Charlotte Callaghan

Since high school, Charlotte Callaghan knew she wanted to study business.

After receiving the 'Ko Te Tangata' School Leaver Scholarship, Charlotte says she wanted to study at the University of Waikato’s Management School (WMS) because of its high rankings.

In 2022, WMS was named #1 in New Zealand for Business & Economics in the Times Higher Education Rankings, and is in the top 1% of business schools globally with its prestigious Triple Crown Accreditation.

“I was able to complete two internships during the four years of my BMS(Hons) degree, one of them at Foodstuffs and the other at Manta5, which gave me a lot more credibility and experience when applying for my first job,” Charlotte says.

“I like the smaller classroom sizes that Waikato offers; I really got to know my lecturers/ tutors, which made learning more enjoyable as I felt more comfortable speaking out in class.”

As part of the capstone paper for Strategic Management, Charlotte’s team were winners of the 49th WMS Case Competition, in which students had to devise a business growth strategy for Shift72, a global video streaming technology company.

“Our group spent hours in the library perfecting our strategy to present to the company and ended up winning the whole thing. This was definitely one of the proudest moments of my life.”

Now working full-time as a buyer at Foodstuffs North Island, Charlotte says she’s grateful for the opportunity to utilise what she’s learnt and put it into her career.