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Hi, I’m Daniel! Kia ora, ko Daniel ahau! ¡Hola, soy Daniel!

A picture of me (Daniel) standing in a door way
A picture of me (Daniel) standing in a door way

Early Career

I am interested and driven, both professionally and personally. I started my career in the NZ Army as an electronic technician, and was deployed to Timor Leste and worked in a sole charge position with the New Zealand Special Air Service, managing almost any electronic issue that came up in the camp. I fell in love with Melbourne, and decided to move over and pursue a career in IT, and started with a small company called iVision, which was purchased by Telstra. I moved into a level 2 role after nine months, due to my ability to learn quickly and my strong work ethic.

Work, Beyond Work

Outside of daily work I have also been active in trying new ideas, starting a web design partnership called Pixel Ninjas with my good friend, and fellow technology lover, Phil. We have developed, designed, and supported our customers’ web sites, and I have set up the invoicing and quoting templates and procedures and managed the end of year compliance reporting. I have also done some volunteer work. I helped Oxfam New Zealand to update their privacy policy and implement an SMS based tool for updating records. For Greenpeace New Zealand, I automated a task to that almost eliminated manual processing (effectively ending the role!).

Travel

I have traveled extensively, including a lot of Latin America, Asia, New Zealand and Australia. I was raised and went to a multicultural school in South Auckland, New Zealand; I work well with people from all cultures and backgrounds. I love learning about different cultures and different peoples’ perspectives on the world, including languages. I speak conversationally fluent Spanish, after studying in Australia and Latin America, and very basic te reo Māori.

Study

All of the aforementioned experiences led me to study, initially completing a Bachelor of Arts (Social Sciences), at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). In 2019, I received a Postgraduate Honours Scholarship and completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Politics and International Relations, at the University of Auckland. I’ve also recently (November 2021) completed a Certificate in Science in Technology, at Massey University, to do enough mathematics papers to teach Mathematics at secondary level.

Teaching

My first experience of teaching gave me a real buzz! At AUT, I initially worked as a peer mentor, helping fellow students out with academic skills and working with them to complete assignments. Later I became a teaching assistant, teaching first and second year social science papers.

I am currently working as a teacher aide at Mount Roskill Grammar School. I am currently in Maths, Literacy and English classrooms. I love being in the classroom, working with students, and building relationships within the school community!

I also applied (and was accepted) into the Ako Mātātupu/Teach First NZ teaching program, which will begin in November 2021. I begin teaching my own Mathematics classes in 2022.

Contact

Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions or comments!