Meet SPIO's 2022 Community Leadership Scholarship Recipient, Moana Tepano Contesse
SPIO's 2022 Community Leadership Scholarship Recipient, Moana Tepano Contesse. Courtesy of Moana Tepano Contesse
Moana Tepano Contesse is the recipient of the $5,000 2022 SPIO Community Leadership Scholarship.
Major: Sophomore - Bachelor of Social studies with major in Territory Planification and Sustainable Development
University: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Bio: Moana Tepano Contesse is a young socio-environmental activist from Rapa Nui Island, which she represented at COP 24, in Poland in the year 2018. She and other 3 classmates presented a Food Sovereignty project based upon our Ancestral Cultivation techniques to contribute to face successfully the Climate Crisis.
She is co-founder and current president of the youth organization Mo'a Mau o te Taure'a-re'a or Great Respect for youth. Also is part of the recent Rapa Nui young student organization around the world called Haka Nonoga. She has a track record of participating in youth advocacy spaces such as the Meeting of Latin American and Caribbean Youth towards Beijing +25, organized by UN Women (2020). She is UN Women's Ambassador for "Gender Non-Violence in Rapa Nui".
She has dedicated time to learn about her roots through wise masters of Rapa Nui, who have shared with her, for example the tākona practice (body painting) she has found a way to express and send a message to people about issues as important as the environmental protection and gender equality. All these expressed using Rapanui language.
“THANK YOU SO MUCH- MAURURU.” - Moana Tepano Contesse
Why is it important to have Pasifika representation in higher education?
WE HAVE A UNIQUE WORLDVIEW, WE HAVE TO MUCH TO TEACH TO THE REST OF THE WORLD IN MANY WAYS, FROM OUR DIFFERENT CULTURES AND OUR IDENTITIES, TO THE WAYS IN WICH WE HAD SOLVED THE DIFFICULTIES THAT HAVE BEEN PRESENTED TO US THROUGHOUT OUR HISTORY.
How is this scholarship impacting your education?
This scholarship will help me fulfill my dream of having a professional degree that allows me to help my island and other communities around the world.
SPIO's 2022 Community Leadership Scholarship Recipient, Moana Tepano Contesse. Courtesy of Moana Tepano Contesse
What are your career and education goals?
My main academic and professional objectives are to learn what I can about socio-environmental issues to bring this knowledge to my island and to be able to contribute to it and to my people in what climate change has in store for us.
Any tips to students applying for scholarships?
Read very carefully all the information requested and organize in time everything you have to get and write.