Congratulations to two former Westlake Girls students who won AIMES awards at the North Harbour Club award evening on May 24, 2025. It was a wonderful achievement to have two Westlakers as category winners at this prestigious award gala evening, which marked 30 years that the club have been rewarding talented North Shore youth in their academic, sporting, cultural and community pursuits.
Sanaa Nair, Class of 2018, won the Community Service Category, sponsored by Albany Toyota, with a cash grant of $15,000.
Sanaa is studying a Master of Science in marine research at AUT and volunteers extensively with organisations such as Manta Watch Aotearoa New Zealand, BLAKE, and LegaSea. Her work includes manta ray surveys, public outreach and citizen science initiatives, and she plays a key role in marine education.
The AIMES award will help fund an opportunity she has been offered for an internship with the Manta Trust in the Maldives where she will work on manta ray research.
At Westlake, Sanaa was a prefect, an Amnesty International leader, and keen hockey player. She says Westlake played a huge part in developing her foundational skills.
Tara Vaughan, Class of 2021, received the AIMES Sport Award sponsored by AUT Millennium Stadium, and a cash grant of $15,000. This recognises her success as an Olympic Gold medallist in the Women’s K4 500m event in Paris, and her run of successes since she joined the Women’s High Performance team in 2022.
She works as an Olympic Ambassador while she is pursuing a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science at AUT. She was recognised as AUT’s Female Athlete of the Year in October last year.
Her goal is to compete in the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, hoping to build on her successes and keep New Zealand at the forefront of international sprint kayaking.
Main image above: Olympics-win-K4-500-Paris-2024