Thursday 13 October 2016 1:46pm
From left: Sze-En Watts, Kelsey Paterson, Damon Lillis, Abigail Clark, Annabelle Weston, Sana Basharati, Kiri Lenagh-Glue, Therese Styles, Matthew Moloney, Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne, Sophie Oliff, and Stephen Trebilco. Absent: Tash Austin. Photo: Sharron Bennett.
Early last week, eleven highly motivated and inspirational student leaders were recognised with Student Leadership Awards at a celebration held at the Staff Club.
Sana Basharati, Abigail Clark, Kiri Lenagh-Glue, Damon Lillis, Matthew Moloney, Sophie Oliff, Kelsey Paterson, Therese Styles, Stephen Trebilco, and Annabelle Weston were presented with the prestigious awards by University Volunteer Centre Coordinator Sze-En Watts who was joined by Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne and other distinguished guests.
The ceremony marked the students' completion of the Student Leadership Awards scheme – a two-year extra-curricular programme which enables students to develop leadership skills and attributes that enhance personal growth and employability, while making a positive contribution to society through volunteer efforts.
Congratulating this year's recipients, Professor Hayne praised the students' efforts and acknowledged the unique value the awards programme added to their Otago experience.
She told the students how her own university experience had been quite different to theirs, acknowledging that “while I was a very good student, I didn't have the same opportunities to engage in the kind of high-level extra-curricular and co-curricular activity that has become part of their DNA”.
“You will leave this University steps ahead of previous generations. You are outstanding scholars. You are socially responsible, entrepreneurial in spirit, and community minded. You feel the need to make a difference in the world in which you live. And you have each taken important steps to improve your skills in each of these areas.”
These characteristics would “go a long way in helping you finish your degrees and make your way outside the University", she said.
Her parting advice to the students was to: “Do what you love and what feels important – opportunities will follow”.
After the presentation of the awards, Jessie Manning, herself a recipient of a student leadership award last year, shared her reflections on the months since receiving her award certificate.
For Jessie, the past year has seen many of her career goals realised. She is now working for Parliament – a dream job, she says, for a Politics major – and credits the awards programme with much of her success.
“This award is more than the sum of its parts,” she told the students. “The workshops, reflection journal and mentoring are all fantastic, but it is the lasting impact of the experiences that has permeated so much of my life.”
Jessie told this year's award recipients that she had been sad at her own awards ceremony the year before.
“It felt like the end of something big. I was scared that I wouldn't have as many opportunities to continue working on making the world a bit better. But as I have learnt in the year since, it wasn't the end, it was just the start.
“The award is the licence that gets you on the road and driving...it's up to you where to go next.”
Student leadership in 2017
While the programme itself will remain largely the same in 2017, new opportunities will be created including a student position with the Award Advisory Group, and further support available from award alumni.
With 65 students continuing the programme and more expected to take it up next year, Ms Watts says both professional and academic staff are needed to fill the programme's mentoring roles.
Mentors, she says, act as sounding boards and as an objective listening ear for their students throughout their programme experience, sharing their own leadership and life experiences, and “creating space for conversation”.
“We are looking for staff who are willing to spend a couple of hours per year with a student, supporting them as the student works on developing their own leadership practice,” Ms Watts says.
For more information or to inquire about mentoring opportunities, contact ola@otago.ac.nz
Student leadership in action...over 70 students, including several current or former student leadership award participants, headed out to Brockville in September for a community volunteering day dubbed "The Brock Party". The students got stuck right into transforming the backyards of former refugee families who have settled in Brockville. The initiative was spearheaded by award student Meghan Stewart-Ward.