Waikato Business News November/December 2022

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