Painting of maihi breathes life into Te Ara o Tāwhaki as the marae prepares to celebrate 21 years. The carved barge board represents Tāwhaki striving for knowledge and symbolises the aspirations of students across the EIT campus.

EIT’s School of Māori Studies, Te Ūranga Waka, is ensuring Te Ara o Tāwhaki looks its best to celebrate 21 years for the marae on the Hawke’s Bay campus.

The anniversary of its opening, which will be celebrated in tandem with a weekend marking EIT’s 40^th anniversary, is on 29 October.

Restoring buildings and taonga to their original condition is affirming once again the spirit and mana of the marae.

Te Ara o Tāwhaki translates as the pathway of Tāwhaki, a legendary figure who journeyed to the tenth heaven to attain the kete of karakia.  Te Ūranga Waka lecturer Ron Dennis says Tāwhaki championed knowledge by bringing the kete back to earth to benefit mankind.

Head of school Puti Nuku acknowledges Joseph Te Rito, Mana Cracknell, Ihāia Hutana, Pauline Tangiora and many others who were, with the late Tuahine Northover, Pani Cambridge and Materoa Haenga, drivers for establishing the wharenui built and opened in 1994.

The vision for the marae was to support student learning in a vibrant, kaupapa Māori environment.  As cultural awareness grew across campus, it was appropriate that EIT house its noho (live in) marae and hui (meeting) facilities alongside Te Ara o Tāwhaki to give full expression to kaupapa Māori and Mātauranga Māori.

More recent developments have been the opening of two spectacular buildings flanking Te Ara o Tāwhaki – Ko Ngā Ara Tumanako in 2004 and Te Ūranga Waka in 2012.

The concept for Te Ūranga Waka (meaning the landing place of canoes) was that of a whare waka, with the waka representing the learning journey.  The building’s form and east-facing orientation echo that of Te Ara o Tāwhaki – the symbolic heart of Te Ūranga Waka.

Serving as a symbolic gateway and cultural focal point for the campus, the 300sq m building encompasses administration offices, meeting areas, research space and an expansive lobby which provides exhibition space for Māori art and crafts.

Te Ūranga Waka is a hub for Māori activity and an active promoter of tikanga and te reo Māori.

In 2011, Te Whatukura, the School of Māori Studies in Gisborne, became part of the EIT family when Tairāwhiti Polytechnic and EIT Hawke’s Bay merged, aligning the educational needs of the people of Te Tairāwhiti and Ngāti Kahungunu.

The 21^st celebration will be an opportunity to acknowledge the many stalwarts who dreamed a dream, a dream which is now a reality for those on the EIT learning journey.

Margo Mensing makes her mark on tree trunks.

EIT’s ideaschool is revisiting a creative initiative inspired by a sense of place as part of the institute’s 40^th anniversary celebrations.

An exhibition running from 1-11 November in ideaschool’s Vent Gallery looks back on the Pinus Radiarta Sculpture Symposium held in 1993 which brought together international, national and local artists to create works on the Hawke’s Bay campus.

At the time, the Ōtātara Art Centre – the forerunner of EIT’s ideaschool – was located on a hillside behind the institute campus.  The pine plantation that surrounded the centre inspired the symposium’s theme.

Curating the exhibition, ideaschool lecturer Linda Bruce says the event generated a tremendous dynamic, integrating creative practice with public interaction.

“It was a wonderful creative and cultural experience, with a mixture of people and work.”

Twenty-four artists took part and out-of-towners were housed at EIT’s School for Māori Studies, Te Manga Māori (now Te Ūranga Waka), for eight days while they crafted their works in pine.

The symposium was funded by Hawke’s Bay Polytechnic (now EIT) and Creative New Zealand, which stipulated a diversity of participants.

Internationally recognised artists included John McQueen, whose work is exhibited in the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art, and locally-based designer David Trubridge, who initiated the original concept for the symposium.

The event attracted established creative practitioners such as furniture designers Carin Wilson, Humphrey Ikin and Peter Maclean, sculptors Ricks Terstappen and Jeff Thomson, Antarctic Arts Fellow Virginia King, stone and metals artist Louise Purvis, Māori arts academics Bob Jahnke and Fred Graham, ceramicist Brownynne Cornish and Ōtātara Arts Centre head Jacob Scott.

Carter Holt Harvey supplied logs and Stihl “a row of shiny new chainsaws” and the local community also backed the event with generous sponsorship.

Undertaking a research project on the symposium, Linda contacted the artists who took part and has included their reflections in the exhibition.

Bronwynne Cornish says her creation “Eve”, formed from earth and covered in a slip used in crafting ceramics, acknowledged the environment.   A spectacular final stage of the artistic process was reminiscent of pagan rituals, with logs piled on the work set alight to vitrify the clay.

John McQueen’s partner, Margo Mensing carved a poetic message into tree trunks.  “Marks made here,” it read, “are no more than scars on these upstart upstanding trees – as brief as grass.”

John Bevan Scott, one of New Zealand’s best known Māori artists and the only participant to have died since the symposium was held, crafted kaitiaki, shadow-like forms that were inspired by the scars on tree trunks.   One of these works is included in the exhibition.

After the symposium, the works remained on campus for three months as a sculpture park.  They then became the property of the artists.

Linda has discovered some of the pine works were subsequently tanalised to ensure their preservation.

