BOTANY DOWNS SECONDARY COLLEGE
Botany Downs Secondary College has 4 youth workers and one Team Leader.
Jackie Cox
Team Leader and Youth Worker
Isaac Chen
Youth Worker
Mike Turinsky
Youth Worker
Joshua Yang
Youth Worker
Jackie grew up in East Auckland, graduating from Edgewater College in 1999. She has been a youth worker at Botany since 2011. That's over ten years of service. Way to go Jackie!
Jackie also works for Auckland Libraries in Pakuranga and continues to make her other work fit around her role at BDSC, because she wants to see youth succeed in Botany.
Jacke has a significant interest in Japan, where she has lived for extended periods of time. She speaks Japanese fluently and has a Master's degree that is related to Japanese culture.
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Issac has been a youth worker since 2022. He has a background in youth work. He completed his Youth Worker National Certificate, Level 3 in 2022. He is also married.
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He originally started work at Pakuranga College with Young Life, but decided to transfer to Botany Downs Secondary College in 2023, as we felt he would be a greater asset to our team at Botany. We are very excited to have him join the team at Botany this year. He also speaks Mandarin fluently.
Mike has worked as a youth worker at Botany since the programme began. He has a Bachelor of Science Degree in International Business and Economics from George Fox University.
He previously worked in the business world (human resources, management, and finance). His experience with youth work goes back 25+ years. He is also an elected member of the Howick Local Board.
He is married to Jewel Turinsky and and they have two sons, Mattias (19) and Liam (17).
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Joshua Yang has been a youth worker at Botany since 2019. He has a background in community youth work. He is also a local business owner working with new immigrants. Joshua is married and has two daughters.
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Joshua is good at bringing people together. He also organises the "Christmas Wonder Park" in Flat Bush which brings many different groups together every year.
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Joshua knows personally what its like when you first immigrate to New Zealand and he likes to work with students, many of whom are new immigrants themselves. He also speaks Mandarin fluently.
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