Rotorua lad off to Mexico | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

A Rotorua boy is off to Mexico after being awarded a $2500 grant from the Mazda Foundation.

Te Kura o Te Koutu student Tamati Robens, 14, will head to Mexico next year to study Spanish and local culture.

The grant will be used to fund part of his three-month school field trip which the Spanish language students at Te Kura o Te Koutu take as part of the regular curriculum.

Tamati was rapt to receive the scholarship and said he was excited about going to Mexico.

Tamati's trip will begin in January. He will live with a Mexican family and attend Instituto Cultural de Oaxaca, which has an intensive Spanish language programme and can provide university credits accredited towards future tertiary study.

The Mazda Foundation was set up in 2005 to provide assistance to environmental, educational, skills development, cultural and community projects.

Tamati has become part of the Mazda Foundation's biggest milestones to-date, with funding from this round of grants taking the foundation's total contributions to more than $1 million in four years.

Foundation chairman Andrew Clearwater said he and his fellow trustees received hundreds of funding applications each year.

"We're thrilled to be in a position to assist New Zealanders and in particular Tamati with this grant," he said.

Each year there are three closing dates for applications to the Mazda Foundation, with the next closing date on September 30.

For more information visit www.mazdafoundation.org.nz