EIT is holding an Open Day from 11am-2pm on Sunday, 1 November, when visitors to the exhibition will also be able to wander through ideaschool’s art studios and meet students and teaching staff.

A villager joins the EIT team on the newly-constructed roof – from left, students Zac Wadley and Rayne Hungahunga , head of school Todd Rogers and carpentry tutor Campbell Johnston.

EIT students who helped rebuild cyclone-lashed medical centres in Vanuatu have returned to Hawke’s Bay with improved trades skills and a greater appreciation of the comforts of home.

Eight Māori and Pasifika students enrolled in electrical, carpentry and automotive programmes were hand-picked for the two-week trip.  Accompanied by five staff, the students were part of a Manakura group, an EIT initiative supporting Māori and Pacific Island trades training achievement.

Re-roofing and re-cladding a health clinic in the remote village of Paunagnisu and upgrading a dispensary in Erakor, a 45-minute drive away, the party slept on mattresses under tarpaulins in a camping ground and cooked their own meals.

Rising at 5am, they worked until late morning, took a break during the hottest part of the day and then picked up tools to continue until dark.

As well as repairing the cyclone-damaged clinics, they also built a separate kitchen alongside the medical centre in Paunagnisu, upgrading a community facility that serves Vanuatu’s northern and outer islands.

Appreciative of their efforts, local villagers also helped with the work.

Head of EIT’s trades and technology school, Todd Rogers says the students came back to New Zealand with a greater understanding of how life is for national Vanuatuans, who, while owning few material possessions, are happy with their lot.

For most of the students, it was a first venture overseas.

“They had to get their own passports and they learnt a lot about their trades.”

As an example of that, Todd says the group made their own trusses – something that is no longer done on New Zealand construction sites.

The bigger of the two projects, the rebuilt Paunangisu health centre is now capable of standing up to the extremes of tropical weather.  Striking the island nation in March, Cyclone Pam damaged the building so badly it could no longer function as a health centre.

“With a new roof and wall cladding, the only way the building is going to succumb to any further cyclones is if the concrete pad is ripped out of the ground.”

The trip attracted major sponsorship from The Skills Organisation and the Certified Builders Association as well as MITO and BCITO (the training organisations for the motor and building and construction industries), ITM and the EIT Students Association.

Todd says it can be difficult for contractors to get to outlying islands in the archipelago and the country’s Ministry of Health appreciated that the group had managed to complete the two projects within a fortnight.

“We’ve already been invited back for another three jobs,” he says, “all medical centres.”

The five EIT staff involved in the exercise intend to pay their own way for a return trip to Vanuatu in January.

Mazin Bahho is currently restoring the old log cabin on the hill above the EIT Hawke’s Bay campus, which was once part of the Ōtātara Art Centre, the historic home of EIT’s ideaschool. He has a specific goal for this project, however, which is greater than merely saving the building from disintegration for its historical merits. Mazin is using the restoration process to demonstrate simple environmental sustainability practices in architecture. His aim is for the log cabin to become a showcase of these practices and to be a place where schools, community groups and interested individuals can learn and be inspired by practical and easily maintained solutions to sustainable building. Mazin’s interest is not so much in ‘intelligent design’, instead he is focusing on solid passive design fundamentals such as weather tightness, insulation, sustainable solar energy and water conservation. A planned green house addition will play a part in effluent management and recycling.

This renovation project is pivotal to research for Mazin’s PhD, in which he is enrolled at Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Architecture. Alongside the laborious building and repair process, Mazin is investigating the relationship between practical engagement and behaviour change. While research focusing on behaviour change may be common place in other disciplines it is rarely done in architecture, particularly concerning environmentally sustainable building and lifestyle behaviours.  There is no other architectural demonstration project of this kind in New Zealand and Mazin is interested in the question, do demonstration projects work to empower behaviour change toward more sustainable practices?

Mazin has engaged EIT students in the project and has conducted focus group discussion and surveys with them, including pre-engagement and post-engagement interviews. From these he has been able to track the development and increased complexity of students’ understanding of environmental sustainability issues and observe possible change in their attitudes towards sustainability.

In addition to having ideaschool students work on the concept and branding design, Mazin has been assisted in the restoration project by many others, including staff and students from the School of Trades and Technology and from the companies TUMU Group and Gemco Group Holdings Ltd. Mazin’s neighbour, a retired builder, has given him a hand and one of EIT’s research professors has also been seen wielding a hammer on the site. EIT chief executive Chris Collins has been particularly supportive.

In September 2015, Mazin presented a paper on particular aspects of his project to the 31^st International Conference of Passive and Low Energy Architecture (PLEA) which was held in Bologna, Italy.

Mazin Bahho
Lecturer
ideaschool
mbahho@eit.ac.nz

Associate professor Carl Paton monitors oxygen levels while graduate Philip Shambrook exercises in EIT’s sport science laboratory.

EIT recently staged New Zealand’s second ITP Sports Research Symposium as a platform for researchers based at institutes of technology and polytechnics nationwide.

Head of EIT’s School for Health and Sport Science, Kirsten Westwood said the symposium was an opportunity for academics to outline research projects and present findings to colleagues working in the sector.

It also provided opportunities for exploring future collaborative ventures.

The one-day symposium attracted members from the school’s advisory committee, physiotherapists and Sport Hawke’s Bay staff as well as academics from Otago Polytechnic, AUT, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, Unitec and EIT.

“The event was very successful,” Westwood said, “with a full presentation schedule.”

