Marlise De Vries

Being half a world away from home in South Africa, Marlise De Vries has discovered that Rotorua is a fun and
interactive city.

While visiting New Zealand, Marlise came across Waiariki’s Mokoia Campus and fell in love with the cultural feel.
She decided that it would be a great opportunity to study in New Zealand and at Waiariki Institute of Technology,
and set about researching what was offered. She was pleasantly surprised when she found the Bachelor of Computing Systems was on offer.

Marlise has recently finished her degree and says she thoroughly enjoyed learning about her passion and interest.

“I enjoyed the networking paper the best as it was such a fun topic to learn. All of the new things I learned were
taught in a fun and interactive way so I was always interested in what was going on. I also had help from the tutors
when I needed it. They were always available if I didn’t understand things.”

In her spare time Marlise went to a lot of the local attractions and enjoyed them immensely. In Rotorua she was spoiled for choice with activities such as the Zorb, the luge and Whakarewarewa Forest.

“My favourite part about Rotorua was getting to pat a lion cub, it was so exciting. Also the place is so green too; everything looks so fresh and nice. The people were nice as well. Everyone is so friendly and willing to help.”

Marlise would love to go back to South Africa and utilise the skills she gained while at Waiariki. She would love to contribute to the computer industry in her country and show everyone the new things she has learned.