Marina Doretto

A desire to upskill in her profession saw Marina Doretto leave her native Brazil to begin postgraduate studies at Waikato Management School. Since returning home, she's been spreading the word about the high-quality studies she experienced.

Marina was working in online media in São Paulo when she started getting itchy feet. She knew she wanted to work in online marketing and advertising, but felt she needed further qualifications to get ahead.

"I was in this world where I was unable to understand the terms being used. Sometimes I felt excluded and it was really frustrating. Also, I knew that to have a better competitive advantage I needed to have a specialisation from an English-speaking country," she says.

"I did some research and found out that Waikato Management School had partnerships with other good business schools in Brazil, and they also had Triple Crown accreditation, so I thought, why not?"

Marina decided to enrol at the University of Waikato for a Master of Management Studies majoring in Marketing.

Campus life suited Marina. She made loads of friends living in the halls of residence during her first year, was a regular at the UniRec gym, worked at a bar in town, and was involved in AISEC, a youth-driven global network of young professionals.

"I also travelled around New Zealand when I could. Being in Hamilton, it's so easy to travel around and it's close to great beaches and Auckland. I just had the best time."

Marina's now putting her marketing education and skills to great use back home in Brazil as a brand performance insights lead for General Motors.

To Marina, her job is one big highlight. "I'm combining all of my skills in finance, marketing and analysis, as well as being able to speak fluent English, to the benefit of the company I work for," she says.

Marina raves about the time she spent at the University of Waikato. "In class, the students weren't just spectators, and you needed to have done your readings - which were actually pretty interesting - to be able to interact with each other in class."

Marina's not one to delve too far into the future, but she does know she'll continue to do what she loves in the years to come. "Regardless of where I end up, I'd like to be working at a great company, with devoted and intelligent people, doing marketing, and having as much fun as I'm having now."