EIT scholarship will fuel Waipawa eco project

EIT Board Member and Chair of the Otātāra Trust Geraldine Travers (left) presenting the Margaret Hetley Scholarship to this year's winner, Jenni Coulson (right).

Winning the prestigious Margaret Hetley Scholarship for 2022 has given Waipawa's Jenni Coulson the opportunity to tackle her Master of Professional Creative Practice this year and research a project close to her heart.

The $2500 scholarship is in memory of Margaret Hetley, who gifted the land on which EIT Hawke's Bay is located, for tertiary education in the region. The scholarship is awarded annually by the Ōtātara Trust to assist women undertake tertiary study.

"The great thing is that it was a validation of the project I'm undertaking," Jenni says. "There's a lot of support for it already, so it was lovely to receive this."

Jenni is using her postgraduate degree through EIT's IDEAschool to develop her knowledge of ecologically resilient design, through permaculture in action on the family farm she grew up on in Waipawa, and now shares a part of with her partner Gigs.
Jenni's parents bought the original 40-acre lifestyle block just before she was born, with the intention of restoring the land.

"My parents' intention was to develop the wetland and riparian margins. They were trying to create a habitat, which I am sure is why I have gone in the direction I have."

Jenni had wanted to study architecture in Wellington after school but winning an EIT Year 13 Scholarship pushed her to enrol in the three- year Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design on the Hawke's Bay Campus in Taradale.

"I have always been interested in design and during the degree I was able to bring my interest about the environment into the projects that I chose to do."

This skills combination continued after EIT when Jenni got a job designing and building natural playgrounds nationwide for a company called Playscape. It was here that she met Gigs, who had a background in landscaping.

"We travelled around New Zealand for about two years to attend natural building workshops and in that process we also started learning more about permaculture.

"There were still 16 acres left on the farm that I grew up on, after the rest was sold. So, we ended up taking over ownership in 2019."

The couple have continued growing their knowledge of permaculture, doing a year-long Kai Oranga course on their local marae which taught them hua parakore principles - a kaupapa Māori system and framework for growing kai.

With that under her belt, Jenni has returned to EIT to complete her Masters, which she is basing on the farm project.

"Last year's task was to figure out the successional plan of the land. This year it's building on from that. The regenerative practices that we have started implementing mean we have quite an abundant garden now.

"We're trying to create a model to encourage the local community to be more aware of their environment and what they're eating, and how they're doing things.

"We are looking at what we're implementing on the land and how we can use that to create an income, in turn allowing us to continue building on our goals."

EIT careers adviser and member of the Margaret Hetley Scholarship Panel, Shelley Oliver, says Jenni stood out among the high standard of applications.

"Jenni is passionate about finding ways to better support our natural environment through sustainable and traditional practices. She will use this knowledge to empower and support others.

"We selected Jenni based on her letter of introduction, excellent references and community contribution. We were very impressed with the scope of her research and how it reflects the EIT values of sustainability."

The chair of the Otātāra Trust and EIT Board Member, Geraldine Travers, said "It gave me great pleasure to award the Margaret Hetley Scholarship to Jenni. Margaret was a woman ahead of her time, exhibited by her decision to leave her property for the building of a future tertiary institution for Hawke's Bay.

"Jenni's project and vision is similarly future focused."