients. Air New Zealand flew home three of the 2015 award recipients and five performers - who were previous AIMES award recipients - to attend the gala dinner.

Earlier last week AIMES Emerging Talent Awards were made to another eight exceptional young people, and a further seven youngsters received Junior AIMES Awards to help them reach their future potential.

About the North Harbour Club:

The North Harbour Club comprises of 160 leaders in local affairs, business, education, sport and social development. These members, who are all local residents or have their businesses in the North Shore and North Harbour area of Auckland, strive to promote excellence by encouraging and providing financial assistance to the young people of the region who are achieving excellence in their chosen field.

AIMES Award Winners 2015
Supreme Award -$30,000
Carl Hume (24) Medicine - also Kristin School Award for Excellence in Education winner

Excellence Awards - $15,000 each
Bruce Mason Centre Award for Excellence in the Arts - Emily Scott (25) Soprano
Massey University Award for Excellence in IT, Innovation and Science - Sian Simpson (24) Growing NZ's technology ecosytem
Albany Toyota Award for Excellence in Music - Alexander Verster (25) Double bass
AUT Millennium Award for Excellence in Sport - Michael Brake (21) Rowing
AUT Millennium Award for Excellence in Sport - Gemma Jones (21) Olympic yachting
ASB Award for Excellence in Service to the Community - Mattea Mrkusic (20) Human rights and climate change

Emerging Talent Award Winners 2015 -$5,000 each
Sponsored by Bellingham Wallace Accountancy
Elizabeth Mandeno (25) Soprano
Elizabeth Lunn (19) Medicine
Shauno Isomura (22) Violin
Louisa Wang (19) Academic
Brendon Thomas (20) Singer
Danielle McKenzie (21) Surf lifesaving
Britt Kindred (17) Surfing
Lina Kim (18) Community Service

Junior AIMES Awards - $3,000 each
Matthew O'Connor (13) Karate
Cameron Brownsey (13) Classical performance
Iain Lam (11) Academic
Blake Tolmie (13) Inventor
Catherine Oh (13) Music
Jadan Movold (11) Community service

Quillan Denton (13) Classical Performance - Judges Special Award - $2,000

www.northharbourclub.co.nz

ENDS

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