After recent Nuffield strategic work, the Rural Leaders Team and the NZRLT Board have identified five highly desirable core attributes of a Nuffield Scholar. These won’t come as any great surprise to Nuffield Alumni, but articulating these simply has been a valuable exercise, especially as our 2023 Scholarship search is set to begin.
Here are the five attributes any scholar selection process will look for in terms of evidence that they exist or have the potential to emerge in an applicant.
Bold
The will to step forward, be willing to challenge conventional thinking, to act, to make decisions with confidence.
Innovative
Someone who can develop and express original thinking and ideas.
Motivated
Driven to go above and beyond to accomplish a goal. Someone who can find the energy and confidence needed to do so.
Perceptive
Possesses the cognitive, observational, and critical thinking abilities to assess challenges and generate usable insights.
Community-minded
Motivated to contribute to community by collaborating and sharing skills, knowledge, experience, and ideas, forging ever-stronger connections with people and place.
Six Alumni to help with this years’ Scholar search.
We’re fortunate to have so many inspiring alumni to help us drive this years’ scholar search. We’ll need to represent as many industries as possible as well as show the changing face of food and fibre.
From the Catlins to Nelson – Scholars photographed doing their thing.
We set off a on a road trip recently to capture a few Nuffield Alumni – in their natural habitat.
From a time and budget perspective, travel was kept in the South Island. We hope to make it up to the North Island as well at some stage.
There are still many industries not yet represented – we’ve done our best for now covering: Aquaculture, dairy, sheep and beef, horticulture, agri-business, and more broadly, entrepreneurialism.
A big thank you to the Nuffield Alumni that agreed to help us with this shoot. Your generosity with your time and the effort you made was greatly appreciated. Those images shown, or some like them, will be used in advertising for the upcoming 2023 search. Here’s a preview.
Kate Scott, 2018 Nuffield Scholar
While much of Kate’s work is done indoors these days, running her business Landpro, she has a background in resource management planning, part of which involves testing water. We wanted to show Kate outside, on the land, doing the work she did when she started her business in 2007.
Kate balances a young family with work and involvement with organisations outside of work too, such as being Chair of the New Zealand Rural Leadership Trust.
Julian Raine, 1997 Nuffield Scholar
Julian is involved in both the horticulture and dairy industries. For the purposes of this campaign, we captured Julian in one of his apple orchards near Richmond, in Marlborough. Julian is also partners with fellow Nuffield Scholar Murray King in Appleby Ice-cream.
One of Julian’s dairy farms was recently recognised by the SPCA for infrastructure aiding animal well-being. He has an eye on the future too, making at least a third of his orchards robot-ready.
Lynsey Stratford, 2021 Nuffield Scholar
Lynsey is a non-practising lawyer involved in her local rural community. She is a consultant for her business Primary People, which provides people management and development services to the primary sector.
We wanted to shoot Lynsey out with husband Chris on their dairy farm, situated in a unique part of the country at Curio Bay in Southland. Here, they have also recently covenanted 30 hectares of incredible bushland.
Andy Elliot, 2018 Nuffield Scholar
Andy is based in Nelson, Marlborough and is Research and Business Development Manager at Wakatū. He is at the cutting edge of aquaculture research and far from being daunted by the need for a lab, he created his own at the Cawthron Aquaculture Park. He is currently developing several projects.
Andy was also recently appointed to the Investment Advisory Panel for Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures.
Desiree Reid-Whitaker, 2010 Nuffield Scholar
Desiree is a former dairy farmer who learned the craft of whiskey distillation from some of the world’s best. Returning home to New Zealand, she spent six months finding the right location to build the Cardrona Distillery.
We wanted to capture Desiree in a beautiful environment loaded with visual clues that she has built everything in the most authentic way, not the easiest way.
Hamish Murray, 2019 Nuffield Scholar
Hamish farms sheep, cattle, and runs a substantial honey operation at Bluff Station, near Kaikoura. The station is as visually beautiful as it is vast and is run by an exceptional team of people. No surprises there, as Hamish is just as passionate about his own growth as he is about his team’s.
We were spoiled for choice at Bluff Station, the landscape is a photographer’s dream. The goal was to capture Hamish working – in this case moving cattle.
