Michaelyn Jacobs presenting one of her commercial Dungeons and Dragons characters.

EIT graduate Michaelyn Jacobs, who completed her Bachelor in Creative Practice last year, is the winner of the 2020 John Harré Award to the value of $3,500.

The award was established to support EIT Hawke’s Bay graduates with a disability transition from study into employment.  

Michaelyn is thriving and discovered a niche that she is extremely passionate about. The award was not only a recognition of her academic success but also a stepping stone to a career as a self-employed graphic designer and digital artist. Michaelyn invested the scholarship money in an IPad Pro and digital art & design software.

Like many other New Zealanders, Michaelyn had a bumpy ride this year, however, she used the lockdown and the post-lockdown period to grow her portfolio and expand her skillset. “I always saw myself more in a graphic design career but over the last months I’ve started to explore digital art. I drew some digital character illustrations for the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game which sold quickly.” Michaelyn also delved into coding, and has started to write a fantasy novel which she also plans to illustrate.

Michaelyn has Autism and throughout her studies, was supported by EIT’s Student Disability & Wellbeing Team who provided guidance and education resources and “someone to talk to” which helped her succeed in her aspirations.

Applications for the John Harré Award are open now. For the application form, please visit https://www.eit.ac.nz/students/scholarships/ or contact our Disability & Wellbeing team.