2010 Student Profile

Jade Carey is dancing her way through her Bachelor of Arts.

For Jade, studying at a university in her home-town meant being able to continue dancing with her dance group in Hamilton at the same time as getting a world-class education.

Coming from Hillcrest High School in Hamilton straight to Waikato University was a pretty smooth transition for Jade, who is studying a double major in Political Science and English."I liked the sound of the arts papers and heard that Waikato was supposed to be a good university to attend," Jade says. "I've been able to fit my studies around dance times, which is really important to me."

"I love to dance. I've been dancing for 10 years now. I've done tap, American jazz, hip hop, contemporary and B.A.L Jazz. I'm also in a performance group so that takes up a bit of my spare time when we have shows to do. Studying at Waikato, close to home, means I'm able to continue with that, which is great."

Jade says her studies are both useful and interesting. "I want to get into Journalism so English is an obvious choice and Political Science will help too. It was also just a subject I enjoyed in my first year.  Thanks to my studies I know more about certain subjects than I did before. And I'm more interested in the things that I'm studying."

Among the many things Jade likes about studying at Waikato, it's taking her education into her own hands that gives her the most enjoyment.

"The freedom is great. I like that you can do your own thing and are not forced to do anything you don't want to. If you can't make it to a class it's not a big deal, you can catch up later."

"In fact, I haven't yet had any negative experiences at Waikato; it's a great place to be.  I'd tell anyone considering a degree here to definitely pick Waikato, as it's a great place to study and has awesome programmes for many different fields."