Cat Kearsley
Variety is something Cat Kearsley relishes as an outdoor education professional and her career so far has included plenty of it.
Currently she’s the outdoor pursuits tutor and hostel co-ordinator at Mt Aspiring College, where she organises programmes, manages instructors, oversees health and safety, trains staff and instructs students in kayaking, canoeing, tramping, mountain biking, surfing and rock climbing.
In addition, she is managing director of Koru Outdoor Instruction which contracts kayaking and bush instruction to polytechnics around New Zealand.
If that weren’t enough to keep her busy, she travels widely overseas to take up seasonal roles in the outdoor industry. These have included instructing white water rafting in North Carolina and California and sea kayaking in Norway. “This year I’m going to the Arctic Circle in Norway to work as a sea kayak and husky sled guide,” she says.
Cat got the skills and knowledge she needed for her exciting career by studying a Bachelor of Sustainability and Outdoor Education at Ara. “I’ve always been passionate about spending time in the great outdoors. The concept of spending my days doing something that genuinely made me happy was a huge draw card to studying and working in the outdoor industry. It’s a highly rewarding career path that takes you to some of the most spectacular places in the world, and you have the opportunity to inspire others in a job that is ever-changing.”
Over the course of her three-year degree, Cat got exactly the skills and knowledge she needed for her dream career. “The course had a great combination of both theoretical classes and practical field trips. The class sizes were small which meant that tutor contact time was high. And the tutors were more than willing to help out at any time. I felt as though they genuinely cared for our learning and wellbeing. It wasn’t just a pathway to a degree, it was a personal development journey too.”
Cat describes her tutors as exceptionally talented professionals with both technical competence and strong teaching skills. “They strived to deliver new, exciting and current content. Their passion shone through their teaching.”