The old adage certainly rings true for Phoebe Hunt.
At 4pm today, the 21-year-old Aucklander will graduate from the University of Otago with a bachelor of science, majoring in agricultural innovation and botany, and her next step is to continue her studies in Canada.
Ironically, her passion for science was something she discovered by accident.
"I just thought science was hard and thought I’d never do it.
"When I was at high school, I never intended to study it at university."
It was while she was at secondary school she became aware of starvation and malnutrition in developing countries, which piqued her interest in agriculture and food production.
The school had its own farm on site and she did agriculture and horticulture classes in her last two years at school.
"It thought it was more about just growing stuff. I was fascinated by farming practices and I think I just wanted to know more.
"I didn’t realise how science-y it was."
By the time she realised she was actually studying a form of science, it was too late — she was hooked.
She started studying agricultural innovation in her first year at the University of Otago; after her first year she added botany as a second major.
"I love it because it’s a mix of a lot of things.
"It was the passion of the lecturers — they’ve been really inspiring and you can tell that they’re really just obsessed with what they do and they want to teach you and for you to understand as well.
"It was infectious.
"And also, just my own interest in plants and being able to learn the most that I can about them."
Despite her fascination with plants, her Dunedin flat does not contain a single bit of greenery.
"I’m less interested in flowers and more interested in stuff you can eat.
"I’m interested in plants for agricultural use and you can’t exactly grow grain crops at home."
During her studies, she was particularly interested in genetically editing plants to change their nutritional values.
"That was really interesting to me, that you can edit the nutrients of crops to be able to feed the developing countries."
Miss Hunt hopes to continue studying the topic after being accepted to do a master of science degree at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Canada.
Ultimately, she would like to do a PhD and work on projects where plants such as rice and corn are being genetically edited so they can grow in hostile environments around developing countries to help feed people.
She said there were tens of thousands around the world who were starving because of global warming, which was causing more and more land to become infertile.
"And also, the nutritional value of the crops that do get grown in developing countries is not that high. It’s definitely a major problem.
"Hopefully, my master’s will be a step towards solving that."
