It was a real pleasure to have MRS PAULINE GROGAN as the Speaker for our 41st Annual Rutherford Day. She joined an impressive list of past speakers but was outstanding in that company.

Mrs Grogan is gifted in her ability to connect positively with people of all ages. The breadth of her personal experience is exceptional but essentially those life events are ones which New Zealanders can easily identify with. Hence she has the ability to appeal across age and race categories to a wide audience.

Mrs Grogan is a highly empathetic person who has special narrative abilities and a wonderful touch and turn of phrase to draw her audience in and along alternately challenging and reassuring her listeners. She is well able to make her listeners think and relate in stark honesty to the situations and propositions she reveals.

Students are fascinated to recognise their true selves and be encouraged to find their unique positive solutions - to find positivity and power from apparently daunting circumstances thrown up by life.

The topics, video and book give excellent samples of her power as a speaker and the range of experiences she is able to bring to life. Because of the unique nature of our day of celebration I was moved to ask Mrs Grogan to tailor her remarks in both length and slant to especially suit our students. This she agreed to do and succeeded beyond our high expectations.

Mrs Grogan has a powerful message and is a compelling speaker. We recommend her most highly.

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