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 then became a teacher aide at Mount Roskill Grammar School. I spent a good chunk of time in Maths, Literacy and English classrooms. I loved being in the classroom, working with students, and building relationships within the school community!
This led me to take the Ako Mātātupu/Teach First NZ teaching program, which I began in November 2021. I started teaching my own Mathematics classes in 2022 while studying towards my teaching degree, graduating at the end of 2023. I was also an associate dean in 2023, focusing on pastoral and behavioral issues within the school.
In 2024 I went back to the mathematics department to expand my curriculum knowledge and teach new year levels and new programs.
Contact
Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions or comments!