Top students recognised at inaugural ceremony

Top students from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences were recognised at the inaugural Outstanding Achiever Award ceremony on Friday.

Thirty-six students achieved an 8.0 Grade Point Average (A grade or above) in college programmes for the 2011 academic year.

The award recipients are from all three campuses and distance learners throughout New Zealand and Australia.

Tianxi Yin, 23, a second-year Bachelor of Resource and Environmental planning student was the college’s top student with a GPA of 8.875.

Mr Yin completed eight papers in 2011 and received seven A+ and one A. “It’s unbelievable really,” Mr Yin said. “I’m also very proud of myself. I’ve worked really hard over the last year, and I’m very grateful to all my lecturers for being really supportive.”

The 23-year-old, who is from China and a New Zealand resident, said he wanted to study at Massey University as the planning programme had a great reputation. He has always aspired to be a planner and said he worked hard, set goals and stuck to them. “If you aim high, you work hard to achieve it.”

The award recipients were presented their certificate at a cross-campus ceremony with Albany, Manawatu and Wellington campus linked through video conferencing. 

Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Susam Mumm welcomed the students to the first annual presentation to the highest-academic achievers within the campus.

“This college has about 5500 students and this is a very elite group of 36 who have achieved this absolutely phenomenal academic record. It is an outstanding achievement,” she said. “You ought to be very proud of your academic record and realise how special it is, that it’s not at all an average or ordinary accomplishment.”

Albany senior lecturer in History Associate Professor Peter Lineham said the college was immensely proud and students should be too. “We should celebrate with real joy the wonderful achievement and the great ethos we have as a college, and that students study such a rich variety of subjects and explore so many good things.”