MATTHEW SCADDEN
2013: A distinguished violinist who won the 2013 Otago Secondary Schools Chamber Music Competition, Scadden was also named best actor in the Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival and directed a winning film in the 2013 Otago 48-hour Film Festival.
He planned to continue studying violin performance, as well as science and politics.
2023: Scadden joined the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Mfat) in 2018 and is on a three-year posting as second secretary (political) at the New Zealand High Commission in Samoa.
He moved to Apia in February with his partner Hannah Grant, a 2013 Class Act recipient from Taieri College.
In his previous roles with Mfat, he worked in free trade negotiation and headed up logistics for the response to the 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption and tsunami.
He studied performance violin at the University of Otago and played with the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra until leaving the city in 2018. Last year, he acted in the Wellington production of Les Miserables.
He has a bachelor of arts (in music and politics) and a master of international studies.
JASMINE SEIFERT-SIMPSON
2013: Seifert-Simpson had gained a New Zealand scholarship in statistics and modelling, was studying German at the University of Otago and was a keen sailor who had won the Otago Schools Sunburst Regatta.
She planned to study science with the goal of becoming a marine scientist or a teacher.
2023: Seifert-Simpson continued with sailing, volunteering with an inclusive sailing club for people with disabilities, and sailing for a few years after moving to Wellington but gave up the sport because of the city’s windy weather.
A chemistry patent examiner at the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand, she assesses patent applications to see if they meet legal requirements.
She holds a bachelor of science with honours (first class) and a master’s of science, both in chemistry.
She and her partner plan to move to Germany at the end of the year.
