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Last modified: 27 May 2025 11:00am

four students stand in front of council building

The partnership between Selwyn District Council and the Lincoln University continues to bear fruits for both parties after three more successful council interns graduated from the University this month.

Ashley Yang, Kim Tangan and Vivien Kuan earlier this month graduated with a Masters in Applied Computing at Lincoln and Kirsty Hurnen could not have been prouder witnessing the capping ceremony of ‘her’ interns.

Hurnen is a Business Analyst Lead at Selwyn District Council who initiated the intern programme in her department after realising how the Council and students would both benefit significantly from the partnership.

“The Council is working on several major digital projects, and the students really provided us with firepower as Business Analysts working with people and processes to improve our technology,” says Hurnen.

Two of the students worked on the new digital booking system the council has introduced for its sports and recreation facilities, while the third student was involved in the early stages of a possible new grants management system for the council.

“The internships were for 300 hours and they were so successful that we found space for another internship from the next course. We were also very fortunate to be able to offer some paid work to a couple of them after the internships finished,” says Hurnen who is grateful for the work the students delivered.

Ian Zhang was the fourth intern who finishes his internship at the end of May after working on the Modern Workplace project. His work focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace and he has provided a recommendation paper as part of his project.

Kim Tangan described her internship as a transformative experience that allowed her to apply her academic knowledge to real-world challenges.

“The hands-on technical work, exposure to diverse teams, and collaborative environment made this internship a pivotal step in my professional and personal development,” says Tangan.

Dr Stuart Charters, who runs the Applied Computing course at Lincoln University, is grateful for the placement opportunities with organisations like Selwyn District Council.

“They are really beneficial to students because it allows them to gain real-world project experience and share their skills and knowledge with the host organisation."

Hurnen says the team and staff on the project put in significant work to ensure the students were well-supported to have a successful experience.

“We put in a lot of work to ensure they had a proper contract and delivered a wellness support plan throughout the internship.”

Hurnen says the students delivered great work to justify the commitment by council.

“They were really keen to prove themselves and we hope that their success will encourage other parts of the organisation to give more interns an opportunity.”

Three women graduates stand with flowers in hands