Hope Mauchline has proved you don’t need to be always on campus to be the best.
Massey University agribusiness student Hope Mauchline has topped her year for the third time running – and what’s more, she’s achieved the feat as a full-time distance student. Colin Williscroft reports.
Hope Mauchline recently won the Ravensdown award for overall top third-year undergraduate student across agricultural, horticultural and agribusiness degrees at Massey.
The latest award comes on the back of receiving the Lord Bledisloe prize earlier this year for being the top student during her first two years of study.
Much of that has been achieved without spending much time at all on campus, as Mauchline studies from home on a sheep and beef farm near Whanganui.
Having completed most of her secondary schooling by correspondence, she is quite used to studying from home.
“I learned how to study when I was at correspondence school, so it just went from there,” Mauchline said.
“It (studying from home) gives you a lot more flexibility, to be able to go and work in places where you want to and not be stuck having to go into class.
“I’ve quite enjoyed it.”
She says it was also helped by the distance learning framework in place at Massey.
“You can still go on field trips, go into class to do labs and if you feel like it, go into a lecture with the internal students,” she said.
“It’s up to you what you want to do.
“In my last semester I was actually on campus for a lot of it, until covid.”
She says studying from home can also be more efficient, as it provides more time for either downtime or study, instead of having to travel to university and then go between classes.
On top of that, it had the benefit of being business as usual when covid caused the university to go into lockdown, forcing her fellow students into their own distance learning, even if it was only for a while.
Mauchline first moved to a farm with her family about seven years ago, although at the property where they currently live, about 7km out of Whanganui, they just rent the house.
That does not stop her lending a hand when she can.
“Every so often we’ll go and help the neighbour out with things like docking,” she said.
“We get a bit of a look into farming life and we quite enjoy that.”
She says living a rural lifestyle helped her get interested in farming, although she also studied agriculture through correspondence school.
“It was good to be able to see and understand the things that were happening on the farm when I was going through my schooling,” she said.
“It was a subject that I could identify with and see that this is actually real life and really interesting at the same time.”
As well as receiving the Ravensdown award, Mauchline’s dedication, discipline and obvious ability also won her the AgFirst award for the best practicum two report in this year’s awards.
She likes the practical side of her Bachelor of Agribusiness, majoring in farm management.
“I enjoy being out on the farm working with the animals, it’s the sort of major that gives an on-the-ground understanding of how the farm systems work, rather than something like international agribusiness, which is not so much on-the-ground learning about how the farm actually runs,” she said.
“We get to go out with case study farmers and spend the year working with them on interesting and valuable things like feed budgeting, or financial budgeting.
“I found that really useful.”
As for the future, Mauchline has no long-term plans but initially will return to Elco Direct Wool Buyers in Whanganui, where she worked during her last practical work placement.
That will only be during the upcoming shearing season, when the business will be busy.
After that, she hopes to find a job on a dairy farm near Whanganui.
She spent her first summer work placement a couple of years ago on a dairy farm but because she did not get a whole season’s worth of experience, would like to build on what she has already learned.
“I think it will be really valuable, if I was to go into a more professional role, to have a good practical understanding (of dairying) to support my theoretical knowledge,” she said.
Mauchline has no doubt about the importance of the primary sector to NZ and she wants to have a role in it.
“It’s the nuts and bolts of our whole economy,” she said.
“And I like being out there doing it. Just really enjoying nature and the animals and being able to be a part of all that.”
She sees a positive future for the rural sector in NZ.
“With covid coming in, the primary sector here is pretty well set up to keep chugging along through all that, so I’m pretty thrilled that’s the direction I’ve chosen to take,” she said.
She is also thrilled by her awards, although that does not mean she has plans for more study.
“I think I’ve had enough of that for the moment. People keep asking me if I’m going to do a Masters or do honours, and I’m like ‘no, too much study’,” she said.
Massey undergraduate award winners of ag and hort prizes 2021:
•YFC Sally Hobson award: Emma Ractliffe
•AgFirst practicum 1 award: Michelle Crawford
•AgFirst practicum 2 award: Hope Mauchline
•Massey equine student of the year: Joel Croucher
•LIC award for excellence in 2nd year animal science: Alexandra Pearson
•LIC award for excellence in 3rd year animal science: Kate Donald
•Zespri award for excellence in horticulture: Bram Paans
•NZIAHS leading agricultural science student: Troy Bosher
•Southern Cross horticulture awards for most proficient first-year students:
1st equal: Yeun An and Sarah Ridsdale
3rd: Fabiana Paludo de Souza
•Ballance Agri-Nutrients awards for most proficient second-year students:
1st: Erika Lilley
2nd: Katie Ervine
3rd: Danielle Brown
•Ravensdown awards for most proficient third-year students:
1st: Hope Mauchline
2nd: Chelsea Hopkins
3rd: Troy Bosher
•William Gerrish memorial awards (for excellence in farm management): Chelsea Hopkins and Bruce Donald
•Bayer Massey agriculture student of the year (chosen by fellow students for contribution to student wellbeing and reputation): Benjamin Crane
