Everyone has them. Some are cherished aspirations, some are ambitions, some are unrealistic – self-deluding fantasies even. Martin Luther King had one. Walt Disney said they come true if you have the courage to pursue them. Colin Powell said they are not fulfilled through magic – it takes sweat, determination and hard work. They are, of course, dreams.

Students may tell you of their dreams. It might be in the form of getting subject endorsement, or their desires for a particular career. In the last five years I have had students express many dreams, some to study abroad and have successful careers in design. And, with sweat, determination and hard work, some of these students are well on the way to achieving their dreams.

I have had students get awarded places in the fashion degree programme at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) after a grueling three-part application interview exam process – a huge success, as the Institute is a major fashion design school in the Southern Hemisphere. These students are now gaining top academic grades and are heading for a bright future with their own design companies.

And now, just this week I got an email from a student I taught last year, who had gone on to study fashion at a New Zealand university. While I taught her, she lived and breathed fashion, art, design and architecture, and constantly pushed for more and more information, absorbing it like a sponge. She held exhibitions at local galleries, set up her own blog and website to exhibit her work, printed her own t-shirts and products and sold them in local markets. With her part time job money she rented a workshop space in a local building. She ran holiday creative classes in her local suburb for primary students.

She had always talked about studying overseas, and had the dream of attending Central Saint Martins London (CSM) – the world’s leading innovator in art, design and fashion education and number one in the world of fashion universities. Unbeknownst to me, she had applied, and the first line of her email told me she had been accepted. I think I let out a little scream of excitement when I read it – I was so proud of her having the courage to apply from this side of the world and go through the portfolio application process, which in itself is a feat of commitment and hard work. 

CSM is renowned for producing superstar designers. Zac Posen, Stella McCartney, John Galliano,  Alexander McQueen, Bruce Oldfield, Gareth Pugh, James Dyson, Jimmy Choo, Hussein Chalayan, and Sarah Burton, just to name a few, all studied there – all are now powerhouses in the design world and run highly successful design empires. Why is CSM such a highly successful producer of graduates?  The Daily Telegraph’s ex-editor chief of fashion Hilary Alexander, also a Kiwi, believes the school nurtures the free-thinkers, the mavericks, the people who think outside the box  – qualities this student has in abundance.

It is a tough fashion school to get into –thousands of people apply each year for only 20 places. Even Gianni Versace’s niece who has grown up around fashion, and in some circles is considered coming from royalty, could not gain a place to attend. Once enrolled, you have to maintain high-grade averages to stay in the course, and the critiques can be cruel and cutthroat beyond belief.

My student is not afraid of a challenge, she is articulate, highly creative, has the drive to persevere when things get tough, and the commitment to see it through beyond expectations. She takes risks, goes on tangents to explore possibilities and breaks the rules of convention to explore new innovation.  It is not going to be easy for her, but she is committed and focused on her dream of graduating. I am sure, she will sweat, there will be tears (both emotional and physical) along the way, and a lot of hard work ahead of her. But I have every confidence that in the future she will be a rising star on the fashion forefront of innovation and an international world shaper.

History shows that New Zealand designers and innovators have dreamt big, and pursued their dreams until they have succeeded. Teaching both Design Visual Communication and Technology, I believe in pushing thinking outside the box: start big with a dream, with an idea and develop it, mold it to be a reality; it might seem crazy but crazy things work, well most of the time.

Sometimes when you have full classes in front of you, and you are in the vortex of NCEA and teaching and all the red tape and paperwork administration, you can forget that students all have bright-eyed aspirations and these aspirations are our greatest assets as teachers. We need to encourage our students to dream and dream big, take that leap of faith and have the courage to pursue them.

I am proud that my student has made her dream reality and look forward to hearing all about what she does on the course and the things she engages in along the way to gaining her degree and becoming an international design star.

Kylie Merrick, Wellington High School