Sky is the limit for gemstone expert Shahzmin Azim Premji

Sky is the limit for 28-year-old gemstone expert

By Zephania Ubwani, The Citizen Reporter – Sunday, July 20 2014 – IN SUMMARY

Upon her return home, she joined a private firm in Mbeya dealing with tiles and stones called Marmo EGgranito and worked for nearly a year as a gemologist.

Arusha. Young Shahzmin Azim Premji was at home pondering her future life, having completed high school where, according to her, she did not perform well in her final exams.

She found time to watch Discovery Channel with its amazing images and stories in the world of science, natural history, anthropology, geography and other mysteries of the earth and beyond.

That was in 2002 when she was 18 years old and immediately after completing Form VI at ArushaMeru Secondary School in Arusha which she joined in 2000.

“I used to watch Discovery Channel as a hobby but jewellery seems to occupy most of my time. I liked it,” she told The Citizen on Sunday here early this week.

The sparkling images of ready-made jewels and colour stones on the TV channel apparently shaped her future as soon she became obsessed with gemstones and stone-cutting.

It was in the same year that she enrolled for a two-week course at the Southern and Eastern African Mineral Centre, a regional centre established in 1977 and based in Dar es Salaam.

The short course strengthened her ambition to become a gemologist. In 2003, she went to Germany for a Diploma Course in Gemology.

Upon her return home, she joined a private firm in Mbeya dealing with tiles and stones called Marmo EGgranito and worked for nearly a year as a gemologist.

“I worked there as a gemologist and storekeeper for nine months just to get experience,” explained Shahzmin, who is currently a lapidary instructor with the Arusha Technical College (ATC).

Her ambition was boosted when in 2005 she won another scholarship; this time a certificate course in Jewellery Designing in New Delhi, India.

That was not the end of her quest for further education in gemology, a science dealing with natural and artificial gems and stones and also considered a branch of mineralogy.

Back home, she joined the Dodoma-based Mineral Resources Institute, commonly known as Madini, for a two-year Diploma course in geology and mineral exploration. That was between 2007 and 2009.

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