One is off to a flyer, including the Singapore version, and the other is set to expand his Europe horizons.
Year 12 Nayland College students Emerald McCartney and Malachi Ng have the world at their feet, lauded for being bright, resilient, hard-working young people who are excellent ambassadors for modern Aotearoa.
They could barely contain their joy after learning they’d earned spots to take their studies abroad at two separate United World College (UWC) campuses.
UWC is a global movement that makes education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and sustainable futures. It educates around 9000 students each year. They’d both applied for UWC at the end of 2024, and a video call, an assessment to ascertain their mental fitness for overseas study, and an interview in Wellington ensued.
Malachi was rehearsing for Nayland College’s Blood Brothers production in early April when he was informed he’d be returning to the country he rang in 2025, The Netherlands, to study at UWC Maastricht.
“I was on stage, so I had to keep my character, so my reaction probably didn’t look too exciting, but trust me, I was very excited,” he recalls.
“I did get the chance after I went off stage to go outside and have a bit of a scream,” he says.
“It was a bit surreal, and it was the whole experience of ‘wow, this is gonna be a great opportunity’, mixed with ‘wow, this is one of the last times I can be with this whole Nelson community’.
“One of the things I like about UWC, especially [The Netherlands campus], is it’s got loads of connections with a bunch of different community organisations, which lets me do what I’m doing here in Nelson through Nelson Youth Council and at school, but to a whole new level.”
Malachi is no stranger to international schools having attended ones in Germany and Cambodia in his youth.
Emerald, whose academic prowess won her the Principal’s Award for Academic Excellence last year, constantly checked her inbox for her UWC application updates to study in Singapore.
It was a muted “oh, my God” moment upon receiving the good news at 10pm on 21 April.
“I got the email and it was definitely excitement, but quiet because I didn’t want to wake everyone up,” she says.
“One thing I’ve always loved growing up was education and learning, and I know for sure that by the time I’ve graduated from United World College, I’m going pretty much straight to university.
“In Singapore, they put a lot of value in well-rounded, community-based service, education and learning, so I’d hope to be able to help younger people and help them make the most out of their education, too.”
Singapore will also be Emerald’s inaugural trip abroad. Both Malachi and Emerald were also inspired to apply via former Nayland College student Finn Kerby-Pinguet who was selected last year as a year 12 to attend a UWC campus in China for a pre-university programme.
Their two-year programmes, which are being funded by a scholarship at their respective UWC campuses, embark in August, with a raft of subjects on the syllabus.
