With both parents having passed away, Easter and her siblings
lived with their grandparents. At the time of her First Foundation
application she remarked: "my family always encourage me to be the
best, do my best and to go to University." Easter aspired to study
particularly at The University of Auckland.
This ambitious young woman was an integral part of her College
where she was described as having 'brilliant leadership skills, a
well-organised manner and a way of aiming for excellence in all she
undertakes. Easter is a wonderful example of what we strive to
achieve in every young person.' Showing early signs of academic
strength, Easter was Yr 10 Dux in 2007. She went on to be a
Prefect, the 2010 student representative on the Board of Trustees,
Yr 13 Historian of the Year, Dilworth Trustees Award winner and
recipient of the Otago University Pacific Islander Leadership and
Achievement Scholarship. Easter's extracurricular activities were
extensive as she was committed to numerous sporting, cultural and
leadership positions.
"Easter's focus and commitment to her goals balanced with her
ability to build rapport with us made her really stand out from the
rest" said Paul Hayes, GM Product Management for Telecom (Spark
NZ), when announcing her as one of their First Foundation
Scholars.
Easter has fulfilled her family's and her personal goals for
tertiary education by graduating in 2013 from the University
of Auckland with a Bachelor of Arts, double major in Linguistics
and English Language Acquisition. She was the only
undergraduate and Pacific Islander invited on her Linguistic
Professor's team. Easter has also worked as a Graduate
Teaching Assistant and Undergraduate Equity Co-ordinator at
the University of Auckland whilst studying and after
completing her degree.
In March 2014 she started a BA (Hons) in Pacific
Linguistics. In August of that year she travelled to the University
of Birmingham to continue with her Honours degree in
Sociolinguistics and completed this at the end of 2014. Her first
research project was in San Pedro, Guatemala. (She was also offered
a MA place at Kings College).
Whilst at Birmingham University Easter was a contract
Linguist with the Language App company in London
(Eurotalk) and after completing her Honours she also worked at the
University of Leicester in Admissions and Support. She continued
with both positions until she moved back to Auckland in July to do
some more field work and take up the position of MAPAS advisor
at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (University of
Auckland) until November. Early December 2016, Easter presented a
research paper at a Linguistics International Conference in
Poland.
In September Easter submitted her thesis for her Masters in Arts
at Brimingham University and expects to graduate in the Summer
Graduation Ceremony 2017.
Easter is currently in her first year of PhD studies at Auckland
University of Technology (AUT). Her research will look at the Third
Gender Dialect in Samoa and Pacific Communities. She has a passion
for research especially in the field of Pacific Linguistics,
particularly working with the LGBTQUI community.
After completing her PhD, Easter wants to lecture at tertairy
level and continue to do research.
.