Fiona Hely
Bachelor of Applied Science (Computational Modelling)
In the second year of Fiona Hely's Bachelor of Applied Science in computational modelling, she had her career sorted.
A summer internship led to part-time employment for the rest of her degree, and then a full-time job.
At high school Fiona loved the problem-solving aspects of maths and realised that computational modelling focused on that rather than pure mathematical theory.
“I wanted to be able to use my maths skills in practical applications for the real world.
“I'd never done any programming before starting at Otago, but I soon picked it up and I loved it.”
Fiona wasn't sure how her new skills would translate into employment — until she landed her first internship with agribusiness consultants AbacusBio.
“What I had learned helped with the work I had to do. I learned how I could apply my new skills in real situations, and the job made sense of work I had done at university.
“Some of the programming was very helpful for being able to set up simulations and designing systems.”
At the end of her internship, Fiona was offered the opportunity to keep working on some projects part-time.
“I really enjoyed it and wanted to keep doing it, so I was able to learn from study and work at the same time.”
Away from her degree, Fiona trained and competed in elite athletics, holding successive national titles as the fastest junior woman over 200m.
She also enjoyed taking interest papers in Japanese, German and sport psychology. “It meant each year I had my core papers and one other paper for fun.”
After an exchange semester in Canada at the end of her honours year, Fiona graduated and joined AbacusBio full time.
“I have more responsibility these days. I'm now a shareholder and working towards managerial roles and a partnership. I'm really enjoying it.”