The symposium, only the second of its kind to be held in the sector, encompassed 20 presentations covering sport science, community health, student health in tertiary education and social aspects of sport and recreation.

One of the two keynote speakers was Mark Fulcher, an Auckland-based doctor who specialises in sports medicine.  Fulcher works closely with New Zealand Football as the doctor for the All Whites, Football Ferns and Silver Ferns.  He is also the medical director of the ITU World Championship Triathlon held in Auckland and the lead tournament physician of the ASB Classic and Heineken Open tennis tournaments.

He spoke about the FIFA protocol for injury and during the symposium a group of some 40 students were accredited with the protocol.

The other drawcard speaker was Levi Armstrong, an EIT Bachelor of Recreation and Sport graduate who established and runs PATU, a kaupapa gym network that operates throughout Hawke’s Bay delivering group exercise to whānau.

In organising the symposium, Westwood said she was well supported by EIT research professor Dr Bob Marshall.  The event is set to become an annual event hosted by the participating ITPs.

Front of house student Shontelle Albert serves up trainee chefs Kristopher Burke and John Bland’s interpretation of tournedos Rossini.

EIT’s hospitality students and tutors have evolved a class exercise into a très grand 10-course dinner that goes down a treat with gourmet diners and is a highlight on the F.A.W.C. menu of events.

Now staged eight nights over a fortnight, the annual French-inspired degustation dinner started simply enough.

Programme coordinator Celia Kurta says that some five years ago, second-year trainee chefs were set an assignment which required them to study a region of France and its regional dishes.

A three-course menu developed from that, with student chefs preparing the dishes and front of house students serving them up as an evening meal to guests in the School of Hospitality’s training restaurant, Scholars.  It has mushroomed from there.

The degustation format was adopted because a succession of small-sized portions dovetails well with curriculum learning.  Students brainstorm ideas that celebrate classic French cuisine while creatively interpreting recipes to make the most of Hawke’s Bay’s seasonal bounty.

Guided by chef tutor Mark Caves, they plan a menu and then work singly or in pairs, using all the knowledge and skills they have acquired over the last two years to perfect the preparation and presentation of their allocated dish.

Front of house gets no less attention.  French berets, red shirts and striped tops are de rigueur for students who this year served up dishes that included tomato consommé, bouillabaisse, coq au vin, Brittany duck crêpes, tournedos Rossini, chocolate mousse and petit fours.

They also matched French and New Zealand wines to the dishes.

The on-campus Scholars restaurant was festooned with strings of bunting featuring the national colours of France.

Three years ago, the event so impressed the Hawke’s Bay Food and Wine Society that it donated $500 to the School of Hospitality – money used to commission a Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design student to craft a model Eiffel Tower.

Given pride of place in Scholars, the structure has spawned mini versions that feature as table centrepieces.

The degustation dinners are heavily booked, Mark points out, and it was a sell-out event in this year’s Food and Wine Classic programme.  Featuring photographs and outlining their approach to their dishes, the menu for diners at F.A.W.C.’s EIT Chefs of Tomorrow – A Taste of France also included the students’ own recipes.

“The first night was so full-on,” says Celia of this year’s degustation dinners.  “The students really rise to the occasion, and it’s cool seeing them getting into the groove of things.”

Rebecca Frances Lees with “found objects” for her art.

Winner of this year’s prestigious David Fine scholarship, Rebecca Frances Lees is enjoying developing a conceptual art practice at EIT’s ideaschool.

“In the past, I’ve been far more hands-on with materials and making,” says Rebecca, who was a self-taught artist before launching into tertiary study.

“I was painting and selling my work but felt I was stagnating.  I realised I needed a challenge and studying at ideaschool has absolutely achieved that for me.  The things I have made here I never dreamt I was capable of,” she says.

A second-year Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design student, Rebecca likes to find metaphor through found objects.  As an example of that, a travel-worn suitcase used in an installation may suggest movement, displacement or a transient notion.

The 34-year-old, who has lived in Auckland and Wellington and now calls Napier Hill home, considers herself to be transient and that includes her approach to her creative practice.  So that while she is currently working on conceptual art installations, that may not be the genre she adopts for the exhibition her scholarship affords next year at the Hawke’s Bay Community Arts Centre.

“It may be entirely new work,” the 34-year-old says.  “ideaschool has pushed my practice.  Everything to me is almost unexpected and I like working that way.”

Rebecca launched into study with ideaschool’s Certificate in Introduction to Visual Arts and Design, “almost to get a base-level education”.  Then, feeling she was “in the right place”, she progressed to the degree.

“I would really like to explore curation alongside my art practice,” she says of her future plans, although that doesn’t rule out the possibility of studying for a master’s degree.

Right now, however, she is focused on completing the year’s work while pursuing an internship opportunity at a public art gallery as part of her study requirements for next year.

Established seven years ago, the scholarship she has won honours the memory of David Fine, whose efforts – which included fundraising – helped support the Hawke’s Bay Community Arts Centre.  The scholarship is awarded annually, alternating each year between a top student at ideaschool and Toimarangi, the Māori visual arts school in Hastings.

In addition to the opportunity to exhibit her work, the scholarship will give Rebecca $2500 towards her final-year fees at EIT and that, she says, “will be a big help.”

Jiangyan Chen admires his Pania trophy.

International student Jiangyan Chen has joined a select group of cinematic achievers honoured with a Pania statuette.

