Consul General John Desrocher speaks to undergraduate Politics students.

Consul General speaks to students at Auckland University

On April 22 US Consul General John Desrocher spoke to undergraduate Politics students at the University of Auckland. About 100 second and third year students studying political parties, leaders, and elections heard John talk about the genesis of the US Presidential election system, the primary election process, and the funding of US elections.

Explaining U.S. policies to New Zealanders is one of the most important things we do; if you would like someone from the Consulate General to speak to your organization, please contact us.

Consul Nick Greanias at Howick Rotary.

U.S. Consul speaks to the Howick Rotary Club

On April 2, Nick Greanias, Chief of the Consular Section at the U.S. Consulate General, Auckland, spoke to members of the Howick Rotary Club on the history of the U.S. election process.  In a talk which ranged from the American Revolution to the Presidential primaries of 2008, Nick discussed the often complex history of America’s unique democratic process.

If you would like a US Consulate General representative to talk to your organization, class or conference, please contact the Consulate direct.

Dr. Rogers with students.

NASA Help with homework

NASA scientists visited Auckland’s Henderson Valley Primary School on February 15 to assist students with their science class weather observations. Scientists Matt Rogers and Peter Falcon are working on NASA’s CloudSat mission, a programme studying the properties of clouds using space-based cloud radar.

“The mission involves a global network of schools all sharing their observations with our team of scientists,” said Matt. “School children are trained to make accurate cloud and weather observations; they make these observations on days when the CloudSat satellite passes over their schools and then send in their data to our collection site in the US.” The data provided by schools is then checked against the satellite observations to gauge its accuracy. The NASA team has already visited schools in Dunedin and Gisborne during their trip to New Zealand, which is being coordinated by the Royal Society of New Zealand … (photos)