Dr Jennie Coleman ... Principal of Aurum Academics ... was a first generation tertiary student.

Stubborn determination to follow her dreams of a university education led her down a series of long, bumpy roads.

Born and brought up in Canterbury, on the family farm established by an immigrant great-grandfather, she rejected her school-leaver options of salaried training and guaranteed employment. After minimal first-year university success and tentative explorations in other academic disciplines, Jennie ultimately succumbed to the temptation of her one of her passions in life: music.

But before graduating Mus B (Hons) from the University of Otago, Jennie discovered another passion - that of teaching. And so began an almost continuous involvement with young people and their learning. Always willing to accept a fresh challenge, Jennie's teaching career has embraced some wild extremes: from the remoteness of the South Island's West Coast to the vitality of London; from the exclusivity of the English Preparatory School and subsequent Private Grammar School to one of the largest rural South Island state secondary schools; from University Entrance Biology to 'O' Level English Literature; and whilst researching an interdisciplinary doctoral thesis at the University of Otago, tutoring and lecturing in the departments of Music and History.

Always mindful of her origins, and in response to her own struggles down those long, bumpy academic roads, Jennie purposely focused on the transition from secondary to tertiary education in her Post Graduate Diploma in Tertiary Teaching. Emphasis on the experiences of first generation university students reflects her own experiences.

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