Alpine adventure for student

 

 

Former roofer Dane Tuialii, from Waipu, has been awarded a prestig-ious scholarship which will see him working in the Southern Alps for his summer break.

A NorthTec student, Dane is studying for a Certificate in Conserva-tion and Environmental Management at NorthT-ec’s Whangarei campus.

He is one of only three students nationally who will be heading off to work for Landcare Re-search in Dunedin for 12 weeks, starting in early December.

Dane will be look-ing at the way forestry and rural landscapes can regenerate into native bush, and will be work-ing in diverse environ-ments including alpine

ecosystems.

Tutor Dai Morgan said he was very proud of Dane, and had put his name forward for the scholarship saying he is a really good student and shows heaps of initiative. He will be working under the supervision of lead-ing New Zealand ecolo-gists, some of whom are world renowned in their field.

Dane is the first NorthTec student to re-ceive a summer schol-arship of this type, with the other scholars com-ing from the University of Otago. All three will be paid to work on specif-ic projects for Landcare Research, based on their previous study. Dane will carry out projects on seed predation by rats,

possums and mice, and on the effects of climate change on biodiversity.

Dane, 32, was a roof-er for 13 years and spent seven years working in Australia. When he re-turned to New Zealand he realised he did not want to continue work-ing in roofing, and made the decision to go back to study and gain qualifica-tions which could lead to his dream job.

After completing level 3 and 4 foundation pro-grammes at NorthTec, he decided his heart lay in working with nature and studying the envi-ronment.

“I have always been someone that has en-joyed nature,” says Dane. “I just wanted to work in a job that connects

me back to the natural world.”

While he hasn’t fig-ured out exactly what career path to take, he is interested in teaching environmental science one day.

Dane is excited about the upcoming trip, but a little nervous too.

“I hope to gain a lot of field knowledge and experience. The main reason I’m excited about going down there is the different habitats that you get in the South Is-land. I will get to experi-ence all the things that we have been taught in our classes, and see the different species that live in the alpine zone.”