The 27-year-old from China was presented with the coveted Pania trophy at a premiere of EIT ideaschool screen production student movies staged this week at Napier’s MTG.

The gold-leaf statuette, inspired by the landmark statue of Te Pania in Napier’s Marine Parade gardens, is awarded annually to the diploma programme’s top achiever.  The award, which includes camera equipment sponsored by Auckland companies Staples Productions and Photogear, celebrates the winner’s overall output, team work and performance.

“Winning the award was like an Oscar for me,” says Jiangyan, who chose New Zealand for further study because of its “pristine” environment.

From Xiantao in Hubei province, he progressed from post production film-making studies in Shanghai to working for Beijing-based Gvitech Technologies, one of the biggest 3D Geographic Information System providers in China.

After three years in Beijing, Jiangyan says opting to study in New Zealand was a good call.  His spoken English has improved and he has enjoyed Hawke’s Bay’s sunny climate and relative quiet after the clamour of one of China’s most populous cities.

Currently flatting in Pirimai, he anticipates Auckland or Wellington will become the base for building his career.  “I’m very interested in camera work and lighting too.  Actually, becoming a director of photography is my career goal.”

And, finding New Zealanders a sharing and helpful people, he hopes to become a kiwi himself.

Screen production programme coordinator Claire McCormick says opportunities are opening up for film industry graduates like Jiangyan as a result of the Government’s co-production agreement with China.

Signed last year, the treaty provides incentives and subsidies that makes film-making more attractive for companies in both countries.

Jiangyan, who hasn’t been back to China since arriving in New Zealand, admits to occasional bouts of homesickness.  With parents and an older sister very excited about his Pania success, he is all the more keen to see them again and may return to his homeland for a holiday next year.

He says he is very appreciative of the support he has had from them as well as from tutors and classmates at EIT.

“I will miss Hawke’s Bay, but I can always come back.”

In 2011, the Bachelor of Social Science (Social Work) ‘went blended’. Precipitated by the merger of EIT’s two campuses, going blended meant that the teaching of the BASS degree, like several other EIT programmes before it, was delivered to students through a combination of face-to-face and online contact. Considerable upgrade of technologies and support infrastructure were required to ensure that the student cohorts on both campuses received the degree delivery equitably.

Blended learning also required the BASS lecturing staff to redesign their courses for a seamless integration of online and face-to-face delivery, to develop skills in teaching technologies and to learn new processes for cross-campus teaching. Partly to examine the demands of this curriculum change and to assess and monitor the new learning process, Judy Wivell and Stephanie Day worked together to capture the experiences of the staff and students involved in the BASS blended delivery. Their research considered the tools, skills and techniques that contributed to positive learning experiences and how these might be enhanced. They also explored the use of pedagogical principles in the development of BASS courses and appraised whether or not critical thinking could be effectively developed in a blended context.

Over a two-year period, BASS staff and students on both campuses were invited to participate in online surveys and focus group discussions.  Four staff focus groups were conducted and seven student groups, each consisting of students from a single year and involving 30 students in total.  Forty-two students completed the online survey.

Judy and Stephanie discovered it was sometimes difficult to sort out whether the comments being expressed by staff and student were responses to the challenges involved in merging two geographically distanced institutions or were specifically about delivering the blended BASS programme. Clearly the experiences were intertwined. However, staff highlighted the challenges of designing effective teaching and learning materials for delivering complex concepts online. They also commented on their increased awareness of the role of critical thinking in an online environment where interactive activities are needed for students’ cognitive development.

Some results of Judy and Stephanie’s research are soon to be published in the journal, Advances in Social Work and Welfare Education. Their paper presents the following themes: pedagogical shifts, changes and challenges; the significance of time and space; engagement in learning; technological practicalities; student orientation to blended learning; developing relationships. Their insights are largely congruent with the burgeoning literature about online teaching and learning.

Judy Wivell
Senior Lecturer, Applied Social Science
jwivell@eit.ac.nz

Stephanie Day
Education Advisor, Learning Technologies
sday@eit.ac.nz

Hawke’s Bay road cyclist Hannah van Kampen

Nearing the end of degree studies at EIT, Hannah van Kampen has already scored a job that underpins her road cycling ambitions.

Para Cycling New Zealand has assigned Hannah to work with world para cycling champion Emma Foy as the athlete prepares to defend her title at next year’s Paralympic Games.

Partially sighted, Emma competes on a tandem bike and Hannah is one of her two pilots, taking the front position on the bike.

A reserve for the Paralympics to be staged in Rio de Janeiro in September, Hannah will be part of a squad training in Canada and the USA over the coming northern summer – both countries she’s never been to before.

Currently driving from her home in Hastings to train with Emma once a week in Cambridge, she will relocate to the Waikato once she completes her Bachelor of Recreation and Sport.

“I won’t be able to tease Waikato cyclists about their weather anymore,” she jokes of the region’s reputation for rain.

Based in either Cambridge or Hamilton, she will be close to the velodrome where she’ll be able to train and compete in cycling events.

“It’s exciting, awesome,” she says of this new chapter in her life.  “It’s living the dream.”

Hannah started cycling as a 13-year-old and has been a long-time member of the Ramblers Cycling Club.  She was awarded a scholarship for coaching by Ivar Hopman in 2009 and began competing at national level.

Two years later, she was selected to race with the New Zealand development squad in Australia and subsequently moved from the under-19s straight into the elite field of women cyclists.

