Centre for L.O.V.E, a home away from home for Wintec Pacific learners

Pasifika is all about culture, tradition, church, community gatherings, entertainment, island loud laughs, chilling, connecting with each other having that positive island vibe.

Wintec’s Centre for Learners of Oceania in Vocational Excellence, fondly known as Centre for L.O.V.E, is a space where Pacific learners studying at Wintec can gather and feel at home.

The center welcomes visitors with beautiful Tongan Tapa and the Cook Islands Tivaevae on the walls. Local mats spread on floor give a Pasifika vibe and a mix of cultures are shown in the traditional handmade handicrafts displayed in the centre, giving a feel of home.

Te Pukenga-Strategic Pacific director Rose Marsters said the centre’s “strategic vision is to have Pacific, woven into the culture of Wintec”.

For a Tongan student Sione Kaifa, the centre is “like a home away from home”.

Kaifa a 26-year-old student from Tonga and currently resides in Pokeno is in his first year studying a Bachelor of Nursing at Wintec.

The center is a safe and welcoming space “you can really be you when you are here, the island loud laughs, a whole different vibe here, it’s like another home” said Kaifa.

Pacific learners at Wintec usually hangs out at the center, chilling before or after classes, sharing lunches, studying, and connecting with each other at the center.

Kaifa first learned about the centre during his first year in the Wayfinder education pathway stream. Learn more

He said most of his life he has stayed next to his family and during his first year where he lived in campus, the centre was a place that helped him overcome being home sick.

He also said it helped with his academic work “The center pushes you to be on track, to stay on track with your studies”.

Rose Marsters said the centre was established February 2023. It came to life in response to questions about identity and belonging prompted by stakeholders, as well as insights gained from research showed a need for a space to house Pacific students.

Marsters said the centre does not actually provide services to student but is a strategic driver of the pacific portfolio that strives for pacific excellence.

“We want to build up our Pacific community, that’s what we do here, having visibility is very important” said Marsters.

She added the centre is not only serving the Wayfinder project with a focus on health work force development for Pacific but “it also meant that we could cater into our existing akonga and community”.

Kaifa adds that he recommends the Centre for L.O.V.E to all Pacific students studying at Wintec, who might need a study space, or a place to meet and connect with other Pacific learners.

The centre house six of its staffs that includes Rose Marsters, Melisa Fotu, Ueleni Lolohea, Agatha Gibbons, Maluseu Monise and Tina Taola.

Located at the Wintec House building besides the Atrium side at Wintec City campus is the Centre for L.O.V.E. Click here