"Take the opportunities that come your way"

Mr Aaron and I accepted the invitation to attend Growing NZ’s Teachers’ Day Out this week. I hoped to learn more about the operations of some of the large farming ventures in our region and their commitment to the quadruple bottom line. While I did gain these learnings, I also found some of our past students and discovered their interesting career journeys.

Our first stop of the day was Mt Alford Station, a cattle and sheep farm, where we were hosted by Sir Graeme Harrison. Stepping off the bus I was greeted by, ‘Hey, Ms James!’ and I soon found myself in the company of Maia Cunningham, a 2018 CGHS school leaver. Maia is completing her second year of study in Accounting and Agriculture at Lincoln University and has captured the opportunity to spend her summer gaining work experience at Mt Alford. Also, at Mt Alford was Georgina Flynn, a 2014 CGHS school leaver. George shared her moving story of the academic difficulties she struggled with while at CGHS and her journey of resilience and strength which saw her complete tertiary study and become a valued team member of Mt Alford, especially respected for her work with the animals including her team of well-trained dogs.

Sir Graeme spoke with real passion of the environmental work that is being completed on the farm and the level of commitment to continuous improvement was a moment of personal enlightenment for me. The recent purchase of Mt Alford has allowed Sir Graeme to work more closely with his wife, Barbara, and yes, she too is a past student of Christchurch Girls’ High School / Te Kura o Hine Waiora.

After a very positive experience, seeing some of our past students at Mt Alford, we were surprised to find that there were more to come. Our final farm visit of the day was Pencarrow Dairy Farm where we were again made aware of the significant improvements being made to improve the environmental impact of the farm and animal welfare. As we enjoyed the relaxed hospitality of Tricia and Andy Macfarlane, some of their employees shared their stories with us. Two of these were again past students of our school. Olivia Gibb, a leaver of 2014 (and friend of George) shared her tale of travel and not knowing what career she wished to pursue upon finishing school. Working in over 25 different countries, completing a wide variety of tasks, made her realise that farming was the industry she wished to commit herself to and she is the most recent appointment at Pencarrow. Our final discovery of a past student for the day was Katherine Townley who left us in 2002. Katherine has taken an interesting journey after initially studying in the arts, with a passion for literature. She then completed adminstration jobs and quickly realised that this was not where she wished to spend her days. She worked at Pencarrow for several years and is now an environmental consultant working often with local farmers.

Mr Aaron and I had an interesting and enjoyable day enhanced by the witnessing of our past students flourishing in their current environments. Some of the major learnings we took from the day were:

• The most important thing in life, and to prosper in business, is the establishment and maintenance of positive relationships
• Problem solving and critical thinking are the key tasks completed on a daily basis
• It is important to get out of your comfort zone and ‘give things a go’
• Take the opportunities that come your way
• The subjects you take at school are not critical to your success in later life

Thank you to Growing NZ for providing us with this opportunity.