Source: Eastern Institute of Technology – Tairāwhiti
Aimey Tahu (third from left) with her nan Nanette (left), aunty Clare and Mother Helen.
A new degree offering at EIT has launched Aimey Tahu (Ngāpuhi) into her dream career after becoming the first to graduate earlier this year.
The Bachelor of Applied Science (Biodiversity Management) was first offered by EIT in February 2023, in partnership with Unitec. This program provides Hawke’s Bay locals the opportunity to gain and upskill their environmental knowledge and apply it to various projects across the region.
Aimey completed the degree in November. Upon graduating in April, she was presented with a special Senior Scholar Award for exceptional graduands from Unitec’s undergraduate degree programmes who have achieved a cumulative grade point average of 8.0 during their studies.
“I felt absolute gratitude upon receiving this award, knowing how much effort everyone had put into my education and helping me succeed – the little EIT fish, in the big Unitec pond. Lisa (my devoted program coordinator) supported the nerd in me from day one and had been advocating for me to receive this recognition in the background, from a much larger institution.”
It wasn’t the first award she had received during her studies, having been awarded the Ōtātara Trust Scholarship two years in a row.
“Throughout my studies I was often fascinated by what I was learning that I would spend days on tangents unravelling more layers to the topics than I needed to pass these papers. I started seeing my level of work as synonymous with my understanding of the content for each paper, and I thrived on this deeper level of learning. While I worked part-time for a few years during my study, I applied for scholarships so I could reduce my hours and spend more time learning about our natural world. In my final year I reduced my hours further so I could continue studying at a high level.”
Since April, the 28-year-old has been working as a Catchment Coordinator at Sustainable HB – Centre for Climate and Resilience.
“My role is focused on supporting and empowering catchment and community groups to create positive environmental impacts through education, water quality testing, monitoring and restoration plans to name a few.
“We have a strong focus on sustainability, which means we advocate for collaborative projects and citizen science projects – which reconnect people with nature, encourage kaitiakitanga, and gets the community actively contributing to the body of environmental data so we have a better picture of the state our nature is in, where information gaps are, and what we can do to enact positive changes.”
In the future, she plans to continue working in the environmental and restoration realm, “connecting people back to nature through sharing of knowledge, education, and hands on projects to recloak Papatūānuku”.
“I hope to focus on nature based solutions, primarily restoration of wetland ecosystems.”
EIT Bachelor of Applied Science graduate pictured doing tree surveying with Hawke’s Bay Regional Council as part of her new role working as a Catchment Coordinator at Sustainable HB.
After finishing at Karamū High School, Aimey started studying at Massey University in Palmerston North before moving to Canada, unsure of what career she wanted.
“This was my second round of tertiary education as it took me a while to figure out what I was really passionate about and wanted to do for a career. I was often the youngest in my classes, with classmates ranging from 18 to 50. If you want to study, to change your current path, now is the right age.”
She “absolutely” recommends people study at EIT.
“The wonderful tutors and small class sizes at EIT (compared to class sizes at larger universities), meant that I was getting high quality classes, with tailored information that interested me, a lot of time to ask questions and receive great feedback which motivated and accelerated my learning. Our cohort being of a small size became a really tight group of friends, and we got to know our tutors really well and formed great relationships over the three years.”
She also appreciated the option of completing the degree in steps, following on from the level 5 and 6 Diplomas in Environmental Management.
“Although I intended on completing the degree from the beginning, having the option of taking a break if I needed it, and still having something to show for one or two years of work really appealed to me as an adult learner, as you never know what will happen in life.”
Primary Industries Programme Coordinator Lisa Turnbull says they are all really proud of Aimey and her accomplishments.
“It has been an absolute pleasure to see the way Aimey applied herself to her learning and her continued development throughout her studies.”
“Aimey’s lecturers describe her as a diligent and a meticulous learner that has worked hard and excelled – a pleasure to teach.”