She gained invaluable experience with cycling stints in Europe and also travelled to compete in the 60-rider Tour of Thailand earlier this year.   Locally, she made her mark in winning last year’s 115km Tour of the Bay.

The former Taikura Rudolf Steiner School student came to EIT on a Year 13 study grant and was also awarded an EIT/Sport Hawke’s Bay sports scholarship.

Hannah says cycling is like having a bug or an addiction.

“I start riding the bike and I can’t stop.  I’m not too sporty apart from cycling – I like pushing myself past my limit.”

Hawke’s Bay’s emerging fashion talents basked in the limelight this week, wowing a capacity crowd at EIT’s annual showcase of student design.

Staged in EIT’s Trades Building, fashion show was the culmination of the year’s work for ideaschool’s fashion apparel students.

The final-year students explored diverse influences in their designs.

“Their work wasn’t predictable,” says programme coordinator Cheryl Downie.  “We encourage them to find their own design aesthetic and to develop that.  Rather than follow fashion trends, they may choose to respond to historical, cultural or other influences.”

Hayley Fulton of Napier, for example, believes a social revolution is upending preconceived ideas of what ‘normal’ should be.  Her black and white androgynous designs challenged the notion of socially acceptability, inviting people to wear what they want without being judged.

Also from Napier, Wendy Woolward drew inspiration from her childhood.  Growing up in the ‘70s, she says she loved denim and frayed fringing, her home-made summer school uniforms and her mother’s love of flowers.

Incorporating aspects of American Indian and African tribal cultures, Ella Kaijser’s bold and colourful collection was triggered by her parents’ photos and stories of their travels in the ‘80s.  Ella is from Hastings.

A love of historical fashion, the avant garde and costume were the main influences in Jackie Chapman’s Back to the future collection.  “I like the idea of merging the past and present,” the Hastings student says.

From Hastings, Amber Whitaker reinterpreted the classic fairy tales of Snow White, Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood in her collection.  “I took the original concepts of the fairy tales and put a modern street wear look to them and also added a goth and punk twist to make them a bit more alternative.”

Rachel Hawkins’ three-piece collection began with an exploration of futuristic fashion.  “I was drawn towards cyberpunk fashion, a mixture of apocalyptic and futuristic detail,” the Hastings student says.  “I felt like my garments were more costume than commercial and so instead of the customer I developed characters that encompassed the feeling of the garment.”

Targeting believers in unisex clothing, Te Orihau Karaitiana of Hastings celebrated the memories of loved ones who have passed in his collection Stand for Something.

Jamie Hooker’s collection was inspired by the Hindi Festival of Colours, ‘Holi’.  From Napier, Jamie created her own textiles by overlaying bold prints with subtle sheers.

For her Dark Haut Monde collection, Nikki Long of Havelock North says she evolved 19^th century Gothic aristocratic fashion, centred on androgyny and elegance, into her own classic, tailored and elegant style.

Rai Tahana-Reese of Napier manipulated elements in her collection to convey feelings of isolation and entrapment – “the horror of being alone in a single mind, with no control of your actions”.

The pop culture of the ‘90s influenced Milly Macphail’s collection.  “I really enjoy the way the 90s’ fashion was fun and flirty, and woman were breaking away from the typical sweetheart looks and wearing more outrageous and daring outfits,” the Napier student says.

Building an individual design aesthetic helps students develop into all-rounders which makes them more employable, says Cheryl Downie.

“In fashion today, you have to be multi-skilled, a problem solver who can think outside the square.”

For first-year students, the end-of-year show was a further opportunity to exhibit designs debuted at the Hawke’s Bay Spring Racing Carnival.

Fashion in the Field was a new event for the fledgling students, who in the past have had to punch above their weight competing against designers nationwide in the Auckland-based Cult Couture.

The students excelled in the Young Designer section of the local event — Simone Germain placed first while stable mate Emily Murdoch gained second place.

One of the judges, Sally-Ann Mullin, editor of Fashion Quarterly, was intrigued by Simone’s entry – an outfit that transformed with a flash of cape to reveal a fitting one-piece in the form of an ice-cream cone.

Students across a range of EIT programmes helped with the ideaschool fashion show.

Trades students set up the staging, hairdressing and body and beauty students helped styled the models and contemporary music performance students introduced the two halves of the programme with drumming performances.

The show was also filmed by screen production students, one of whom – Ali Beal – was the event’s MC.

Winning a finals slot in New Zealand’s Attitude Awards is floating Hastings sailor Otis Horne’s boat.

Born with spina bifida, the 19-year-old is one of three finalists in the Courage in Sport category of the awards, which celebrate the excellence and achievements of Kiwis with a disability.

The winners of eight categories and the supreme award winner are to be announced at a gala dinner in Auckland on December 3, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Otis began using a wheelchair when he was just three years old but he knew from a young age that sport was going to feature in his life.

One of this year’s milestones was completing EIT’s Certificate in Health and Fitness.

Another was to sail Cook Strait as one of four Hawke’s Bay sailors who undertook the notoriously difficult passage.

The group included the first sailors with disabilities to complete the solo crossing and the story of their achievement was aired recently on TV3’s Story.

The four sailed Cook Strait in Hansa Liberty yachts, a small craft of just 3.6 metres.  The group also included Dennis Hebberley from Greenmeadows, who is blind, and Samuel Gibson from Havelock North, who has brittle bones disease and Katy Kenah, who established Sailability Hawke’s Bay with husband Mark Kenah in 2009.

