Last year Mario Cvetkoski was Dux at Linwood College at Ōtākaro. It was an impressive achievement considering what an unusual and difficult year it had been. He also managed to receive an overall Excellence endorsement in his Level 3 NCEA grades, having studied calculus, physics, chemistry, English literature and visual arts in his final year of high school. We caught up with Mario to find out how his transition to studies at university was going, and to discuss what he was hoping for further down the winding river of his education.

Mario is currently studying at the University of Canterbury, enrolled for a Bachelor of Product Design. We asked him how he was finding the transition. “I’m really enjoying the lectures, but they are definitely much more intense than high school classes. An important aspect to uni is that in uni you form your own timetable and have to manage all your time yourself, while in high school all of that was roughly done for you, so it has been a bit of a shock to the system getting used to this level of time management.”

We went on to discuss if he always had a clear idea of what he wanted to do when he finished school or if it changed over the years. “I have always wanted to go to university, but for what exactly has changed. My earliest ideas were between computer science and mechanical engineering, as I quite enjoy science and computers. But slowly I released I wanted to do something more creative as I got more invested in the arts, almost doing a complete 180 to consider studying Fine Arts. The only issue with that pathway is that I still love sciences, so that is how I settled on Industrial Product Design as it a blend of creativity and engineering, the best of both worlds for me. It was also an easy choice as I was already exposed to product design from my summer job at an engineering company, so I knew what it foretold.”

Mario has been a student during some unprecedented times in Canterbury, capping off his senior year during a global pandemic. This, undoubtedly, engendered a unique perspective on perseverance in the face of adversity. Over the summer he featured in a Press article with a number of other Canterbury seniors who managed to earn Excellence endorsement in a very challenging year. “Learning throughout the pandemic certainly helped in making me a more self-motivated learner where I know I can teach myself new material. That experience during my final year of high school has definitely helped me at uni where everything is self-motivated. My confidence in my ability to learn has only been strengthened since.” 

LCŌ principal, Richard Edmundson, often uses the analogy of a braided river when talking about learning at Linwood College. We asked Mario if this was an apt description of his learning experiences in the school. “Learning at Linwood college definitely does feel like a braided river where there are many pathways, but they all flow down in the general direction. When I was at Linwood, I mainly took Science, Mathematics, English, and Visual Arts to keep my options broad for when I finished. Highschool is quite good in the way that you can slightly specialise in what you are interested in without going too far, the river will merge back together, and this is important as it doesn't cut off that many options, as many students like me will change their mind during their time at school."

We finished up our conversation on the topic of changes he hopes for by the time he graduates. “As my degree is a 3-year course I hopefully will be graduating at the end of 2023, and the biggest change I would like to see is a greater bond form between our community and the University. During my final year at Linwood College at Ōtākaro some new systems were put in place such as the Uni-Mentorship program where 2nd and 3rd-year uni students came and mentored us year 13s, and some university professors also came to inform us about how uni operates, which was invaluable. But I would like to see even more. This is because university is such a large beast in comparison to high school that I, and many of my peers, have had a shock to how different of an environment it is. I think that education is one of the most important things in society, so it would be great to break down any barriers that may turn people off from obtaining a higher education.”