Rare business scholarship another string to bow
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Rare
business scholarship another string to
bow
Third-year Bachelor of Business Studies student Valeria Kern has won a Zonta International Jane M Klausman Women in Business Scholarship, one of just 12 worldwide this year.
It is the only the third time the scholarship, worth $US5000, has been won by a New Zealand-based student since it was established in 1998 – and two of those have been from Massey.
The scholarship was established with a bequest from its namesake, a successful New York businesswoman who wanted to help women overcome barriers to achievement in the business world. Genevieve Cooper from the Manawatu campus was a recipient last year.
Miss Kern, 22, a top violinist majoring in accounting and finance at Albany, says she was shocked to win. “I thought there is no way I would be one of the top 12 business students in the world."
But her grades belie her astonishment. She is on the College of Business Dean’s List for achieving an overall minimum A-minus last year – she got five A-pluses and two As and A-minuses.
“One of my lecturers told me about the awards but it was my fiancé Peter who pushed me into entering.” Peter Mau, a Northland farmer and commercial helicopter pilot, is in fact the reason Miss Kern moved to New Zealand three years ago from Berlin, Germany, where they met.
As well as being a top student, Miss Kern is also an accomplished violinist who plays with the Auckland Youth Symphony Orchestra, and speaks four languages. She enjoys the synergy between music and maths. “Because the structure of music is about numbers, you get an abstract understanding of halves and quarters with quaver and semi quaver notes.
“I push myself so it is not for relaxation, but I get such pleasure out of playing with an orchestra where really you are just are one part of a much larger instrument. I couldn’t imagine my life without music because it has broadened my experience so much.”
She first came to New Zealand as a year-11 exchange student at Palmerston North Girls’ High School for six months in 2003. “I loved New Zealand and always knew I was going to go to university. I decided to do business because it’s so relevant, gives you a broad, worldwide view and it adds to my own understanding about a range of topics.”
Next year she plans to do honours. “I need to do an extra year of study if I want to become a chartered accountant, and I am curious and interested in adding to my knowledge."
ENDS