Congratulations to Bachelor of Commerce student Regan Nelson, who was the Nxtstep Top Digital and Technology Student of 2017 in September.

Regan applied for the IT award category in the Nxtstep competition and, much like applying for a job, went through several steps including a video interview and psychometric testing to be selected as one of the 24 finalists from across New Zealand. 

The finalists then attended the assessment centre day, hosted at Deloitte in Auckland, to take part in the final section of the competition. Regan took away one of the top six spots as the best Digital and Technology Student, earning him a $1000 prize.

He says while the event was a valuable opportunity to network with other passionate students and business executives, he also found it inspiring to see a great deal of important issues being discussed.

"Individual and group presentations were a key factor for success, and the topics were focused on the most pressing issues in New Zealand today.

"It was pleasing to see the range of topics that other finalists saw as important were aligned with my own, such as youth suicide and New Zealand's reliance on the dairy industry."

The finalists were in groups of six with each member vying for a different award, which meant that there were a large number of different disciplines represented and many unique points of view in the group discussions. 

Regan, who finishes his Information Systems degree in November, became president of the Victoria Commerce Students' Society earlier this year. He has secured a graduate role at audit and consulting firm Deloitte, having begun an internship there as a tech consultant in December 2016.

However, that hasn’t stopped Regan looking further ahead. He aspires to being in a partnership at a business like Deloitte or similar, travelling and potentially living in London or the United States, and working in other industries.

• This article was written by Daniel Ralphs, a third-year Bachelor of Commerce student.

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