Danyel Vickery, City Student Studio manager (right) with project instigators (from left) Belinda Sleight, University of Waikato, Regan Cotter and David Skelton, EIT School of Business and Computing, and Paulina Wilhelm, Napier City Council.
A City Student Studio in Dalton Street will run over summer as a hub of student research, projects and digital services for Napier CBD businesses.
It is a collaboration between EIT, Napier City Council and University of Waikato to provide students with space to concentrate on work-based projects that are either part of their degree requirements or summer research scholarship assignments.
The studio at 20 Dalton Street opens weekdays from 10am to 4pm. It is managed by EIT School of Business student Danyel Vickery. His role is to greet potential clients and scope their needs, deal with public enquiries about study options at EIT and the University of Waikato, and schedule bookings for the shared spaces and equipment.
It’s expected the studio will be a hive of activity. EIT students are offering a social media and website development advisory service to members of Napier Inner City Marketing and an accountancy service for not-for-profit organisations.
Three others are working on specific projects for businesses and a non-profit organisation.
Also using the space are University of Waikato summer research students. Selected through a competitive application process, the students are conducting 10-week research projects in collaboration with Napier City Council, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and the Department of Conservation/Cape to City team.
These projects include topics in environmental planning, ecology and education. Students will use the City Student Studio for stakeholder meetings, completing data analysis and other desk-based work.
Napier City Council’s Paulina Wilhelm, manager of city development, was the original instigator of the idea having seen student studios in action in Victoria and Vancouver, Canada.
“The idea has been percolating for 18 months and I’m delighted to finally see it in place in Napier. I hope it will become an annual event.”
EIT will collect and analyse data on visitors and usage to form part of that decision-making process.
The studio will be open until mid-February.