Soon after, Otis took part in a Sailability Have a Go Day but the then 12-year-old wasn’t immediately taken with the sport.  He returned six months later, however, and his love of sailing has continued to intensify since.

“Sport has increased my confidence and my physical ability,” Otis says.  “I love the social aspects as well as the fitness and I have met some amazing people.”

Katy says the Cook Strait venture involved a great deal of planning, to ensure the passage was as safe as possible. That included careful calculations around tides and studying weather forecasts three times a day for the week the group were based in Picton.  Setting off from the mouth of Queen Charlotte Sound, the yachties were accompanied by two rescue boats and a launch.

“It never crossed our minds that we were going to die,” she says, “and despite what others said we didn’t think for a moment that we were being naïve or stupid.”

The trip was made possible with a donation from Google in Australia, who contacted Sailability Hawke’s Bay and asked how they could help.

Although four-metre swells and winds gusts of more than 20 knots cancelled ferry sailings, all the sailors made it safely to Porirua harbour after 11 hours of sailing.

Otis relished the experience and only days later he was asking Katy, a work and life skills lecturer at EIT, what was being planned next.  As it is, he sails every weekend, summer and winter – unless he’s heading to Turoa to ski.

He is also giving back, staying behind to help after training sessions at Sailability and assisting with fundraising and promotional efforts aimed at encouraging participation by others in the disability community.

Working as a one-on-one teacher’s aide at Taradale High School, he is now looking forward to attending an eight-day Activate course at Outward Bound.

Vote for Otis here

Centred in a region celebrated for the diversity and quality of its wine styles, EIT offers New Zealand’s widest range of viticulture and wine science programmes.

Highly-qualified lecturers with industry experience teach programmes that range from certificates through to diplomas, bachelor degrees and graduate diplomas and encompass grape growing, winemaking, wine business and wine marketing.

EIT’s strong connections with the local wine industry provide opportunities for students to gain practical hands-on experience working in wineries and vineyards in the area.

Their learning environment also includes the institute’s purpose-built teaching and research winery which processes grapes donated by local growers and those harvested from EIT’s own vineyard at the heart of the viticulture and wine science complex.

Programmes are designed to be flexible, providing a variety of study options – full and part-time, February and July starts and on-campus and by distance online learning with compulsory residential schools held in Hawke’s Bay.  The wide range of programmes enables graduates to progress to higher-level qualifications.

The concurrent Bachelor of Viticulture and Bachelor of Wine Science is a unique opportunity to simultaneously study two degrees and graduate in 4 ½ years.

EIT also offers its Certificate in Grapegrowing and Winemaking at its Tairawhiti campus in Gisborne, which operates the 1.6ha vineyard and winery producing wines under the Waimata Wine label.

As Paul Robinson, a Bachelor of Viticulture and Bachelor of Wine Science graduate and 2014’s New Zealand Viticulturist of the Year winner, points out:  “The fact that EIT graduates have won the New Zealand Viticulturist of the Year for the last three years shows the quality of the graduates, lecturers and the systems EIT has in place.”

Josh Rakatairi on EIT’s Te Ara o Tāwhaki marae.

Although he grew up in a large family that didn’t speak Māori, te reo has shaped Josh Rakatairi’s pathway in life.

It has also brought Josh, born and raised in Marton, back to his Ngāti Kahungunu roots.

This year, his achievement as an up-and-coming Māori voice was celebrated with a Ngāti Kahungunu Ngā Tohu Reo Te Tira Hou o Te Reo Māori (Rangatahi) award.

He employs his te reo skills as a consultant, transcribing, translating, editing and researching for Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated and was one of the instigators of Te Tira Hou, a grassroots movement which aims to bridge the intergenerational gap by advocating for a te reo education that lifts youth to a standard where they will have achieved.

While originally set on a career in television as a reo presenter, Josh found himself drawn to degree study and considered EIT the best place for that.

“I knew of Materoa Haenga [senior lecturer and kuia of Te Ūranga Waka and Te Whatukura] and that she was one of the best teachers of te reo.  She was a big drawcard for the programme.”

At the time, the Ngāti Kahungunu link wasn’t a focus but since moving to Hawke’s Bay he has learnt about those connections.

“I started feeling I belonged somewhere.  It’s become a motivating force.”

After completing his Bachelor of Arts (Māori), Josh progressed to a Bachelor of Arts Honours (Māori), graduating with distinction.  Now he has his sights set on a PhD and a return to teaching, having taught degree-level classes at EIT.

Wherever te reo takes him, Josh will never leave Hawke’s Bay.

“I have made too many connections to leave it.  I feel connected to the marae on the EIT campus.  It’s a drawcard for many of us, a response to Materoa’s legacy.  Many times I hear her voice in the background.  It’s all about upholding that mana,” he says.

Dylan Thomas on EIT’s Hawke’s Bay campus.

Emerging hockey star Dylan Thomas is hoping a lack of funds won’t stop him competing in an important international tournament being held in the Netherlands in July.

The EIT degree student from Jervoistown has been selected for a national team contesting an invitational under-21 tournament for six leading age-group countries – Germany, Belgium, England, India and the Netherlands as well as New Zealand.

“It’s a really high quality tournament with no easy teams,” the second-year Bachelor of Recreation and Sport student enthuses.  “”It will be full-on.”

