Doreen Smart Scholarship - Eth's story

As the recipient of the AAPNZ Doreen Smart Scholarship in 2009 I felt honoured. I had applied for several scholarships through the university process for support in undertaking my thesis research and had not received any of them. It felt so good to be valued by my peers.

The money from the scholarship was used to help me fund the focus groups which I held in Hamilton and Christchurch where I and my group facilitator had to attend at both locations twice and the cost of one of those was largely covered by the scholarship.

The focus groups provided the critical deep qualitative data for my research and helped me to achieve a pass with merit.  Today I still refer to many aspects of the research results and they give weight to any discussion I am having around professional development, career pathways and administrative professionals.

The Doreen Smart Scholarship is there for all members to apply for to achieve their professional development goal. When you choose to do it is a personal choice as is whether you chose to do so. However, the support provided by the Scholarship was invaluable, thank you. My achievement was made more manageable because of being the Doreen Smart Scholarship 2009 recipient.

Eth Lloyd M.Ed. AAPNZ (Life, Fellow, Cert.)

Email: eth.lloyd@paradise.net.nz