Eastern Institute of Technology student Lydia Hartshorne, 27, was one of 30 recipients of the Prime Minister’s scholarship to the value of almost $10,000.

Lydia will conduct an eight-week internship with The Business Bureau based in Buenos Aires.  She will develop the marketing strategy for The Business Bureau’s client Watcha.live a platform that integrally combines TV + Internet + Technology converting your device into a TV.

She said the work placement would be an “adventure”.

“It was the first scholarship that I ever applied for so I had no idea what to expect”.

“Just answering all the questions on the application was really challenging, I think being a Kiwi we’re not very good at talking ourselves up so that was probably the most challenging part of the whole application …really selling yourself,” Hartshorne said.

The prospect of going to South America was an exciting one, she said.

“The scholarship was either for Asia or Latin America and the reason why I chose Latin America, and Argentina specifically, is because it’s so similar to New Zealand.  So the likes of the wine and beef industry, both southern hemisphere also rugby is quite prominent in both countries so that was all really appealing to me.”

Lydia said one of her Marketing lecturers Regan Cotter first persuaded her to sign up for the scholarship. 

“I wasn’t aware of the scholarship initially until one of my lecturers told me about it and how they had been aware of it because Education New Zealand came to EIT and spoke to a few of the faculty and then they said ‘are there any students that you think would be interested or you think would have a good shot?’ and they sort of shoulder-tapped me.”

Lydia said she was already planning and preparing for the internship by brushing up on her Spanish.

“I’ve started using an app called Duolingo and I do that five minutes every day.  I will hopefully manage to get in touch with some [Spanish speaking] people living in Hawke’s Bay that I can catch up with weekly so we can actually have real conversations rather than just words.”

“This is a life changing moment for Lydia and will be the launching pad for a very promising career in business.  This opportunity is a reflection of the hard work and dedication Lydia has placed into her Diploma of Wine Marketing and Bachelor of Business at EIT,” said Regan Cotter