Georgia Woods gave her dad the surprise
of his life during a visit to Lyttelton Port while undertaking work experience with the LPC Communications team.
“Dad was surprised to see me there, and he just said how lovely and cool it was to see me back at the port,” said Georgia Woods.
Georgia is the daughter of cargo hander Craig Woods and was the successful recipient of a $10,000 LPC Scholarship providing financial support for her first year of study at the University of Canterbury.
“I was very fortunate to receive the director’s scholarship in my final year of school,” said Georgia Woods.
The LPC Scholarship is awarded annually to a child of a current LPC employee.
“I went in doing a communications degree, and this year was accepted into journalism and have done papers in philosophy, politics and marketing,” she added.
Georgia and three other communication students, Sophie Kennedy, Mollie McWhannell and Liam Longley, conducted a study into the LPC social media platforms of Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, which was a course assignment.
“We had a few lists of potential companies put in front of us, and I had a connection to LPC and wanted the opportunity to give back to LPC, said Woods.
“My dad has been at LPC for a few years and is a cargo handler, and I grew up in Mt Pleasant and always had that connection to the community, and it’s a local company.”
The 20-year-old had only stepped inside the port gates once before and said she was stunned by the size of the operation.
“Just the scale of it, it is humungous, and there are so many pieces to the puzzle that the general public won’t be aware of,” said Georgia Woods.
Georgia said it was also great to see the cafe at Waterfront House, where her dad calls work.
“I would hear all the stories about what he and the boys chat about, so it was great to see him in his element and the straddles as well; it is all very technical, and the good stuff that he is doing,” she added with a smile.
Georgia and the four students spent the afternoon at the port and took a tour of operations. Their assignment was to develop innovative ways to improve the social media content.