Red-eyed road to graduation
Seven Sharp journalist Billie Jo Ropiha has been hard at work earning her masters, being a mum, working fulltime and is now launching her own product.
For the last ‘‘two and a bit’’ years the reporter has kept up a strict study regime, and yesterday she graduated from Massey University with a masters of business.
‘‘You wake up at 4am, and I sat there in my sleeping bag and my son who was 6 would come out at 5 in the morning and hop into my sleeping bag while I’m typing away.
‘‘It’s either 4am or you’re working from 7 to midnight. You have to be confident and be diligent.’’
More than 450 graduates marched through Palmerston North from Broadway Ave to The Square yesterday, following three graduation ceremonies.
Ropiha, whose iwi are Ngᾱpuhi, Mahurehure and Te Ᾱti Awa, enrolled because she wanted to take on new projects to make her mark on the world.
‘‘I always come up with ideas, but I didn’t have the knowledge and confidence – so I thought ‘if you’re going to do it, go big, get the business nous’.’’
Her thesis tested email communication weaknesses, to explore whether a state-run email system with verified lifelong addresses issued to every resident could strengthen important communication.
‘‘You’ve got 13 agencies of government ... they still need a physical address, but people don’t always have one.
‘‘So how do you get that mail to someone that’s nomadic? Imagine if you’d been tested for cancer through the district health board, but you shifted. How do they find you to tell you that you need to get to a doctor urgently?’’
She would love to see her system, Gridmail, developed and used, and said it could help Inland Revenue collect more taxes, help the health system keep people healthy, and help social agencies work with families going through tricky times.
But right now another project is about to burst into fruition.
Twenty-four years ago her father developed a new tool, and he has been ‘‘testing’’ it since then. She is reluctant to give away details, but hopes to launch it by March.
‘‘No way would I have had the confidence and knowledge to back myself before.
‘‘But I am capable, I can go out there and learn, or ask.’’
Sociologist Professor Graeme Fraser received the university’s highest honour, the Massey Medal.
He was recognised for his 50-year contribution, from pioneering work in social sciences to championing distance education.