HERALD WEEKLY ISSUE 582: 21 September 2011

Upgrade has a woman’s touch
Mauke’s new harbour is taking shape and a young woman has a lot to do with it.

Katie Sherning is a young civil engineer from Beca Construction in Auckland, New Zealand.
She has just returned from spending two weeks in Mauke where she has been involved with the construction of the new Harbour facilities. The Herald spoke with her on Tuesday afternoon.
Katie heads back to New Zealand on Sunday but will be back late October to return to Mauke. The harbour project there is progressing well and should be completed before Christmas as should the harbour project in Mitiaro.
She has spent the last week in Rarotonga filling in at the Avatiu harbour project for another engineer who is away.
Katie said she was impressed with the people, council members and government officials on Mauke who were very friendly, welcoming and hospitable. Half the project workforce of 25 comprise locals and she found them to be very capable.
As a young woman, (she’s 26) she enjoyed the work and did not expect to be treated differently. For her, being a young woman among men on Mauke, was not an issue.
Katie graduated from Canterbury University and has been working as a civil engineer for three and a half years. Her main involvement has been in Ports and Coastal engineering.
Katie would recommend young Cook Islands women in college, consider a career in engineering. She would be happy to visit local high schools to talk to students about taking up engineering. Young women shouldn’t be deterred about getting into the profession said Katie.
She first visited Rarotonga in 2009 and returned in June and December 2010 on project related work.
She loves the Cook Islands, the people and the beaches.
“There’s so much to do.” - Charles Pitt

Herald Issue 554 09 March
- Norm exposes Trio of Doom
- Briefs from PM’s media conference Tuesday
- Tourism Industry ponders $5 million draft strategy
- Norman George resigns from Cook Islands Party
- Letter of Resignation from CIP
- Norman selfish says Prime Minister

Copyright 2006 Cook Islands Herald online . All rights reserved.