Meretinai Vaturaiyawa, a student at Nakorotubu Secondary School, has her sights set on the Fiji National University (FNU) as her choice for higher education. At 16, she aspires to become a nurse, expressing her enthusiasm following her visit to the FNU Open Day, where she focused on Food Science and observed the College of Medicine, Nursing, and Health Sciences.
Vaturaiyawa pointed out that the health center in her local area, Namarai Village in Nakorotubu, lacks personnel from her community of Veidrala. “It’s my ambition to work at the Namarai health center as a nurse one day,” she stated.
She found the information provided at the FNU Open Day in Nasinu to be highly beneficial and confirmed her decision to attend FNU due to the insights gained from the event. Vaturaiyawa also mentioned that her school was established in 2020, and she started in Year Nine in 2021.
Despite challenges with staffing, particularly in Science subjects, she noted a recent improvement. “We finally have a Biology and Chemistry teacher in Term Three, but we currently lack a Home Economics teacher,” Vaturaiyawa explained, sharing that their vice-principal distributes worksheets for Home Economics classes in the meantime.