RNZ reports the Kupe Scholarship, awarded by the Education Ministry, aims to encourage more Pacific students into teaching.
Recent government figures showed a twenty percent rise in Pasifika students leaving school with a secondary school qualification over the last eight years.
The figures also showed more Pacific people were now studying at tertiary level.
One of the recipients of a Kupe, Moana Toleafoa, said she hoped to encourage others to break the mould.
