One of QRC's 2010 graduates, Swiss-born Makoto Bruderer, was a globetrotter during her time at the college and has not looked back since.
The Otago Daily Times spoke to Miss Bruderer (27) in 2009 during her six-month internship with Auckland-based company Sail NZ, which takes people out for cruises and races on America's Cup yachts on the Auckland Harbour.
Through her position she ended up sailing to Japan, and then to Qingdao for the Beijing Olympics as a steward on board the yacht Endeavour, before returning to New Zealand.
Next up for Miss Bruderer was a spell in the Canadian resort town of Whistler, where she worked as a "zoom guide" for flying fox/zipline company WildPlay for a summer season.
Now back in Switzerland for the first time since graduating, she says that having a lot of time on her hands has made her "more inventive on how to earn my money".
Aside from starting some freelance work in a couple of weeks for a team-building company in the Zurich region and looking to the long-term, she is working on a six-month cultural project called "Bingo Bangor" "to make movies and collect the identities" of young people in the region of St Gallen.
The tour is the result of a competition won with three of her best friends, and will take place in 2012, resulting in an exhibition and a book about the different identities encountered.
Miss Bruderer said that her time at QRC had taught her many small lessons, and the most important one for her had been "that if the situation is as bad as it can get, with a positive mind you can get through it".
"For me QRC was an introduction to the outdoor tourism world. My goals for the future are to build up a viable agri-tourism company with my parents in southern Italy and ... I have already worked on that project with my business plan for QRC."
Along with her parents she hopes to next year open the business, simply named Agriturismo L'Upupa.
"Agriturismo means that guests can come and stay on a farm - in our case an olive grove - and dine in a small restaurant with local specialties, and experience a traditional way of the region," she said.
"The region of Salento is still pretty quiet most of the year, which is rare in the Mediterranean ... Our goal is to build up a camp ground, small restaurants and offer activities in the area in a natural and sustainable way," she said.
