Outstanding sea cadet wins Navy scholarship
Outstanding Sea Cadet Petty Officer Cadet Charlotte Holmes was awarded the 2018 Chief of Navy Scholarship at the Royal New Zealand Navy’s (RNZN) annual Bravo Zulu awards earlier this month.
The citation for the award noted Petty Officer Cadet Holmes was an outstanding young woman who continually displayed the RNZN’s core values of courage, commitment and comradeship in all facets of life.
“She is a high-achieving and well-rounded individual, who was awarded the Best New Entry Cadet in 2014 and Best All Round Cadet in 2015, and was described by her peers as positive, intelligent, confident and reliable,” the citation said.
“Charlotte is determined to balance her architecture studies with her interests in mentoring younger people in the community.”
Petty Officer Cadet Holmes said the $5000 scholarship award would enable her to focus on her studies in her first year of a university degree in architecture.
She attended Epsom Girls Grammar and gained an academic scholarship to ACG Parnell College.
She joined the Sea Cadet’s Auckland unit TS Achilles in 2014 and has completed several leadership, sailing and adventure courses in her time with the unit.
“A friend told me about Sea Cadets and I initially joined because I was keen to learn to sail,” she said. “Since then I have been involved in many activities with the unit.”
She has an interest in helping others and has played a significant leadership role within the TS Achilles Sea Cadet Corps and community, mentoring younger members of the unit.
This year she was also top senior rate for New Zealand in the Naval Cadets National Senior Leadership Course, and was a member of the winning Sea Cadet Corps National Skills team, achieving the Top Shot award for the competition.
She is a keen tramper, rock climber and mountaineer and said Sea Cadets gave her good preparation for the outdoors.
“Our leadership training enabled me to get into the outdoors properly and as I moved into the higher ranks I was able to help lead other cadets in the outdoors too,” she said.
She attended recently a 10-day bush-craft course with the New Zealand Army at Waiouru Military Camp, tramping and camping in the training zone and learning about the outdoors, from what and how to pack to the environmental care code.
This summer she will put her experience to the test again with a mountaineering trip to Mt Aspiring in the Southern Alps.
Among the highlights of her Sea Cadet training was a visit to the Devonport Naval Base, which included a ship visit and activities in the bridge simulator, which recreates what it is like to be on the bridge, in charge of a ship.
“The visit also gave us a taste of what it’s like to be part of the Navy community. I’m interested in joining the Navy, but I want to complete my degree first.”
