Melissa James – Master of Applied Management
Publish Date: Thursday, 9 May 2024
Melissa James – Master of Applied Management

Master of Applied Management

  • Student Profiles, Marketing & Management
#Graduate #Student Profile #Te Reo Maori #Management

Melissa James’s insatiable desire to learn has seen her achieve a variety of academic qualifications over the past eight years; the latest is a Master of Applied Management which she received at the 2023 SIT Graduation Ceremony.

Melissa waited until her four sons were teenagers before she re-entered education in her forties. She enrolled at SIT in the Bachelor of Fashion (Design and Technology) and, after feeling like she’d not achieved much at high school, Melissa realised she could actually do well at study. “I surprised myself by getting As,” she said. “I discovered a love of learning and I just wanted to carry on.”

Melissa is currently a Programme Operations Manager with SIT2LRN, SIT’s distance learning faculty, managing a range of certificate and diploma programmes. Having held a variety of job roles within the institute over the past 11 years, and ‘walked the talk’ in taking on study as a mature learner, Melissa said “during my degree I discovered I like helping people to learn,” and she enjoys continuing to work in the tertiary education sector. 

Admitting she uses much of her available spare time in study, this year Melissa has also completed certificates in Te Reo Māori Levels 1 and 2, as well as three papers towards a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning Design. “I wanted to do te reo to be able support my three granddaughters as they learn the language at school,” and the learning design study combines many elements from her previous study and work. “Everything somehow feeds into each other,” said Melissa, and she enjoys “bringing it all together to improve what we can offer to SIT2LRN students.”

Aiming to cut back the study a bit in future “to spend a bit more time being Grandma”, Melissa has one more paper to complete next year for her learning design qualification. However, study is a hard habit to break when learning holds such a strong attraction and she admits there is a good possibility of more study in her future. Melissa says it’s her natural curiosity which fuels her - “there’s just so much out there to learn!”