From curiosity to calling, the 2025 Career Expo this week has sparked students’ passion for helping others through police work in the Cook Islands. Teitimoana Tairi reports.

What started as a simple visit to collect freebies turned into a powerful moment of discovery for one student at the 2025 Career Expo on Thursday at the National Auditorium.

After speaking with a prison officer, Matara Tairi, a Level 3 student from Tereora College, learned about the different roles within the police force. Tairi was particularly interested in the police officer role, as she wanted to perform duties that help the community.

Inspired by the opportunity to make a real difference in peoples lives, Tairi left the Expo with a newfound sense of direction and a passion to pursue a career in policing and rehabilitation in the Cook Islands.

She was uncertain about her future career pathway, despite having three choices. Originally, she had wanted to become a police officer at a young age because she thought their uniform looked cool.

“I wanted to wear their uniform because it looked cool,” shares Tairi.

She was also inspired by her uncle, Maevarangi Koekoe Kirikava, a senior Cook Islands police officer and father to her cousin. Her cousin, with whom she grew up, also shared Tairi’s passion.

Growing up, she believed her true reason for becoming a police officer was to inspire more young individuals to join the police force.

“I want to join the police force because they need more young police officers so when they (the older police officers) retire, the youth will inspire more youngsters,” says Tairi.

“The old police officers won’t have to do the running when chasing, they can leave that for the young officers,” she joked.

But Tairi started to doubt her interest in becoming a police officer because she didn’t know where or how to begin.

She recently discovered an interest in becoming a flight attendant but the Expo opened her mind to explore her original career option.

“But at the Expo, I had a very interesting conversation with one of the officers, he gave me the basics that surround the police force and what stood out to me was the duty of a police officer.”

According to Tairi, the conversation with the officer at the Expo really motivated her to join the police force.

She initially had no plan to visit the Cook Islands Police booth, but she was determined to give it a try.

The police officer she spoke with at the booth mentioned that they are planning to offer a work experience programme for interested students.

This programme is designed to help students gain a better understanding of what a police officer’s role entails.

“Now, I want to help strengthen the police force in the Cook Islands. I want to help improve the police system in the country to help our people. I want to learn, grow and inspire the Cook Islands youth to join the police force, not to only look cool, but to also help protect and provide the best service to our people.”

Her advice to other students is to “keep your options open”.

“If you are in doubt, just go for it and also maybe consider listening to the job opportunities at the Career Expo because it taught me to not just go for the prizes, but to actually learn from the booths especially those of you who doubt.”