Alexis Poulter at the World Junior Champs - Photo Cory Scott
Alexis Poulter of Raglan is looking to add a law degree to her impressive surfing achievements, and to do so she’s become the first competitive surfer ever to win a prestigious Hillary Scholarship at the University of Waikato.
Poulter has been winning surfing competitions since she was 13 and last year won the women’s U18 national competition. She’s one of about 50 new scholars on the Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship Programme, which awards scholarships to academic high achievers who show significant leadership qualities and also excel in sport or in the creative and performing arts.
Poulter found out about the scholarships from a teacher at Raglan Area School, where she studied at the Surf Academy. Waikato seemed the obvious choice as she can continue to live in Raglan and commute to classes.
The Hillary Scholarships provide full university course fees while studying at Waikato, comprehensive support for the recipients’ academic, sporting and/or arts activities, and additional support in leadership and personal development.
Under the Hillary programme, Poulter will work with Larry Fisher, former New Zealand team member, now New Zealand Junior Team Coach and also Raglan Surfing Academy coach.
“I’m pretty stoked to get all my fees paid,” says Poulter, who’ll be taking five papers in her first semester as well as putting in time for gym training each week in preparation for the international Grom Search finals being held in Australia in April. There she’ll be pitted against the best up-and-coming young surfers from eight countries.
Poulter says she’s lucky because the main surf competition season runs from November to February, during the uni summer break. And during the year, most competitions are at weekends, so she’ll have plenty of time for studying. She aims to complete her LLB in four years. “I really want to go into sports law,” she says. “And I want to go as far as I can with surfing. My aim is to make the Worlds team for the Open in October – they only take two girls from the whole of New Zealand.”
Press Release: University of Waikato - March 11, 2010
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Good day!
I plan to visit your region. I will be very thankful if you send me any kind of tourist information: guides, maps, souvenirs, pens, stickers, bookmarks, calendars
Address:
Novoselov Oleg
Khrunova St 14-12
Volovo, Tula Region
Russia
301570
Thank you!
well I consider myself well warned. Thanks for the posting.
Thanks. We will try it with interest – regards, Barbara
Why don’t you give the Orca a try the next time you are in Raglan. It is a family run restaurant with a good team in the kitchen and front of house. Prices are moderate. The last two times I have tried to go there it has been full, so I’d recommend booking on a Friday or Saturday night. Cheers, Rodger
Raglan Restaurants and Cafes: Are there any in Raglan that serve hot, well thought out plates of food? A couple of weeks ago we went to the HVH for dinner. Admittedly it was busy, but we waited two hours for dinner, which when it arrived was lukewarm (snapper for me) and scarcely a fish chowder (my husband) with only one whole mussel in it – the rest pureed into an unidentifiable, well, puree.
This last Friday we tried The Shack. The rump steak was a seasonless lump of dead meat that tasted of liver. Lukewarm. The Greek salad was a few olives, lumps of feta, cucumber and tomatoes on a dry bed of leaves straight from a packet. No dressing to speak of and a terrible disappointment compared with other such salads enjoyed at other cafes. To the Marlin Grill and cafe for dessert. The warm chocolate pudding with icecream, chocolate sauce and compote sounded enticing. What arrived were two large unattractive lumps of burnt cake -hardly fresh – swimming in an unidentifiable sauce, with a small helping of icecream and few berries on the side. The cake was virtually inedible. A total waste of money. The waitress at the counter mentioned it was a ‘quiet night’. I wonder why, if what we had was an example of the rest of the menu ?
On the up side – The Raglan Roast serves the absolute best coffee in Raglan. If you don’t try it, you are missing out big time! We travel over an hour most weekends just for the experience.
Raglan was my first stop out of Auckland with my newly purchased campervan. I loved my time in the area, and I didn’t even give surfing a go! I’m living on the West Coast now and have been missing the weather until the last couple weeks – we’ve had five straight days of 27+ weather. I will be back though!