In news that’s sure to rip the grundies of the Media Design School students who recently showed off their portfolios to a range of creative big wigs at the 2010 end of year show (three creative pairs were snapped up beforehand), next year’s Adschool students will not only be honing their skills, they’ll also be competing for a new $5000 cash scholarship sponsored by specialist communications recruitment company Marsden Inch.
Marsden Inch creative partner Jeneal Rohrback, an occasional teacher at the school, says the company decided to offer the scholarship because it believed in nurturing young talent and “wanted to give something back to the industry”.
“I know the course is grounded on great principles and has the flair to bring on some of the best New Zealand creative talent around,” she says.
Either an individual student or a team of students can win the scholarship, as long as they are domestic students.
Communications manager Karen Tay says the school would rather the winners of the scholarship use the whack of cash for paying off their student loan, but understands students may prefer to use it more “creatively”.
“Some winners might like to use it for starting up their own business, which would be fine by us,” although anecdotal evidence suggests it is more likely to be used for a killer wardrobe, a beach holiday or a massive blowout.
Adschool is New Zealand’s longest-established creative advertising school. And it’s been a pretty good year, receiving global recognition when it was acknowledged as the fourth best advertising school in the world by Young Guns on account of the awards its students had won. No other New Zealand institution made the Young Guns list.
Winners of the inaugural cash scholarship will be announced at the Adschool end-of-year graduation show next year. The scholarship will be awarded by Marsden Inch and AdSchool course leader Kate Humphries.
