Art Student Opens Door to EIT

September 11, 2018

EIT art student Emma Bergman

Savings on fees, accommodation and living costs weighed in “massively” on fledgling artist Emma Bergman’s decision to study at EIT.

Runner-up dux at Napier’s Sacred Heart College last year, Emma was awarded EIT’s Year 13 degree scholarship to study for a Bachelor of Creative Practice.  She also benefits from the Government’s phasing in of fees-free tertiary study, giving her at least two years without cost at EIT. 

Living at home in Napier and parking the $20,000 she set aside as a “university” fund, Emma now expects to graduate with money in the bank. 

It could have played out very differently.  While her high school art teachers urged her to keep all her doors open, having themselves gained degrees through EIT, another influential person told her that as a scholarship student she should only consider a university education.

Emma admits it was scary weighing up the conflicting advice. 

Now, however, after a term at EIT’s ideaschool, she believes the perception of some people that institutes of technology and polytechnics don’t offer an equivalent standard of qualification is stereotypical thinking and wrong.

“Getting over stereotypes is massive.  One of my Sacred Heart art teachers started tertiary study at university.  For personal reasons, she moved to EIT and she found it 100 times better.”

With 12 bachelor and six master degrees plus an array of graduate and postgraduate programmes, she feels EIT deserves to be better known for more than trades training.

“I am incredibly impressed,” she says of her own degree programme.  “Already I can’t believe I didn’t consider EIT earlier.  Study-wise, I know what I have to do and I’m impressed by the close-knit family of lecturers and students at ideaschool.

“As soon as I came here I felt this is the place.”

Her lecturers are “high quality” in terms of their knowledge, contacts with well-known artists and in maintaining their own creative practices. 

Looking ahead to a career, Emma believes her degree will measure up and that employers will also consider her grades, portfolio and personality.  Once she gains her bachelor’s degree, she intends studying for a graduate diploma in secondary school teaching and to work as a high school art teacher.

“Then,” she adds with a smile, “I will be encouraging my students to follow my pathway and consider EIT.”

Emma is currently studying portraiture and exploring issues of identity through photography, graphic design and typography. 

While she expects to specialise in photography and graphic design, she is also welcoming the opportunities to work with other media at ideaschool.  The Bachelor of Creative Practice is a collaborative multi-disciplinary programme where students can explore various artistic avenues.

“I’m done with closing doors,” she says.  “All my doors are open.”