Jarrod Broughton

The straight-A Bachelor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences with Honours student received numerous accolades throughout his studies and is now working as an entry-level systems engineer at OneNet, a Cloud Computing company in Auckland, where he hopes to move into cyber security.

“I believe my grades helped me get the job,” Jarrod says.

Jarrod was the recipient of the Computing and Mathematical Sciences Prize for Excellence, formerly the FCMS Dean’s Award for Excellence, established to recognise the best students at each level.

He also received the Euler Prize in Mathematics for most outstanding second-year students, the Vice-Chancellor's Adult Learners Awards, and the Discovery Scholarship from the MacDiarmid Institute for Māori and Pacific Island students in tertiary science.

“My experience as an adult learner has been excellent. I have had excellent mathematics department mentors who are always eager to help. I can see a big space between where I was and where I am now and every year that gets bigger and bigger and that’s what I love.”

Almost 10 years ago, Jarrod enrolled in a Bachelor of Social Sciences, before he dropped out and started a successful career in forestry across Australia and New Zealand for Pinetech Pacific where he learnt about self-discipline and getting things done.

“I was young and immature, a completely different person during my first attempt at University. I would go out every weekend with no discipline or focus. I missed exams because I got the days wrong and that’s never good.”

The next decade of reading books, listening to podcasts and spending hours studying online to improve his mathematics and writing made his second attempt at tertiary study more successful.

“I was so bad at mathematics in high school, I had to learn from a Year 11 level.

“I’ve always wanted to get a set of skills that are hard to acquire so I’m valuable, so I went back to study.”

BCMS(Hons) is no longer offered at Waikato, however, two popular three-year Mathematics and Computer Science programmes are on offer, including the Bachelor of Computer Science and the Bachelor of Science in either Mathematics or Computer Science (or both if you choose to do a double-major).