Liam Bowen Award Winner.
March 5, 2021.
For Liam Bowen, an interest in working with young children was something he discovered by chance. He and his wife made friends with their neighbours and their 3-year old daughter. Seeing the young child’s natural curiosity and learning when they joined the family on outings such as to the Botanic Gardens was fascinating to Liam.
Liam says that the child’s parents could see this and suggested he get involved in early childhood teaching.
“I hope to inspire tamariki to follow their interests and do what they love,” he says.
“I feel like the world is going through many changes, and that any way we can make a positive difference can help”.
Now Liam, who holds a B.A. degree, is enrolled in a Graduate Diploma in Teaching (Early Childhood) at the University of Auckland.
He says he understands that studying this graduate diploma will involve a lot of work and is likely to challenge the beliefs and assumptions that he holds, but believes he is up to the challenge.
With a keen interest in drawing, music, and music instrument making, Liam will bring this creativity. He also brings communication skills. He can speak conversational Mandarin, having worked in China for two years supervising children aged 2 – 15 years in classrooms. For the last five years Liam has worked in a call centre helping people in medical and travel emergency situations.
Liam has won a Men in ECE Invitation Award, 2021. He says he is grateful for the Award which includes a financial grant and an educator membership for online access to lots of professional and research articles.
Honeybees early childhood centre in central Auckland is sponsoring Liam’s grant.
Liam says he will put the money toward meeting the costs of study. He looks forward to thanking Honeybees Director Jason James and team.
__________________________
This is an excerpt from Liam’s 2020 comic ‘A Long Way to Fall’ (available from Team 3000 Press).
Article published 5 March 2021
