EIT graduate and class valedictorian Helen Burnett fizzes with enthusiasm about her ICT support job at Heretaunga Intermediate School in Hastings.

“I love working here,” she enthuses about her 20-hour a week position. “I could get a full-time job earning more money. My other jobs support me doing this really.”

Helen hasn’t always been this happy, however. Bullying blighted her school life, triggering clinical depression in her seventh form year.

After leaving school, she worked in a dairy for three years. The workplace, she says, wasn’t conducive to self-confidence.

So launching into tertiary study was a daunting prospect.

“A friend accompanied me on the bus to EIT and while I filled in my enrolment form, and she stayed with me to ensure I signed it and handed it over.”

Helen considered studying for an early childhood teaching qualification but signed up for the Diploma in Information & Communications Technology.

“I love computers. I really like computers. I like them and kids, but I thought I would do better in computing.”

She did very well indeed. Topping her diploma class, she won an award for academic excellence and was granted a two-year scholarship to help finance her through her Bachelor of Computing Systems studies.

“I was real keen,” she laughs. “I was on a roll – I told (Head of School)
Steve Corich I was going to get top of the degree programme as well.”

Helen won’t find out if she’s succeeded in that ambition until EIT Graduation’s ceremony, to be staged at Napier’s Municipal Theatre on March 25. Her focus now is on preparing a valedictory speech for the occasion.

“Getting up on stage is going to be nerve-racking,” she says. “I saw the valedictorian speak at my first graduation, so I know what’s involved, but in the last three years, EIT has helped raise my confidence. The place has been wonderful for me, and the whole experience was really good.

“None of the lecturers want you to fail and they will help you out, giving you that little push if you need it. If you’re having problems, you can go to them after class or email them – they don’t mind. They encourage you. I think all the lecturers are awesome.”

Very comfortable now in the school environment, Helen is excited about establishing a computer club at Heretaunga Intermediate.

“The theory is that if you teach a group of students about computers, they will teach their classmates.”

She’s already chosen a witty and “not too geeky” name for the club – the SWAT Team, for Students Working to Advance Technology.

Finding it fun to be working among children, Helen also devotes leisure time to being a leader for Brownies, the 7-9-year-old version of Girl Guides.
“I took a year’s break to get through my studies, but I love being back.

They are gorgeous!”

Helen says she would consider doing further study, particularly a graduate diploma in primary teaching if that were ever offered at EIT.