"English was my favourite subject at school. I always loved words, creative writing, discursive writing. I did a lot of creative writing papers, and the sheer fact of reading so much for my literature degree was helpful, I think.
"I did psychology because I find it fascinating. I was doing a bit of reading on my first tour, I think I picked up a psychology book in some random bookshop in Germany and I thought it was fascinating. I found it helpful for dealing with some of the characters in the music industry!"
Marvelly was the sole arts student in Massey's high-performance programme, which mainly supports top sports people.
"If I had a tour to go on and I had to sit an exam, they were able to authorise my manager to supervise me to do the exam," she said. "If I had any issues or questions they were able to help out."
Marvelly's parents and close family friends from Rotorua will attend her graduation at the Bruce Mason Centre in Takapuna on Thursday. Through her mother she is related to Sir Howard Morrison.
"He used to tell the story that we had a common ancestor two or three generations ago," she said.
Since releasing her EP Collisions last July, she has been writing more songs but said she wanted to get them right before releasing them.
"I thought like I really wanted to release Collisions," she said. "Now I don't feel the time pressure and I want to wait until the music is really, really ready."
She is also working with collaborators internationally on a new online media site for young women launching next month, www.villainesse.com.
"It's an online media project that aims to create no-filter smart media for young women," she said.
"It's necessarily broad because media now is so much more multi-faceted than it was under traditional media. It could be anything from articles to podcasts to anything, really, and focusing on a younger female audience.
"The real aim of the site is for empowerment. I think there have been some really fascinating things around the world - with the United Nations, with [actress] Emma Watson, it's just part of the broader landscape. It's a good time for young women, I think."
Marvelly is one of 1205 Massey students receiving their degrees in six ceremonies spanning four days at Takapuna. Twenty-five PhDs and 197 master's degrees will be conferred, with one of the PhD candidates, Sione Vaka, the first Tongan male nurse to receive a doctorate in nursing.
Commonwealth Games 400m sprinter and hurdler Zoe Ballantyne will graduate in the same ceremony with a Bachelor of Communications.
It will also be an auspicious celebration for the College of Health, alongside Mr Vaka's graduation the first cohort of nursing students from the Auckland campus will also graduate. Pro Vice-Chancellor of the College of Health Professor Paul McDonald said all nursing graduates were hired within weeks of completing their course.
Maori graduates will be honoured on 6.30 pm tomorrow and a Pasifika celebration will be on Thursday at 6pm.
Massey streams its graduation ceremonies live on the internet here.
