Fate, friends and scholarship guided Black Fern

She believes her life would have gone very differently without the support offered by the scholarship and is incredibly grateful for where it led her.

Georgia loved netball growing up and first played rugby at the age of 15 while at Feilding High School.

“I wanted to be a silver fern, I was hard out into my netball.”

Her school had a strong rugby team, so she tagged along and ended up loving it. By 2017, her final year of school, she was playing for the Manawatu Farah Palmer Cup team.

She had never planned nor wanted to study at a tertiary level. Instead, she planned to work on a farm straight out of school.

“University was not really anything I was interested in. I knew I wanted to work in the ag industry, but I didn’t understand the point of a degree.”

It was one of her friends that suggested she come to Lincoln. Georgia’s response was “righto, that could be fun.”

The Sports Scholarship had closed by the time she considered applying, but her school career advisor pushed her to ask about it anyway. She was given a very short timeframe to get to Wellington for testing.

“It all happened really quickly.”

It also worked out that Manawatu was scheduled to play Canterbury that week, which meant she could display her skills in an actual game. Everything lined up and she was selected for a scholarship.

“I snuck my way in at the very last second.

“I believe it was fate.”

Without a scholarship Georgia believes she would have started work and never achieved a degree or pursued a rugby career.

“If I didn’t get the scholarship I wouldn’t have gone to uni. I was loving rugby and I was good at it, but the Black Ferns wasn’t even a dream.

“I’m very grateful for that one friend who suggested it.”

Fate continued to guide Georgia, who changed major on the recommendation of a coworker.

Changing from a Bachelor of Agriculture and Commerce to a Bachelor of Land and Property Rural Valuation added an extra year to her degree. It was in that extra year that she was selected for the Black Ferns.

“Hand on heart, if I didn’t do that extra year I would have just graduated and gone and got a job. I would have handed in the towel with rugby.”

Georgia said the scholarship opened academia up to people like her who never considered it as an option.

“I’m really glad I did it.

“Sport is such an amazing pathway and teaches you so many life skills. A scholarship that takes you through university like this can give you that and offer you an education.

“It can turn you into an even better person and grow you in all those other areas.”