Commerce student Hayden Kerrisk with the StudySpace website
displayed on his laptop. Photo by Sally Rae.
University of Otago commerce student Hayden Kerrisk
admits to being "not much of a note-taker".
His preference to listen to and absorb the information during
lectures proved problematic when he got home and had no
notes.
That led Mr Kerrisk (19) to come up with the idea of
developing a website where students from universities
throughout New Zealand could buy and sell notes and gain
access to practice questions, thereby optimising their study
time.
That website - www.studyspace.co.nz - has now
been created, with assistance from fellow students Michael
Arthur and Paul Kibblewhite, and was launched yesterday. It
took about four and a-half months to build.
It was simple to use and those posting notes could choose
whether to list them free of charge or set whatever price
they chose. Users could also rate the notes.
Mr Kerrisk hoped the site would prove popular with students.
He had already tested it on friends and family and had some
"really good feedback".
From a dairy farming background in Wellsford, north of
Auckland, Mr Kerrisk shifted south, both for rugby reasons
and initially, to study physical education.
After a year, he decided to switch to commerce and, once he
completed his degree, he was contemplating a further change
of focus by studying veterinary science.
"I just think I want to be a vet. It's always been in the
back of my mind."
This year, he will be a Kiwihost, something he looked forward
to. He will host one international student from Ireland and
two from the United States who all will study in Dunedin.
Even if Mr Kerrisk made the move to Massey to study
veterinary science, he intended continuing with StudySpace
and keeping it "ticking along". He intended promoting it
through social media and he had friends in the North Island
who were prepared to help promote it.
In March, masters of entrepreneurship student Samantha Berry
will launch UniTutor, a website where students can find
private tutors for specific university papers.
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