15th January 2005 

I think the reason why our company has grown for 15 years is because we identify well with parents of overseas students and the concerns of both. We can’t help ourselves “caring about what matters to students, and thinking what students think”. And we also know what parents are thinking about. Plus, we have a good understanding of how New Zealand education works. All these things combined have helped give our company a leading edge as far as the New Zealand market is concerned. However, one of the biggest thrills is seeing our students come back to Hong Kong with their success stories. Our feeling of happiness is not what money can buy nor is it easily described.  

Setting Up New Zealand Connections 

I have 3 sons; all spoilt like other Hong Kong kids. Just to give you an example, when they were 16, they didn’t even know if an instant noodle was fully cooked or not! As a mother I thought they had a lot more to learn apart from academic study; like how to take care themselves independently. In 1990, I ignored all the adverse advice from my family and sent my kids to New Zealand for their senior secondary schooling. I wanted them to study in an English speaking environment, learn the life style of a foreign country and, mostly, to be trained to be independent. 

I had visited Australia and New Zealand back in 1980 and at that time I was so impressed by the kindness of New Zealand people and the secured environment. New Zealand started to accept international student applications in 1990, so my kids were the first group of students to enter King’s High School in Dunedin. 

At that time the “international student fee” was about NZ$600 per year. A year later the fee had increased to NZ$4,000 per head (the exchange rate at that time was about 5.5). The large increase from NZ$600 to NZ$4,000 totally blew my budget. I visited my sons and the school half way through their first year and still remember the first contact I had with the Principal, Mr. Ian Simpson. We discussed my financial situation and the fact I wouldn’t be able to afford the increased fees. He was very understanding and wanted my kids to stay because he liked them very much and he believed these two Asian kids of mine added positively to the school culture. 

The upshot was, that after meeting with his senior managers and teachers at King’s High School, he agreed to keep my kids on at the old rate of NZ$600 since they had achieved so well and were a positive influence in the school. In return he asked me to promote King’s High School and to student hunt in Hong Kong. I gladly accepted the offer but told Mr Simpson I had absolutely no idea about education and careers (well, technically, I’d never had a career job before). Mr. Simpson encouraged me to try my best because he believed I was the right person to fulfill this job. 

The Growth of This Company 

Thinking back to 1991 – 1993, we visited about 60 secondary schools in Hong Kong. One of them was St. Stephen’s College in Stanley on 4th June 1991 which I will never forget. I still remember talking to their

Principal, Mr. Luke J.P. Yip, for about an hour. His family had already migrated to Canada, and he personally had visited quite a lot of countries. He agreed that New Zealand was a very suitable place for study. However even Australia needed to use about 20 years to develop their oversea education market; it will be a very difficult route for such a self-effacement like New Zealand to start develop now, which means I will face a lot of difficulties during this work. However, he also encouraged me to keep up with this new challenge. 

Our footsteps have covered nearly every city in New Zealand during the past 15 years, while visiting more than 150 schools. I have been to New Zealand not only to visit my son, nut also to meet with my students, and to do the follow up work with their schools. As well, we represented parents in Hong Kong by communication with the schools in New Zealand. Most importantly, our visits to New Zealand have given our students good opportunities to share their feelings with us. Every year I visit new schools in different cities or towns, mainly based on friends’ recommendations or by invitation from schools. 

In my opinion, these kinds of visits and interviews are very important, because we can’t say “we know that school” just by their leaflets and photos. For instance, we visited a high school back in 1994 where the teachers were all helpful and friendly, and the facilities were good too. However the school was located too far away from a city. The town had only 4 shops (which include a post office and a butcher shop!) and there was no place for sightseeing either. When I saw the town I asked myself “Would I send my son here?” Finally we decided this was not a suitable place for my students. Life has to include a bit of fun and entertainment as well as hard study. Hence, we would never recommend a school without visiting it and the local surroundings. We have an expectation that our students will study hard not only to benefit themselves but also to reflect positively on New Zealand Connections. Fortunately we have had such nice students, about 80% of whom have finished their secondary education and gone onto university in New Zealand.