A longtime involvement in volleyball administration led Mary Kerekere to pursue a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science at EIT.

Now in her third and final year, Mary, who is of Samoan and Tokelauan decent, was born in Wellington, but also spent some time in Rotorua before moving to Hawke’s Bay in 2021.

She has been involved in volleyball for as long as she can remember and has been an international volleyball referee at the Asian Volleyball Championship and the Pacific Games this year. She was also recently acting Team Manager in August for the NZ Indoor Senior Women’s volleyball team for their test series versus Australia.

“Before coming here in 2021, my husband, son and I lived in Rotorua for two years, but then an opportunity to do some volleyball work in Hawke’s Bay came up so we moved down here.

The move, with husband Des and son Bjorn, from Rotorua meant that Mary had to transfer her studies in the Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science to EIT.

Describing herself as a mature student, Mary did a number of different jobs and even studied to be a paramedic and massage therapist, before settling on her current degree.

“I have also been your normal Pacific Island daughter who looked after her parents who were unwell. Sports medicine is my interest and I guess just over time, things just changed due to life, family, work, balance kind of thing.”

Husband Des is also an international referee while son Bjorn also enjoys playing volleyball.

Mary has enjoyed the EIT programme, learning from the lecturers and gaining new perspectives.

“I’ve learned heaps, but also struggled through heaps. I have just tried to push through and we are now finally near the end. There’s lots of ups and downs, but it is about finding ways to get through and to connect with people or your community to help you through the tough stuff.”

“It’s been good. I’ve had lots of really good support from lecturers and also the Pacific Islands team at EIT have been really supportive. “

Mary says that she has particularly enjoyed the practical content of the programme.

“I’ve really enjoyed the biomechanics and the sports science side of things in terms of the testing. Understanding some of those dynamics and how to relate them into sports today has been really interesting.”

As for the future, Mary says that she and her family are relocating to Auckland at the end of the year, so she is keen on studying online for a teaching qualification, so that “I have something to fall back on”.

She is also keen to work with Pacific communities or work in different sports in conditioning or biomechanics.

“The Pacific Island community is pretty important to me, because I think of my own family – my parents, my siblings, cousins, nephews and nieces.

“And there’s a few community pockets that we’re involved in, and for my husband and me it’s all about how we can improve their health and wellbeing through things that we enjoy doing, which is playing sports.”

“If that’s an avenue to have access into these communities to help educate, whether it’s through health and wellbeing or through just being active through sport that they love and enjoy, then that’s one of my goals anyway.”

Dr Andrew Garrett, EIT’s Head of the School of Health and Sport Science, said: “Mary is a good example of how through coaching and playing her sport. She has developed an interest in the applied science to enhance performance in volleyball. I’m sure she will take this skills forward in her future teaching career.”