No need to follow the crowd

One of WITT’s newly graduated ākonga, Nikita Rogers, has words of advice for those planning their futures. The New Plymouth Girls High School alumni, gives credit to her mum for encouraging her to know herself - to do what’s best for her and to have the courage not to follow the crowd.

As friends took off for university, gap years, and work after high school, she knew during this time that “staying in my hometown made me the happiest.”

That decision has paid dividends as she secured valuable work experience with engineering consultancy firm BECA in the summer of 2022, and has worked part-time for them throughout her second and third years of her degree. She has now stepped into a full-time civil engineering role and jokes she’s yet to apply for a job as she was initially introduced to the team at BECA by kaimahi (staff) at WITT.

Nikita started her journey at WITT with the E2EE Engineering Secondary Tertiary pathway course in her last year at school. She was also one of seven students awarded a School Leaver Scholarship in 2021 that she put toward the fees for her three-year Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering.

 This helped her graduate with a low student loan.

“It came to what I prioritised and what I wanted to have in the future; I now plan to save money to travel after my student loan is paid off,” she says.

She’s modest with her achievements saying: “Thankfully, it pretty much worked out for me, and putting study as priority paid off. I was fortunate to be given such invaluable opportunities.”

“Nikita has been a stand-out student from the get-go and it is a delight to see her graduate and start her career as a civil engineer and give back to Taranaki,” says WITT School Director Jill Warner.

A role model to others, she says: “I hope to be an inspiration to young people; that if you work hard, you can achieve anything you put your mind to.”