Kate Marsden
Bachelor of Information Technology - Software Engineering
What does Matariki mean to you?
For me Matariki is an important recognition of Māori celebration. It's about bringing in the new year and all the new goals, as well as recognising all your past achievements, what you've done and progress you've made.
What makes studying at Wintec in Kirikiriroa work for you?
I guess I like the hands on aspect of it - it’s much more interactive than other options that I had. I’ve been in Kirikiriroa my entire life so staying and being able to finish my studies in a comfortable environment was also quite cool. Mostly it was just the interactive aspect of my course compared to the other places that seemed to be quite theory based.
How has being Māori influenced your career path or your chosen field of study?
I don’t think its neccessarily influenced my career path, I would say that was more because I’ve been brought up a lot around technology. It’s given me a lot of ambition to achieve because I guess I am generally in a field that is not heavily Māori based. I’m considered quite a minority being a woman but also being Māori. My circle is quite small, it’s pretty much just me. So I guess that has been quite a driving force for me to achieve well because I want to make sure that it’s recognised that Māori are achieving in these areas and that we’re not limited to certain ideas that people might have.