Media Release 16 March 2006
GIRDLERS’ SCHOLAR FOR 2006
Former Kristin School, Auckland, Head Boy Blake Hansen has been selected as the Girdlers’ Scholar for 2006, a
prestigious award regarded as the undergraduate equivalent of the Rhodes Scholarship.
Blake’s considerable academic achievements to date include outstanding results in International Baccalaureate Diploma
examinations and he won both the Senior School Achievement Trophy and Senior Sciences Trophy in his final year of
secondary school, along with a Certificate of Commendation in the Auckland Goethe Society German Examination. He has a
particular aptitude for chemistry.
His cultural and sporting interests include music (jazz – alto saxophone), drama, basketball and cricket, augmented by
youth leadership and music roles for a church group. Blake has also compiled an impressive community service record
involving, among other things, disaster relief work and support for cancer victims and their families.
His Girdlers’ Scholarship award means he is off to Cambridge University later this year where he intends to pursue a
natural sciences degree in biochemistry or pharmacology, with an eventual goal of a research position investigating
cancer and AIDS prevention.
The Girdlers’ Scholarship – worth more than 18,000 pounds sterling - is administered by the NZ Vice-Chancellors’
Committee and funded by the Girdlers’ Company, a British organisation with its origins in livery but which now focuses
on charitable causes and property ownership. Blake is the 42nd Girdlers’ Scholar, a fact which underlines the lengthy
connection between the company and this country.
ENDS