On Saturday night, Ms Renata won the Entrepreneurial Woman award at the 2024 Inspirational Women Awards and Gala, for Women’s Refuge, in Queenstown.
Yesterday, she was at Otago Girls’ High School talking to year 9 and 10 students about the world of opportunities for them. She took about 200 girls through a group activity around seizing opportunities, barriers that could prevent success, and connections.
Saying that she did want to retire at some point, Ms Renata was worried about young people not being equipped with audacity and ambition. The world was a different landscape from when she was that age and senior leaders had a role to uplift them, she believed.
The Entrepreneurial Woman acknowledgement came as a "massive surprise", particularly as there were so many amazing women gathered at the event.
One of her highlights this year had been the launch of the Manawanui Scholarship, in memory of her late father Charles Manawanui Renata, which built on the success of the award-winning Rangatahi programme in collaboration with INNOV8HQ and the Transition to Work Trust, and also seeing some of the programme’s graduates speaking at national events. She had also enjoyed doing a lot of work with corporate organisations and businesses around team building.
Next year would bring new partnerships and a lot of emphasis around AI and how to prepare young people to work with AI.
That was not about being solely reliant on it, but being able to use it ethically and morally to succeed. A transtasman opportunity for youth was also on the cards, she said.