Dylan started playing hockey at the age of nine and for all but two years, when he was a midfielder for Hastings Boys’ High School, he has been a striker.

“I like scoring goals,” he says.

After leaving school, Dylan decided that if he wanted to play for New Zealand one day, he needed to learn all he could about sport performance while also optimising his career prospects.

The 19-year-old student is finding EIT “great fun”.

Lecturers understand the challenges involved in training and competing in tournaments, he says, and they support students as they strive to balance their study and sporting commitments.

Hockey has taken Dylan overseas on four occasions.  He’s been on two under-18 Australian tours, travelled to Vanuatu for the Youth Olympic qualifiers and competed last year in the Youth Olympic Games in China.

However, there’s scant funding available for this country’s hockey players, he says, unlike some of the other major sporting codes.  He needs $6000 for the 10-day trip to Europe, and while working and coaching to raise the money, he’s also hoping for a lifeline that will help ensure he joins his team-mates.

On-site winemaker at Wineworks’ in Auckland, Renée Dale found her Romeo Bragato Exchange win reinvigorated her passion for Bachelor of Wine Science studies at EIT.

In 2006, her final degree year, Renee created a research poster which was displayed at the Romeo Bragato Conference staged at Napier’s Pettigrew Green Arena.

Earlier that year, the Aucklander’s month-long exchange trip to wine regions in Italy also gave her a taste for travel – she went on to work in wine regions throughout the world, including Hawke’s Bay, Waiheke, the Napa Valley and Australia’s Yarra Valley.

Renee has shaped an interesting career since graduating in 2007.  The Winery Doors poster series produced by the EIT valedictorian features photographs she has taken of cellar doors nationwide.

In 2010, Renee created a blend for a client which is now served at the White House.  In 2013, she was contracted to produce premium wine for export to the UK under M-Wines.  Several years ago, she established her own brand, Moi Wines.

Renee says her inner traveller is tamed “for now” as she puts her skills to good use at Wineworks.

“Working with grapes, the yeast, the wine, is where I feel at home, no matter where I am in the world.”

Science stars in the school lab, from left, Marie Jones, Grace Duncan, Caitlin Stent and Amanda Philpott.

A will to reduce the use of plastics and a listless goldfish swimming at the bottom of a fish tank prompted winning projects in this year’s EIT-sponsored Hawke’s Bay Science and Technology Fair.

The top two projects were entered by students from Hastings Girls’ High School.

Taking part in the fair for the first time, Year 9 students Amanda Philpott and Caitlin Stent teamed up for their EIT Science and Technology Award-winning project Bottle to Blob:  Edible Plastic.

Keenly aware that plastic is polluting the environment, Amanda learned about a cooking process called spherification online.  She and Caitlin then looked at adapting the method for shaping a liquid into spheres to make edible and biodegradable bottles.

“We didn’t get exactly what we wanted,” says Caitlin “but we did demonstrate the possibilities for replacing plastic bottles.”

Marie Jones and Grace Duncan won the fair’s outstanding project award, the National Aquarium award for the best exhibit relating to aquatic animals and the University of Otago award for their entry, What’s weighing you down? 

Having noticed a goldfish hugging the bottom of the fish tank at home, Grace teamed up with Marie, another Year 12 student, to look at physical and chemical equilibriums in fish and to relate this back to human divers as well as several classroom physics and chemistry experiments.

Without any intervention, the pet fish is now swimming normally.  Grace and Marie think it may have been having problems with its swim bladder or perhaps its digestion.

The pair’s prize includes an all-expenses-paid trip to the University of Otago’s Hands on Science workshop in January next year.

Hastings Girls’ High School excelled in the fair, scooping up nine of 11 prizes awarded for Years 11-13 projects as well as winning best in show.

Head of Science Mike Duncan, who has chaired the fair’s organising committee for the last four or five years, says the school always performs well but this year was its best yet.

“The science fair projects are the most interesting and real science we do.  We’re trying to get the seniors engaging more in the fair.”

Science, he says, is not just about learning facts and figures.

“It’s about giving kids the opportunity to learn problem-solving processes, anything that encourages them to look critically at what they are doing and then to follow processes to resolve whatever issues arise.

“That’s going to be helpful with anything they do in life,” he enthuses, “not just science.”

Top of his class, Dr Stephen Corich.

Head of EIT’s computing school Dr Stephen Corich reaped an early retirement bonanza at a recent national conference for information technology educators and researchers.

Steve was made a Fellow of CITRENZ (Centre for Information Technology Education and Research New Zealand) at the organisation’s annual conference held in Queenstown.  The honour, one of few conferred in CITRENZ’s 26-year history, recognises his contribution to IT education and research in general.

To cap off that achievement, EIT’s School of Computing out-performed all other institutes of technology at CITRENZ’s award ceremony in winning four of five award categories and receiving three commendations.

The four category award wins were for best student poster (Postgraduate Diploma in Information Technology student Kamal Jyoti, supervised by Dr Michael Verhaart, Associate Professor at EIT’s School of Computing), best educational innovation paper (Verhaart and EIT learning technologist Stephanie Day), best collaborative paper (senior lecturer in management at EIT’s Auckland campus Raewyn Boersen and AUT staffer Alison Hunter) and best paper (Boersen and Hunter).

