A $10,000 masonic postgraduate scholarship is supporting University of Otago research that aims to help low-income people overcome stress arising from financial pressures.
Shannon Tumataroa is working on an Otago University PhD that examines the effects of financial hardship on decision-making in low-income households.
Her research is being conducted in Auckland and yesterday she was formally awarded the postgraduate scholarship at a function at Parliament, in Wellington.
Understanding how people made financial decisions was "vital to ensuring economic equality and fair access to financial tools such as micro-loans, insurance and saving accounts'', she said.
As financial pressures rose, some people found it hard to make good budgeting decisions.
Her research aimed to discover how to support better decision-making in low-income households and how to develop resilience to the "often exploitative marketing'' that targeted these households.
She already has an Otago BA (Hons) in psychology and a BCom in finance, and said the scholarship would make an "enormous difference'' to her studies.
In recent years, she has put her skills to use as a budget adviser and treasurer for community-based budget advisory services.
Yesterday 26 of the country's top students were awarded $184,000 in Freemasons University Scholarships, seven students receiving $10,000 postgraduate scholarships and 19 receiving $6000 university scholarships.
And three other Otago students, Anna Charles-Jones, Conrad Goodhew and Dayle Keown, received $6000 scholarships to help them complete their degrees, which involve, respectively, medical qualifications and a trainee intern role at Dunedin Hospital; a master of dietetics degree; and final-year medical study, undertaken partly at Nelson Hospital.
This year, Miss Charles-Jones will undertake a three-month elective in the Orkney Islands, north of mainland Scotland.
Mr Goodhewaims to become a sports dietitian.
Mr Keown, who was born and raised in Christchurch, has been a volunteer ambulance officer with St John for the past six years.