Chocolate and careers: Lincoln and Pūhoro's first ever collaboration

For the first time ever, Lincoln University has taken part in the Pūhoro STEMM Academy’s quarterly workshops, which bring Year 13 Māori together to explore different career options available to them.

It’s a kaupapa Māori initiative created to help introduce young Māori to science, technology, engineering, maths and mātauranga Māori (STEMM) subjects.

Our Wine, Food and Molecular Biosciences department presented at the latest workshop, held at Ara Institute of Canterbury, and introduced the students to the worlds of sensory science and food marketing.

It was organised by Dr Chrystal O’Connor with the help of Drs Shaoyang Wang and Ruchita Kavle. Together they explained why food science is vital to our society, introduced the study options available at Lincoln, and had the students take part in their own tasting session so they could see how sensory science worked first-hand.

Students were presented with four different chocolate samples, each with more cocoa than the last. They took a bite (or more) of the candy and rated how much they enjoyed it.

That data was collected and developed into clear diagrams, showing the students how their ratings could be used in the development of new foods.

Stephen of Cashmere was super eager to get into a bit of free chocolate, but soon found it was not all to his taste.

“It’s all based on the person, but the most bitter one was yuck. Personally, I have a bit of a sweet tooth.”

Meanwhile Rhiannon from Avonside had no issue with the darker samples, but simply found them lacking.

“I don’t mind dark chocolate, I just prefer it to taste of something. One of them didn’t taste of anything, it wasn’t bitter or sweet.”

While the data was being processed, students grouped up to think up a new type of chocolate, keeping in mind today’s food trends.

They came up with all kinds of ideas, including a “health-maxing” chocolate full of supplements, dedicated bars for weight loss and gain, and money themed chocolate designed for the ultra-wealthy to show off their status.

Rhiannon had similar ideas, but was a bit more grounded in execution.

She designed a sweet fruit salad themed chocolate with real fruit bits, bringing a health twist to a traditionally sugary snack. She planned to target a younger demographic and sell it as a healthy treat.

Her marketing plan was simple: “kids will tell their parents it’s healthy, then their parents will buy it for them.”

Pūhoro helps Māori students enter education pipelines they may not have had access to or been aware of. It’s an initiative that Dr Chrystal O’Connor is passionate about as a wahine Māori researcher at Lincoln.

It’s because of programmes like Pūhoro that Chrystal ended up where she is. She was introduced to science during a similar Māori summer studentship programme through AgResearch.

“That was a pivotal moment for my career, it helped me decide that I wanted to get into science and become a researcher. Representation is so important in knowing and learning what your options are. Before I did that, I had no idea what was available to me.

“We are the land-based university and we’re known for our agriculture. This is a great institution where Māori can come to learn, grow, and connect to the whenua, and take that mātauranga back to their hapū and communities.

“Connecting with Pūhoro is a really valuable initiative to help increase awareness of who we are.”