Nine students of the Unitec Institute of Technology have received Men’s Health Scholarships of the New Zealand Men’s Health Trust (NZMHT) to pursue health sciences to improve men’s health.
They are Philip Eyton, James Boyd-Bell, Keith Filo (Social Practice), Shanon Coxall-Jones, Michael McLeod, Stephen Chesterfield (Osteopathy), William LeLenoa, Mahesh Sharma (Nursing) and Naji Kanno (Medical Imaging).
The not-for-profit Trust will provide each of them $5000 grant to help with their course fees.
NZMHT Medical Director Graeme Washer said that the scholarship programme was established to promote positive change in men’s health.
“Statistically, men have a lower life expectancy than women and research shows they will often delay going to the doctor until it is too late. There are also significantly fewer men than women going into health professions in New Zealand,” he said.
“Supporting young men in launching their careers in the health sector is a long-term investment,” he added.
Good investment
Craig Hilton, Osteopathy Head of Department and Unitec Liaison for the awards, says the scholarships were about more than simply the best marks.
“It was about the ability to be ambassadors; each of the scholars has a real opportunity to influence men in health. We will try to get together as often as we can to engage with men and health issues and hopefully to help them continue to do that throughout their health provision years,” he said.
Chesterfield, a fifth year Osteopathy student described the scholarship as icing on the top of his recent academic achievement.
The Wellingtonian shifted to Auckland five years ago to pursue a new career, away from personal training.
“I was not very academic at school, but I was a keen sportsman and hence personal training had been a natural progression for me at the time. When I decided to take the next step, I wanted to find something that would allow me to look at the body, how to make it function better and be pain free,” he said.
Now in the final year of his postgraduate (Masters) degree, the Scholarship has boosted his confidence.
“From my previous experience in personal training, I used to see a lot of men with very imbalanced lives. They would focus on their career and their family and forget about their own health. They would often have poor diets and poor exercise habits. I would like to do more work in the field of men’s health,” he said.
Unitec Institute of Technology is the Sponsor of the ‘Best Medium-Sized Business’ Category of the Indian Newslink Indian Business Awards 2012.
Photo :Pictured here are (from left to right) Naji Kanno, Stephen Chesterfield, Steve Grbic, Philip Eyton, Shanon Coxall-Jones, Michael McLeod, Graeme Washer, Nigel Bartlett, James Boyd- Bell, Mahesh Sharma and William LeLenoa
