Former NorthTec business student Eloise Neeley is making the most of the support provided by an educational trust which commemorates a trail-blazing female academic.
Ms Neeley, from Kiripaka, near Whangarei, is studying for her master's degree in business studies, majoring in management, at Massey University in Albany. She was recently given a Master's Degree Award by the Kate Edger Educational Charitable Trust to cover her course fees. Ms Neeley said she felt "very privileged and honoured" to be granted the scholarship, which is open to fulltime female masters students studying in the Auckland area.
She was notified about the award the same day she received her Bachelor of Applied Management degree at the NorthTec graduation ceremony, in March. She also received the NorthTec Council Degree Award for outstanding academic performance on the applied management programme.
Before studying at NorthTec, Ms Neeley had a career in agribusiness in the South Island. Originally from Whangarei, and a former student of Whangarei Girls' High School, she and husband Bob owned a farm in South Otago. She also spent four years as communications co-ordinator for the Animal Health Board in Canterbury, Otago and Southland.
When the couple moved back to Whangarei, Ms Neeley found that she lacked the strong business networks and connections she had built up in the south and decided to study at NorthTec, majoring in business transformation and change. Ms Neeley said: "I chose to study at NorthTec because I wanted to study locally, get the degree I had always wanted, meet Northland people and get back into my community."
