Emma lauded in New Zealand parliament

A TEACHER from Ennis has been praised in New Zealand’s parliament for her work with students, which saw them win a number of prestigious business awards. Emma Kim O’Riordan, originally from Gallows Hill, lives in Auckland with her husband, Borin and teaches in Manurewa High School.

Last year she decided to involve her business studies students in the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme, helping them to create their very own business. As well as the students winning nationally recognised awards, Emma won a Teacher of the Year award in the regional finals, while their project raised, and continues to raise, money for charity.

While working on the project, the students even had the chance to present their product, locally made olive oil, to New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key.

Emma and her students’ good work was praised by parliament when they won at both the regional awards and after the finals.

Manurewa High School is designated as a ‘decile two’ school in New Zealand. The rating is based on the socio economic community the school is based in with one being lowest and 10 highest.
Speaking from Auckland Emma said, “I am just so proud of them. This was the first time I had entered students in this competition; it took learning out of the classroom and gave them a real taste for business.”

Five of her students started the now award-winning business Caring & Co, producing and selling their very own product. “The company’s main objective was to care for our community. They approached the Life Education Trust, a voluntary organisation delivering positive health based education to a quarter of a million young people every year. Caring & Co wanted to support that work and enable them to reach more children within their community,” she said.

“With this goal in mind they decided to raise funds by producing and selling handpicked New Zealand made extra virgin olive oil calling it Unique Drizzle. They negotiated with suppliers and producers. For every bottle sold it put one student through the Life Education Programme.

“The students were not just successful within the competition; they also achieved every goal they had set for their business. After selling all their stock they were able to fund all the students in the neighbouring Homai Primary School to participate in the Life Education Programme this year as Homai Primary did not have the funds to do it without them. They also donated a further $2,500 to the Life Education Trust,” Emma outlined.

During the competition they carried out a product launch and participated in trade fairs as well as being invited to a number of high profile events to talk about their company. It was at one of these occassions that they met with Prime Minister John Key.

“He was very impressed with them and also purchased a bottle of Unique Drizzle. They were so proud to know that their olive oil was on the prime minister’s table,” said Emma.

In the regional awards they won the Outstanding Regional Company of the Year Award, Excellence in Business Management Award and the Financial Management Award. Student Lar Su’a won Entrepreneur of the Year while Emma won Teacher of the Year after being nominated by the students. “I was surprised but thrilled to win this award,” she said.

Of the 572 groups who entered, just 20 were selected to attend the national final in Wellington, including Emma’s group. Two of the students made a final presentation to four judges in the Te Papa Museum. They were successful in being awarded the supreme prize of Young Enterprise Company of the Year. They were also presented with the Te Puni Kokiri Award for Excellence in Maori Business and Lar Su’a was named Managing Director of the Year.

“We were so thrilled. The students were so happy. The long hours and hard work had paid off,” said Emma.

“Another awesome moment was finding out that our names were mentioned in parliament when we got congratulated for what we had achieved. Once after the regional awards and then again after the finals. It was an amazing experience watching my students participate in this programme. I watched them transform into confident young business people. They developed a passion for business with four of the five heading to university to study business this year. They recived scholarships to help with their first year tuition fees.”

The students are continuing to sell their product as well as introducing a honey, Unique Buzz.

“I am so proud of what they achieved and of who they are. I learnt a lot from working so closely with these students. It was a great learning experience for us all. I still attend some of their meetings but it’s now all in their hands. I, however, have to start all over again. This year, I have four groups entered in the competition with great ideas, who have all been inspired by Caring & Co. Hopefully they too will have success within the competition,” Emma concluded.