Nuffield Testimonials
From a personal experience, it’s been one of the most positively disruptive things that I’ve ever done.
You get pulled apart and put back together, you realize that you have one mouth and two ears and they should be used in that sort of proportion!
It is just an amazing experience and I would recommend anyone seriously considering the opportunity to be able to do one.
Kylie Leonard
2023 Nuffield Scholar
The Nuffield experience for me has been a huge opportunity, something that takes a lot of time and is a big investment in yourself.
It is a very unique opportunity to grow your own ability, connections, knowledge. And it’s something that I feel very fortunate to have been part of and to have had that opportunity.
It will be something that is a foundation for the future of our business and the future of the contribution that I can hopefully make back into the industry.
Matt Iremonger
2023 Nuffield Scholar
I can’t really describe the scope that it offers, it would blow your mind! You’ll meet people and resolve questions that you didn’t even know you had.
For anybody who really wants to stretch their understanding of an issue beyond what’s possible within the capacity of your own networks, this will totally do that.
Nuffield opens the door to the global network of people who know people and know research and supply chains, and literally anything you could possibly want to know.
I wholeheartedly recommend it to anybody who has those kind of questions.
Kerry Worsnop
2023 Kellogg Scholar
To me, Nuffield is the pinnacle of exploring what can be in agriculture around the world.
I think if you’re curious about trends and opportunities in agriculture, and you want to make a difference in New Zealand for our primary industry, Nuffield is the pinnacle of what you can do.
James Allen
2023 Nuffield Scholar
“The Nuffield Scholarship is a special programme with a great history and run by great people. Looking back over my scholarship year, to say the experience has been immensely rewarding seems like an understatement. I can’t speak highly enough of my Nuffield experience.
Throughout my time as a scholar there were countless inspiring interactions – developing my knowledge and understanding of our agriculture sector, its opportunities, and its challenges.
The scholarship stretches you as a person – it gave me the chance to meet with innovators and industry leaders, to participate in discussions with them and then develop critical thinking through group work and through individual reports.”
John Foley
2021 Nuffield Scholar
“The only constant in life is change! This has certainly been the theme of my Scholarship. I was privileged to receive a Nuffield and looked forward to the positive disruption it would bring to my life through international experiences. Then a global pandemic hit.
It would have been easy to mourn the loss of what might’ve been, but in truth this was a chance to learn to adapt quickly, turn challenge into opportunity, and grow as a person. To this end, with the passionate, dedicated team at Rural Leaders, I was able to be part of helping shape the future of the New Zealand Scholarship with the creation of the ‘Global Tour of NZ’.
If you’re considering applying for a Scholarship, you should know that at times it will be challenging, daunting, and even frustrating. You will have to push yourself, but the rewards for doing so will be life changing. It has been for me.
Nuffield will open your mind through interactions with the inspiring, passionate, and talented people within the alumni network. This is something that simply cannot be replicated anywhere else.”
Ben McLauchlan
2020 Nuffield Scholar
Older Nuffield Testimonials
Daniel Eb – 2021
Tracy Brown – 2020
Shannon Harnett – 2020
Corrigan Sowman – 2019
Solis Norton – 2018
Rebecca Hyde – 2017
It is easy to see your life and your circumstances as a barrier to completing a Nuffield, but if I have learnt one thing as a business owner and working mum with three small children, it is that the only barriers stopping you are the ones you put up yourself.”
The confidence I have gained to explore and test ideas is largely due to the people that I met during my Nuffield travels. These extraordinary people, who perceive what they are doing to be ordinary, influenced what I now think is possible. Being part of the Nuffield programme has provided me with the knowledge, networks and confidence to help drive New Zealand agribusiness into a bright future.”
Beyond this I have had almost daily opportunities to either draw or reflect on that experience in order to make a meaningful contribution to primary sector issues and discussions. Nuffield has provided me with the confidence to step into the breech and engage with the challenges facing NZ’s growers and farmers and to test new solutions and insights with primary sector leaders and influencers.”
If you’re hungry to learn and are prepared to take on significant shifts in your thinking to bring back to the New Zealand Primary Industry, then a Nuffield Scholarship is for you – it’s what you make it. The more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it. Go for it and give it everything you’ve got.”
The strength of agriculture globally is the willingness of its people to share ideas to allow different countries to learn from each other. Whether it is meeting with world trade negotiators in Switzerland or learning from a silk worm farmer in southern India, a Nuffield Scholarship allows you access to that. During my scholarship I have gained an invaluable network of contacts and many genuine friends that will stay with me for life.
Doing “a Nuffield” has far exceeded my expectations and has been an invaluable experience in so many ways. At times it has been challenging but it has also been one of the most rewarding experiences that I have had and I would have no hesitation recommending a Nuffield Scholarship to others.”
Our programmes work in partnership with some of New Zealand’s leading agribusiness organisations – click here for more.
