Recently, ex-Kaiapoi High School student and Apple Design Award winner Devin Davies came to speak to the students in our extension programme. Devin is the first ever New Zealander to win this coveted award, which he won for his work on Apple’s Vision Pro mixed-reality headset. He spoke about his journey from Kaiapoi High School to university, his critically acclaimed cooking app “Crouton”, and challenged the notion of success. Devin remarked that success is often something felt on behalf of others, and stressed the importance of being passionate about what you do, rather than being focused on specific outcomes. He also showed a different perspective on the journey to success; instead of focusing on the linear pathway to his success as seen by others, he showed the more complex, branching pathways that ultimately led to him winning the Apple Design Award – many of which may not have led to him winning the award.
It was a remarkably refreshing presentation, where the focus was on chasing what you love and problems you want to solve, but also educating students on how to capitalise on opportunities to achieve success in a healthy and balanced way. The students came away inspired and amazed by Devin’s work, and they all took away some valuable life lessons.
If you think your child would like to be involved this programme, have a discussion with them about seeing Mr Bell in the Karetū deans’ office to find out more.
