Waikato Business News November/December 2022
Waikato Business News has for a quarter of a century been the voice of the region’s business community, a business community with a very real commitment to innovation and an ethos of co-operation.
Waikato Business News has for a quarter of a century been the voice of the region’s business community, a business community with a very real commitment to innovation and an ethos of co-operation.
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4 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER <strong>2022</strong><br />
EarthDiverse enriching<br />
lives through learning<br />
A relative newcomer on the block,<br />
EarthDiverse came up trumps at the<br />
<strong>2022</strong> Hamilton CBD business awards in<br />
the Public Good category.<br />
An adult and community<br />
education provider<br />
and not-for-profit<br />
social enterprise, EarthDiverse<br />
offer a wide range of diversity<br />
education courses in both the<br />
social and natural sciences.<br />
The brainchild of long time<br />
educators Todd Nachowitz<br />
and Nona Morris, their overarching<br />
goal is to provide programmes<br />
designed to broaden<br />
worldviews, which in turn<br />
will mitigate racism, discrimination<br />
and environmental<br />
degradation, and very importantly,<br />
to promote the joys of<br />
following an interest, learning<br />
new things, sharing ideas,<br />
and engaging in meaningful<br />
discussions.<br />
“The idea behind EarthDiverse<br />
is to provide community-based<br />
diversity education<br />
in both the cultural diversity<br />
space and in environmental<br />
diversity. We look at it in terms<br />
of a two-way street so we can<br />
do community education for<br />
the community, but we also<br />
encourage education by the<br />
community,” Nona says.<br />
Now based in Anglesea<br />
Street, like many not-for-profits<br />
EarthDiverse started life<br />
at the couple’s home, moving<br />
around various temporary<br />
locations before settling in the<br />
CBD.<br />
“It was our growth that precipitated<br />
the move. In the last<br />
place we only had two classrooms<br />
and we've grown so<br />
much in the last year that we've<br />
now got six different classrooms<br />
and we have a number<br />
of teachers that are zooming<br />
from their own spaces as well,”<br />
Todd says.<br />
They currently offer over<br />
150 different courses in the<br />
broad categories of language,<br />
culture and nature on a rotating<br />
basis, with new courses<br />
introduced each term.<br />
Courses are open, affordable<br />
and accessible to anyone,<br />
anywhere and they welcome<br />
learners and qualified instructors<br />
from around the globe.<br />
“One of the silver linings<br />
that has come out of the pandemic<br />
is that people are much<br />
more familiar now with using<br />
modern technologies than they<br />
were three years ago. We were<br />
already providing access for<br />
Zoom audiences before Covid<br />
hit, so we were well poised to<br />
continue our courses without<br />
interruption during the lockdowns.<br />
After the lockdowns,<br />
we picked up on that wave of<br />
people saying, ‘you know - it's<br />
a cold, wet, rainy winter night.<br />
I don't feel like going out. I’ll<br />
just log in from the comfort of<br />
my home with a cup of tea and<br />
listen to a great lecture,’” Todd<br />
says.<br />
With learning for the joy<br />
of learning at the forefront of<br />
how the courses are designed,<br />
there are no assignments or<br />
assessments, just a 1.5 hour<br />
class each week that can be<br />
attended in person (depending<br />
on the tutor), online at the time<br />
of the class, or via a recording<br />
of the class if they are unable to<br />
attend at the scheduled course<br />
time.<br />
There are no criteria for<br />
enrolment, so regardless of<br />
prior learning, age or any other<br />
barrier to a pathway to learning,<br />
an EarthDiverse course is<br />
open to all.<br />
“What's unique about what<br />
we're offering is accessibility,<br />
affordability, and learning<br />
without the pressures of<br />
a formal school system. Yes,<br />
you can go to a university and<br />
enrol in papers that discuss<br />
diversity and yes, there are<br />
some great programmes in<br />
the social sciences and in the<br />
languages, but, to access these<br />
courses, you have to apply to<br />
get accepted, pay the university<br />
fees, do the hard work<br />
- assignments, exams, tutorials<br />
- in order to walk out with<br />
the knowledge. What we are<br />
saying is this content should<br />
be accessible to anybody that<br />
wants it. Both of us felt, from<br />
our teaching years, it shouldn’t<br />
be so stressful to learn about<br />
something that interests you.<br />
You should be able to say, ‘I<br />
want to learn this language,’<br />
and, for a low cost and no<br />
assessment pressures, be able<br />
to access the knowledge you<br />
want in a stress-free environment,”<br />
Nona says.<br />
Developing new courses<br />
means two things: listening<br />
to what tutors have to offer in<br />
the subjects that they are passionate<br />
about, and listening to<br />
what the community wants and<br />
finding someone passionate to<br />
teach those particular topics.<br />
While many of the lecturers<br />
are seasoned teachers, Nona<br />
guides and mentors some of<br />
the very knowledgeable individuals<br />
leading the non-language<br />
courses, who perhaps<br />
are less experienced in teaching,<br />
to develop courses that are<br />
Renee delivers 20 years<br />
with Aramex<br />
