Senior Lecturer, Department of Statistics, The University of Auckland

"The environment of learning is crucial to success."

Rachel loves statistics and wishes to share its fascination and fun with her students. Her enthusiasm is evident in the phenomenal amount of creative energy and sheer hard work she has put into her delivery during the ten years she has taught at the University of Auckland. Rachel’s students appreciate her ability to transform potentially dry and mundane numbers into something relevant and practical. She is a very popular teacher and students are attracted to her programmes. Colleagues respectfully refer to this as the “Fewster effect”.

A superb teacher at all levels, the impact of Rachel’s teaching goes well beyond her classroom: she maintains a strong interest in her students long after they leave her course and is also involved in numerous teaching activities in the community. Rachel believes every teacher has insights and experiences to contribute and she hopes her experiences will inspire others just as she acknowledges others have helped her. Her most important piece of advice to all those continually striving to be great teachers is “to enjoy it”.