Students who study together, graduate together. That’s the verdict of Ulu Waqavanua and Marica Wotta who this week graduate with a Bachelor of Education (Teaching) ECE from The University of Auckland.
Ulu and Marica didn’t originally plan to study the same programme, and both got a surprise to see the other at the initial interviews. But not only have they helped each other along in their studies, they are now working at the same centre in Manurewa and are even doing further postgraduate study together.
It was work in youth programmes in Fiji, tutoring at a primary school in New Zealand and her own family of five boys that inspired Ulu to get a qualification. Marica says she fell into it by accident after a friend convinced her to help out at an early childhood centre in the holidays.
"I’d been studying business administration and computing," says Marica, "but I realised I loved working with children so I stayed on. Then when I heard that ECE teachers need to be qualified and registered by 2012, that pushed me to enrol in the programme."
Ulu says she started with a diploma qualification but was encouraged by her lecturers to go on and complete the degree. Both agree their study has challenged them as individuals, broadened their horizons, and provided plenty of opportunities to learn from other students from diverse cultural backgrounds.
"It’s really important," says Ulu, who is fluent in three languages, "to be able to embrace and respect other cultures, especially in an early childhood setting. In our centre we have children from around the world, so we need to a have a positive attitude towards diversity in order to really take care of them and their families."
Both Ulu and Marica, who are Manurewa residents, would love to set up an early childhood centre of their own with a multicultural focus, but agree that’s a little way off and will happen when the time is right. For now they are looking forward to walking in the formal procession and getting capped with more than 800 other education graduates from the University. And they wholeheartedly agree the hard work has been more than worth it.
Ma says achieving feels really good. "I feel great about studying now, and I really enjoy it. Up-skilling myself has been really important." Ulu agrees and remarks, "good education is the key to unlock a lot of things including the lives of your families and those who you teach. You really just have to go for it."
