The speaker at our last meeting was Andrew Tiffany. Andrew is Molly and Tiff's son and grew up, and was educated, in Milton. Andrew and Ross Mallon (Peter's son, who was one of our guests) were both recipients of our Rotary Scholarship as school duxes. Andrew and his family moved back to Dunedin a few months ago where he works remotely.
Andrew spoke about his experiences during 19 years overseas in Taipei, Taiwan, and Shanghai, China. Andrew’s work throughout was in education, with local & international students and also with teachers & other adults, in the areas of teaching English, Maths and Physics. He shared that his experiences reinforced to him what most will know to be true – that practice and hands-on work is what helps you learn the most. Also, that while Asian students do a lot of practice, with some students spending 12 or more hours a day committed to some kind of education, it comes at the expense of their energy and time for other pursuits.
Andrew also talked about the random opportunities that come up in life, and how saying “yes” can lead you on to some other chances to try new things you would not have imagined. In his case, that included the opportunities to work in training for Disney, to work alongside people from National Geographic in educational publishing, and a current opportunity to do consulting and training work with the World Bank.
Thank you to Andrew for sharing his experiences with us and we wish him all the best with his family back in Dunedin.
Andrew, Molly and Colin Tiffany. Ross Mallon, Andrew Tiffany and Peter Mallon
Ross and Andrew are both former recipients of The Milton Rotary Club Scholarship
Andrew with his wife Catherine and children Alex and Jasmine