For more than two<br />
decades, Renee Bennett<br />
has played an integral<br />
part in delivering for Aramex<br />
customers.<br />
First joining the business<br />
when it was still Fastway Couriers<br />
in 1999, Renee found a<br />
passion for the courier industry<br />
and the logistics of moving<br />
freight.<br />
Promoted several times for<br />
an outstanding work ethic and<br />
can-do attitude, Renee made<br />
an essential contribution to the<br />
Aramex Covid response efforts.<br />
Now as head of operations<br />
for Aramex <strong>Waikato</strong>, Renee is<br />
a highly valued member of the<br />
team, recognised for more than<br />
20 years of dedicated service.<br />
“I have loved every step of<br />
my journey at Aramex,” Renee<br />
says. “While there were times<br />
that were challenging, especially<br />
through the Covid-19<br />
pandemic, I really enjoy my<br />
job and my team plays a huge<br />
part in that.”<br />
Fastway Couriers, one of<br />
New Zealand's oldest courier<br />
businesses, adopted the brand<br />
name of its international parent<br />
company Aramex in 2019.<br />
Established in Hawke's Bay<br />
in 1983 by Bill McGowan, Fastway<br />
Couriers New Zealand has<br />
18 regional franchisees with<br />
more than 250 courier franchisees<br />
from the Far North<br />
District to Bluff in the South<br />
Island.<br />
Aramex, a Dubai-based<br />
logistics group, which has<br />
a presence in 72 countries,<br />
transporting nearly 70 million<br />
parcels globally each year,<br />
bought Fastway Couriers New<br />
Renee Bennett<br />
Pepa Torre, Todd Nachowitz, Nona Morris and Eva Bernabe-Bernardo<br />
sometimes quirky but always<br />
interesting. This includes all of<br />
the junior lecturers who are in<br />
their teens and early 20s,<br />
Courses are<br />
open, affordable<br />
and accessible to<br />
anyone<br />
“We have a 20 year old<br />
junior lecturer, Michael Burton<br />
Smith, who loves history<br />
and birds equally. Together,<br />
we created a course called ‘The<br />
Social History of Birds’, looking<br />
at how humans and birds<br />
have interacted over time, in a<br />
number of different contexts.<br />
Then he came up with the<br />
idea for another course called<br />
‘The Birds of World War I’ in<br />
which he veered away from<br />
what happened to the humans<br />
in wartime, and instead asked<br />
what happened to the birds<br />
on the Western Front? It was<br />
a absolutely fascinating exploration<br />
of the impacts of war on<br />
nature,” Nona says.<br />
The same process of<br />
instructor mentoring happens<br />
with the language courses.<br />
Language director Cristina<br />
Schumacher individually<br />
works with the newest language<br />
instructors to use a distinctive<br />
intuitive grammar curriculum<br />
that she has developed, which<br />
emphasises understanding the<br />
patterns in the language rather<br />
than on rote learning.<br />
In the corporate space,<br />
EarthDiverse offers tailor-made<br />
professional development<br />
in cultural diversity for<br />
business.<br />
“Next month we have a<br />
professional development programme<br />
that caters to businesses<br />
called ‘Doing <strong>Business</strong><br />
in China’. And as we move into<br />
next year, we'll be doing a variety<br />
of other ‘doing business’<br />
workshops. But we also cater to<br />
and have done quite a number<br />
of professional development<br />
seminars for individual organisations,<br />
groups, businesses,<br />
associations, who want multicultural<br />
training in any of a<br />
wide variety of subjects,” Todd<br />
says.<br />
With many businesses<br />
staffed by people from different<br />
ethnicities these days,<br />
EarthDiverse can also design<br />
programmes to help breach the<br />
Our team<br />
DESIGNER<br />
Warren Gilbertson<br />
studio@dpmedia.co.nz<br />
DESIGNER<br />
Ellie Neben<br />
ellie@dpmedia.co.nz<br />
EDITORIAL<br />
Janine Jackson<br />
editor@dpmedia.co.nz<br />
ADVERTISING<br />
MANAGER<br />
Joanne Poole<br />
Ph: (07) 838 1333<br />
Mob: (021) 507 991<br />
joanne@dpmedia.co.nz<br />
gaps in understanding.<br />
“We have the academic<br />
resources and the access to<br />
such an incredible range of<br />
teachers. We can design anything<br />
from language workshops<br />
to cultural, historical<br />
and religious diversity courses<br />
to ecology seminars,” Nona<br />
says.<br />
While EarthDiverse sits in<br />
a unique educational space,<br />
Nona says, they are not replicating<br />
what is already on offer<br />
in New Zealand.<br />
“We're not going to compete<br />
for other people's students.<br />
Our goal is to fill the needs that<br />
exist. For example, we partner<br />
with the Talents of the Pacific<br />
Academy (TOPA) . They teach<br />
multiple Pacific language and<br />
cultural classes across Polynesia,<br />
Melanesia and Micronesia,<br />
with an emphasis on gafa<br />
(whakapapa), song, dance and<br />
history. We promote them,<br />
because people need to have<br />
access to their knowledge<br />
and skills. We want to build<br />
this kind of collaborative way<br />
of thinking about education<br />
because ultimately, it benefits<br />
all of our futures.”<br />
To find out more<br />
about EarthDiverse visit<br />
earthdiverse.org.nz.<br />
PUBLISHER<br />
Deidre Morris<br />
Ph: (07) 838 1333<br />
Mob: 027 228 8442<br />
deidre@dpmedia.co.nz<br />
STUDIO<br />
Copy/Proofs:<br />
studio@dpmedia.co.nz<br />
SUBSCRIPTIONS<br />
accounts@dpmedia.co.nz<br />
2/1 Riro Street, Hamilton<br />
Ph: (07) 838 1333<br />
www.wbn.co.nz<br />
-<br />
www.dpmedia.co.nz