Congratulations to CSNZ Scholarship winners!

Congratulations to CSNZ Award Recipients!

CSNZ 2022 Survey School Award Winner:

Topping off a degree

After studying for a Bachelor of Surveying (BSurv) degree at Otago University, Kate Bowhuis recently graduated top-of-the-class for the SURV 450 Professional Practice paper, earning her the annual CSNZ prize of $500 as a result.

Kate says she was delighted to win the prize for this particular paper as it was really interesting and very different from any other course.

“Most papers are based on facts, but this one focused on the morals and ethics of being a practising professional surveyor,” she says. “We were constantly challenged to put ourselves in situations with real moral dilemmas, where the answers weren’t black and white.”

Kate says she and her Professional Practice classmates knew about the $500 prize for the highest-scoring student, which caused some subtle-yet-healthy competition between them.

“Obviously I wanted to do well for my own sake, but knowing there was a class prize made us all a lot more interested in giving our absolute best,” she says. “While it was never openly acknowledged, there was a lot of checking up on each other’s grades!”

Kate’s original plan was to save the $500, but in the end she decided to spend it on repainting the roof of her car instead. “After three years living in Dunedin, the snow and hail had taken its toll on my car, and the paint had started peeling off. It will be fantastic to have that fixed and looking its best again.”

CSNZ 2022 National Diploma in Surveying Scholarship:

Congratulations to Marco Subtil De Oliveira (from Cuttriss Consultants Ltd) and to Matthew Mahutonga (from CKL Te Awamutu). They have both been awarded the 2022 CSNZ scholarship for the National Diploma in Surveying. This is paid out once they have completed their study. We had a great group of applicants this year and the team reviewing the applicants said they were all of a very high standard. We were able to award two scholarships this year as a previous recipient has chosen not to finish their studies, so they no longer qualify for receiving the award.

Previous winner Logan Dickie has recently finished his diploma, here is what he has to say about the scholarship:

Reaping the rewards of study

Studying while working full-time is never easy— just ask Senior Surveyor Logan Dickie—but the rewards are there for those who commit to doing the hard yards.

Logan recently received a $2,000 Scholarship payment from CSNZ after completing the National Diploma in Surveying while working full-time.

Logan says that while the key driver for his Diploma study was to broaden his outlook and further his surveying career, the Scholarship gave him another incentive to remain focused and complete the qualification.

“It’s been a pretty full-on few years,” he says. “There were definitely days when it would have been easy to give up, but knowing that the Scholarship ‘reward’ was there at the end definitely helped me to keep going.”

He says he will use the $2,000 to reimburse himself for the laptop he purchased in order to complete the online course through Tauranga's Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology.

The other rewards?

“I joined the surveying industry straight out of school, learning on the job as an assistant/technician,” says Logan. “But completing the National Diploma in Surveying has enabled me to take on more responsibility at a higher level, and really progress my career.”