Potatoes New Zealand is showcasing various young people in our industry to show the diversity of the people and roles they do. We connect with Charlotte Tinsley who is a fourth year honours student at Lincoln University.
Charlotte grew up in central Auckland, with no family associated with Agriculture, which she studied – it was an unusual field for Charlotte to be drawn to. She attended Mount Albert Grammar School, which had an 8-hectare school farm in the middle of Auckland. With this, the school offered an agricultural science course that she took from year 10 right through until year 13. Initially she took the subject as she loved the outdoors, animals, and the sciences, but later found that those interests fitted perfectly into an agriculture degree.
She was always heavily involved on the school farm, working as a part-time relief milker for the 6 dairy cows, which they milked through a 1920’s 2-stall walk-in dairy shed. She was also a TeenAg Club leader and in her senior years Charlotte helped out with some of the junior year practical classes. The farm manager, who had studied at Lincoln University, was a huge mentor to her and was very passionate about encouraging young people into the agricultural sector. This ultimately inspired her to pursue a Bachelor of Agricultural Science degree at Lincoln University. She is now in her fourth year at Lincoln University and Charlotte is currently undertaking her honours.
Although Charlotte knew she was passionate about agriculture, during her first years of her degree she was unsure which direction she wanted to head down within the industry. It wasn’t until her third year that she took a horticultural science course, and she instantly knew where she wanted to be. The completion of her degree with honours was always a goal she was pursuing throughout her studies. She approached Assoc. Prof. Clive Kaiser about research topics in the horticultural space and this led her to conduct her honours project focused on the dormancy of potato tubers.
The horticulture industry feels like a very innovative and exciting industry to be a part of. There is a huge amount of career opportunities and the industry itself is very fast-growing. The people I have met in the potato industry so far have all been so friendly and welcoming. It has a very tight-knit community feeling, that I am honoured to be contributing to with my research.
In her free time, Charlotte loves going on adventures, whether it is a planned tramp or hunt or simply throwing a mattress in the back of the car and calling somewhere home for the night. The move from the North to the South Island has also provided her with ample opportunity to delve into snowboarding, mountain biking, road biking, tramping and hunting as well.
Charlotte’s friends would describe her as a reliable, adaptable, determined, and highly driven person who embraces an adventure in the outdoors. However, as much of an outdoorsy person as she may be, she does find herself attached to the books and may even be considered a bit of a nerd at times.
In the next few years, there has been the opportunity for Charlotte to pursue completing a PhD. This would be an amazing opportunity for her to further my skills and knowledge as well as make a real impact for the industry. In addition, she would love to be able to do some travel to experience other cultures, meet new people, and taste new foods.