25 June 2015 at 9:00 am
And the winners are…
On 1 May we launched the ‘Introduce a Friend’ competition, working with Immigration New Zealand, Air New Zealand and education institutions to contact all international students currently studying in New Zealand at a tertiary level, inviting them to enter the competition for the chance to introduce a friend from their home country and to their study life in New Zealand.
After three weeks 3,327 students had invited their friends from overseas to enter the competition. Entries flooded in from over 100 countries with the top entries coming from China, USA, India, Philippines, Brazil, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Then came the very difficult task of compiling a short list of ten pairs, and then narrowing that down further to five finalist pairs: Philippe and Rafael from Brazil, studying oceanography at University of Otago; Cherry and Daisy from China studying journalism and film at Victoria University of Wellington, Aprillia and Mira from Indonesia studying at business and law at the University of Auckland, Morgan and Alyssa from USA, studying marine and earth sciences at University of Canterbury and finally Lina and Thao from Viet Nam studying Resource and Hazard Management at Canterbury also.
The voting was intense with our USA, Brazilian and Chinese pairs exchanging first, second and third place throughout the process and over 6,000 votes being counted in total.
In the final days of voting, Cherry and Daisy launched ahead, sealing the number one spot.
An Education New Zealand film crew surprised Cherry at Victoria University of Wellington giving the good news, and she immediately skyped Daisy in China to share it. You can watch the video here It’s priceless.
What happens next?
Daisy is preparing to travel to New Zealand to join Cherry in mid-July. At ENZ, we’re planning the study adventure of a lifetime – showing the very best that New Zealand has to offer Cherry and Daisy in their nominated subject areas of interest (creative arts, journalism, film and education).
We’re also putting together a fantastic tourism schedule, starting with a few days in Wellington and a winter escape to Queenstown, thanks to our supporters at Air New Zealand. Our global social media audience will also help plan the trip – voting for what Daisy and Cherry will do in New Zealand, in exchange for prizes. During their ten day visit and we’ll follow Daisy and Cherry’s adventures – recording video diaries, capturing photos and uploading blog stories along the way.
While our winners are from China, they are excited to be the eyes and ears for prospective students all over the world and we know that they’ll do a fantastic job raising awareness of the New Zealand study experience. Watch this space! Facebook, Twitter & Weibo.
