Wai Mihinui - Bachelor of Creative Technologies Graduate
WelTec held its biggest ever graduation ceremony this month at the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington, with more than 400 graduates and their families attending.
WelTec academic staff joined in the celebrations and CEO Linda Sissons was delighted with the turnout. “It was a wonderful evening. We have 1700 graduates in total this year and we are extremely proud of every single one of them,” she said.
Lower Hutt mayor Ray Wallace took time out to attend the ceremony and acknowledged the role WelTec has in his city. “WelTec is an important part of our Lower Hutt community and its graduates are of a high standard. They will step forward with confidence in the knowledge they have been well prepared for their role in the workplace.”
Originally from Wellington, Wai and her partner decided to leave Auckland and move back home so she could broaden the scope of her studies with a bachelor of Creative Technologies at WelTec’s Church St Campus.
This month she took her place in the WelTec graduates’ procession as they made their way from Civic Square up Wakefield Street to the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington for the graduation ceremony.
Even though she’d be entitled to be in relax mode for a wee while, Wai has already found a task to occupy her creative mind working on a production as part of Wellington’s Fringe Festival.
For the future she and a friend - also a graduate of the WelTec course - plan to set up as freelance designers, unless of course the opportunity of an internship with an architecture firm arises.
“If you are willing to put your head down and to really try and make full use of the resources that are available to you, you can get a lot out of this WelTec course.
Wai was impressed with how approachable and how willing the wide range of tutors were to make themselves available to go over course matter. So much so that it could almost be seen as daunting. “Your work was being critiqued by so many different opinions. It can be hard to please everyone. But just being around all those people helped you see things differently.”
Wai and her friend see a lot of potential for their creativity in graphic design and typography as well. “There are different ways of doing most things and this will be our chance to apply what we have learned through interior design to other design mediums.”
For a course to work there needs to be dedication but there also needs to be determination. Wai has tonnes of it. She worked part-time all the way through her course to help fund her studies. “That was difficult at times but having a supportive family was the saving grace. I moved home in my final year so I could cut down on the number of hours of part time work I was doing and focus more on study.”
Having the family at her graduation to see her achievements acknowledged was a great thrill for Wai but one event even surpassed that – COLLIDESCOPE, the final year exhibition.
“We had an exhibition of students’ final works at the Academy of Fine Arts. We called it Collidescope to capture the sense of a disparate group of people coming together and displaying the work they’d created from what they’d learned under one roof. Industry members were invited along with family and friends. It lasted for about 2 hours and guests wandered around discussing everyone’s work. That was incredibly enjoyable.”
Wai Mihinui has a big future ahead of her but for now though she’s off on a well-earned holiday before she begins putting her new degree to work.
Insert: Wai Mihinui third from the left
Media Release - 14 February 2012