Adam Kelly hopes people see him as the sort of leader that’s inclusive and doesn’t leave anyone behind.
“We are a team together and as one,” the Hauraki Plains College student and Services Academy member told The Profile.
It was a belief that propelled Adam to take out the Top Student Award at the Advanced Leaders Course at Whenuapai RNZAF from August 2-7.
The 17-year-old said he “couldn’t really believe” that out of all the students, he was the one to achieve the top prize.
“I wasn’t really trying to get the award, I was just being myself.”
It meant he had the ability and confidence to lead others and “to believe in myself [that] anything is possible”, he said.
At the course, he was teamed up with six others from academies across New Zealand and challenged with tasks led by different people in the group.
The things that contributed toward his achievement was that he looked after everyone in his group, made sure everyone was accounted for, communicated his ideas and, of course, was “backing myself”, he said.
His next goal was to get the Top Student award in the Hauraki Plains College Services Academy.
Meanwhile, a few weeks after Adam’s achievement, the top student and his fellow comrades in the HPC Services Academy snapped up another win on August 17-21 at Lake Ōkataina, Rotorua. That’s when the group went head-to-head against 14 other academies from across the North Island in the annual Services Academy Adventure Challenge, defended their 2025 win and held onto the title as the reigning champions for 2026.
Academy members Finlay Jensen, 17, and Nathaniel Vale, 16, said there was “a lot of joy” when they found out about their win.
“Our academy has put together all the skills over the year and shown that we have the ability to remember and succeed,” Nathaniel said.
The Adventure Challenge consisted of academies competing in a range of different tasks, such as a tough guy tough girl challenge where they moved through rivers, mud canals and crawled under nets in 3-degree temperatures.
“The course was 3km and we had to do it twice, it took us about 40 minutes,” they said.
Another task was the Jerry Can run, which was a triathlon race with three people cycling 4km, three runners through the bush to the lake for 2.5km and three swimmers who swam 50m each way.
It was clear the students didn’t make it a habit to stay comfortable. “I have learned that everything is achievable outside my comfort zone,” Finlay said.
One quote Nathaniel said he held on to was one by Academy director Paul Dodds: “to appreciate being comfortable, you must first be uncomfortable”.
Paul said he was “incredibly proud” and that his students did the hard work.
He said the achievement was “a fantastic feeling”, but more so because of what it presented.
“Winning it once could be put down to having a particularly good group on the day; winning it for a second consecutive year shows that the students coming through the Services Academy are developing the skills, resilience and confidence needed to perform at a really high level.”
Leadership in the Services Academy wasn’t about having the loudest voice or being the person at the front all the time, he said.
“It’s about recognising what your team needs and doing something about it.
“I saw plenty of that from this group.”
By DAVIDDA HIKATANGATA
