Friday 25 August 2006
L’Oréal Scholars announced
L’Oréal today announced University of Otago students Katie Douglas and Chelsyee Metcalfe as the 2006 L’Oréal Marketing
Scholar Award recipients.
The annual scholarship was awarded by L’Oréal for the first time last year and is open to third-year Bachelor of
Commerce (Honours) in Marketing students at the University. It includes up to $5000 towards fees and dissertation costs,
a paid summer internship and a two-year contract working for L’Oréal upon graduation.
School of Business scholarship coordinator Rob Cook says the scholarships are competitive and applicants must provide
details about their study and outline their future career goals
Three finalists were selected and flown to the company’s Auckland headquarters to be interviewed by L’Oréal Managing
Director Frances Stead and two marketing managers.
L’Oréal New Zealand’s Human Resources Manager Jeff Lewis says it is L’Oréal’s intention is to select one student
annually. “But to be perfectly honest, both were of such high calibre that it made good business sense to secure their
employment early rather than search for talent in 2007.”
In mid-November Katie, who is from Dargaville, and Chelsyee, a former Hamiltonian, will travel to Auckland and work in
L’Oréal’s consumer product division and other sectors for three months. They then return to Otago and begin their
dissertations, based on L’Oréal’s marketing activities.
Chelsyee – who is studying a five-year double degree programme, incorporating her Commerce degree with a Bachelor of
Arts in Art History and Theory – completed her application while on exchange in Milan, Italy. She says the overseas
experience gave her a real interest in the business.
“L’Oréal is providing us with such an amazing opportunity – to gain hands-on marketing experience with one of the
world’s leading beauty companies. While I was overseas on exchange I had a chance to see global branding in effect. I
was amazed to see the localised branding used by different countries. In Italy, L’Oréal products had packaging written
in English while in Prague in the Czech Republic, the same product was written in French – as it is here in New Zealand.
This is something I’d like to explore further during my internship.”
Katie says it is fantastic to get corporate backing for our research projects and funding. “I’ll be refining my
dissertation topic over summer during the internship. The great thing about the internship and graduate recruitment
position will be the opportunity to experience everything – from market research, event management, branding,
communications, and customer management. It’s really valuable.”
Last year’s L’Oréal scholar Anita Jelley is completing her dissertation and will soon begin a two-year graduate
placement within L’Oréal’s Professional Products division.
To date, L’Oréal has employed 12 marketing graduates from Otago as part of its graduate recruitment programme.
ENDS