AUT grads handpicked by major companies
28 AUT graduates have been chosen by major companies – including Facebook, Westpac, Lululemon and Allbirds – to be interns in their North American offices.
The graduates will embark on their overseas experiences this year, with some having already started in January and February.
Kate Nalesu, who graduated with a Master of Design in spatial design, started at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in February, working with the curator on current collections and upcoming exhibitions.
Kate received her scholarship the second time she applied. The first time was in the last year of her undergraduate degree, and she was not successful. She says that it was a fortunate outcome in the end as she was not ready for the responsibility of an internship, and instead decided to study further at AUT.
“I was proud of myself because I proved that failure is not a step back, it is a learning curve that pushes you to succeed even higher than your own expectations. Despite these setbacks, I was still brave enough to believe that I could achieve this,” she says.
Kate and the other 27 graduates were selected through AUT’s Internz Scholarship programme which provides opportunities for final-year students to embark on paid internships in the US and Canada. With the support from AUT for flights, insurance, visas and a stipend, this group of graduates gets a chance to put learning into action in a different market.
AUT’s Director of Development, Ella Monahan, says that the opportunity these students are taking will be like nothing they’ve experienced before.
“Being selected by these leading companies through a competitive process is a success in itself but it’s really only the beginning of the story in terms of how it can fuel their future success,” she says.
AUT Internz is a scholarship exclusively for AUT students. Applications are open to students with New Zealand citizenship, who have studied full-time with AUT and are in the final year of their degree.
For further information, visit the Internz website.
Internz website