Chiasma

This year Chiasma ran four workshops as part of their Career Catalyst series. Quite honestly, I was put off workshops in the past due to speakers that would get too technical, or activities during the workshops I did not really find useful. However, being a committee member of Chiasma motivated me to attend these workshops anyway, to help run the evening. And I could not believe how inspired I felt leaving these workshops and how many people we managed to gather for most of them.

Having studied a science undergraduate degree consisting mostly of many hours of individual study, which was like hunting as a lone wolf; group work was practically non-existent. It was not until this year upon stumbling across Bioscience Enterprise that I had my first proper experience of group work in the university and a taste of being a pack hunter

The full name of PhD is doctor of philosophy, or more descriptively “permanent head damage”. Generally, you conduct your own research over three to four years and contribute novel knowledge to the field. At the end of journey, you defend your thesis and get rewarded as “Dr”. As a Bachelor student, you take papers, write reports, assignments and exams, then you pass the course.

Once a month I enjoy giving up some time to do volunteer work in the Waitakere Ranges for Ark in the Park. The Ark is a large area of the Waitakere Ranges that is under a pest protection plan that involves the use of traps, poison bait, monitoring, reintroduction of native birds and much, much more.

As a student with my family and friends spread out all across Auckland, I am quite reliant on my car. I drive a (relatively) old car, as I’m sure many of you other students do, and with age tends to come a variety of strange features in the form of odd noises and weird features. Whenever I experience one of these, I usually turn the music up and/or assure my fellow passengers that everything is completely fine, all the while pushing back the ‘I hope I don’t die in this car’ thoughts to the back of my head.

My trip to Washington DC started with me waking up in disbelief one morning noticing that my flight time was within 10 hours. The GapSummit conference was held in between the end of lectures and exam period. Therefore, the thought of being halfway around the world before having exams was very unreal and stressful. However, it turns out the lesson I got out of this trip was more valuable and memorable than the course content crammed just for my exams.

It’s that time of year again. You’ve got your semester one results back, have had time to cry in your room for a few days, and then a little more time to realise the error of your ways and promise yourself that this semester will be different. 

For most of us, university is a long, strenuous grind in which one toils to obtain a piece of paper with their name on it. The freedom one gains compared to high school feels liberating, yet it is marred by the daunting reality that you are now responsible for your own learning with no one to push you.

This is the most common phrase that you always hear but never fulfill in real life. According to my experience, studying harder and longer doesn’t always guarantee you to get A+ in all assignments and exams. Studying hard for long periods is very exhausting and 100% of the knowledge would not last forever in your brain. I used to fail many subjects back in high school but when I started to follow my intuition to study smarter, instead of harder, my entire life was changed dramatically.