Steve retires in December after 22 years at EIT.  Joining as an academic staff member in 1994, he was appointed programme coordinator for the newly-created Bachelor of Computing Systems in 1997.

The first staff member to be awarded both the CEO’s Award for Academic Excellence and the CEO’s Award for Research Excellence, Steve was appointed assistant Head of School Computing in 2008 and Head of School the following year.

Catherine Hardiman at work over harvest.

A student research project has produced promising results for an indirect approach to reducing mealybug infestations in vineyards by controlling the ants that protect and milk the insects for their honeydew.

Catherine Hardiman, who undertook her study during the last growing season to fulfil a final-year research requirement for her Bachelor of Viticulture at EIT, believes the results provide “some significant, far-reaching possibilities for the New Zealand wine industry.”

Vectors for Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 3, mealybugs transmit the infectious virus from plant to plant while feeding on the phloem of the vines.  Mealybug-spread GLRaV-3 has wreaked havoc in New Zealand vineyards – as Hardiman points out, it is the most harmful of all the grapevine leafroll viruses.

Compared with healthy plants, grapevines of both red and white varieties infected with GLRaV-3 suffer reduced yields, delayed maturity, higher acidity, lower fruit sugar levels and reduced flavour.  Infected vines tend to produce lower quality wine.

Mealybugs are the main vector for GLRaV-3 in vineyards worldwide.

Several ant species are known to disrupt the biological control of mealybugs by protecting them in the vine canopy from their natural enemies.  They do this to protect their primary food source, honeydew secreted by the mealybugs.

For her research project, Hardiman trialled bifenthrin, a synthetic methylpyrethroid ant toxin.  The trial was based on six paired treatment/control replicate plots, randomly selected in Te Mania’s Pinot Noir clone 115 block in Nelson, where Hardiman lives and where she studied by distance.

About every five days, ant and mealybug activity was monitored before and after ant toxin treatment.

On March 3, X-it Ant was sprayed on vine trunks and posts of treatment bays at an effective bifenthrin concentration of 240ppm.

Ants were counted over a five-minute period three times before and seven times after treatment with the ant toxin at two fixed points, mid-bay and at one of the posts, on the control and treatment bays and mealybugs twice before and seven times after.

The study found significantly fewer ants on average at posts of bays where the ant toxin had been applied compared with the control bays.

The mealybugs were counted by searching the vine canopies of each of the vines in control and treatment bays, again over a five minute period.  The study found a significant reduction in average mealybug counts in bays treated with ant toxin compared to untreated bays.

EIT research scientist and viticulture lecturer Dr Petra King says the study focus was a good example of an ecological system and interdependent species.

“This is an exciting result which needs further study, which could suit a master’s student project.”

Dr King, who oversees research work undertaken by students, suggested the project to Hardiman after discussions with Peter Visser, technical manager for Key Industries, which provides pest control products to the winegrowing industry.

Raewyn Paterson with a contemporary take on the traditional tukutuku panel.

Contemporary Māori artist Raewyn Paterson is to expand her creative horizons by studying for unique postgraduate degrees being offered next year by EIT.

The two programmes will be New Zealand’s only applied honours and master’s creative practice degrees steeped in kaupapa Māori philosophy.

Of Tuhoe descent, Raewyn will study Te Hono ki Toi (Poutiri-a-rangi) – Bachelor of Professional Creative Practice (Honours) and then progress to Te Hono ki Toi (Poutiriao) – Master of Professional Creative Practice.

While the programmes are designed for both Pākehā and Māori, they are particularly attractive to Māori because their delivery will be within a Māori learning context.

Flexible in their design, they can be tailored to the individual student’s creative direction – whether that’s a Māori, Eurocentric or any other cultural form of self-expression.

“I’ve always wanted to do my master’s,” says Raewyn, who completed EIT’s Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design in 2010.

It also suits that both degrees will be practice-based and that they can be studied locally.   Both programmes will be jointly delivered by EIT Hawke’s Bay’s ideaschool and EIT Tairāwhiti’s Toihoukura, giving students access to two schools of lecturers and artists.

Up until now, graduates have had to leave the regions to undertake postgraduate study in the arts.

Raewyn is planning a part-time approach to study so she can continue in her various roles at ideaschool.  “I have to eat,” she jokes.

Since graduating, the Napier-based artist has worked part-time, teaching on EIT’s visual arts and design programme, mentoring Māori students across ideaschool and coordinating events.  A committed learner, she has also completed EIT’s Certificate in Tertiary Learning and Teaching and the levels 2 and 4 Certificate in Māori programmes.

Raewyn also continues to evolve her creative practice.  Last year, her contemporary take on tukutuku panels featured in a major collaborative exhibition with Emanuel Dunn, who showcased his cardboard constructions portraying the Māori creation story.

The exhibition occupied the foyer of the Hastings City Art Gallery.

Raewyn and friends are currently organising an exhibition which will be held at the Hastings Community Arts Centre as part of the celebrations centred on Waitangi Day.

“The kaupapa is around whakawhanaugatanga, building relationships and networking with other Māori artists in Hawke’s Bay.”

For her master’s studies, Raewyn has been considering eco-design solutions, community art and design projects and ways of identifying through Māori patterns.

“I am questioning who my art and designs are for, what benefits they might have for a community, which skills and research would benefit my own hapῡ and what it is that I want to learn more about.

“Pathways have magically opened up for me since I more fully focused on art,” she points out.  “Continuing with study is the next obvious pathway for my future.”