Love, Shannon

My name is Shannon and I’m an ice-cream-lover, loyal friend, learner, scientist by qualification and corporate young professional by trade. I studied at the University of Otago for five years. I learnt how small life can be through my biochemistry degrees and how big life can be through my relationships and experiences. I loved fully immersing myself in both the university and wider Dunedin community during my years down South.

I was part of the Social Impact Studio as a UniCrew Social Impact Lead in 2020. As a Social Impact Lead we met as a group of diverse yet like-minded individuals to identify small and large volunteer opportunities that students could engage with. These opportunities involved a range of activities like reading to children at school programs, tree planting, opshop shifts and poppy pinning. The Social Impact Leads facilitated these activities and supported students to explore Dunedin and have a positive impact on the community and its people, which in turn had a significantly positive impact on the students. While lectures taught us about historical events, important prose, chemistry experiments and legal jargon, these outings helped us develop our personal values. We learnt how to see what was most important to us in life, like preserving our environment and making someone smile. We learnt about balance and prioritisation in times of stress. We learnt about community and belonging, and how to create a space for others to feel that sense of belonging. The Social Impact Studio was integral to learning the bigger life lessons that classrooms hadn’t taught us, and we passed that message on to the wider student body.

Personally, the Social Impact Studio has impacted my personal and professional life by teaching me the value of balance, not on a time management level but on a deeper value level. The Studio always emphasised the importance of considering both important tasks and important feelings, which taught me to be better in tune with myself and more considerate of those around me. A lasting memory I have that relates to this is sitting in meetings and using conversation cue cards to discuss deep and sometimes uncomfortable topics, like something you really admire about the person to your left or your biggest regrets. Everyone was so inclusive, supportive, and caring. We laughed a lot together at my initial apprehension to the activity as I became more comfortable engaging. Now I can approach these topics much more lightly, despite their depth, and can see the importance in creating a healthy environment full of trust in everyday meetings and interactions. As mentioned, these experiences taught me to be more considerate of those around me, and consequently I can better engage with any community I am now part of (be it my flat, my workplace or my country) to have a positive social impact by achieving important tasks while considering important feelings.

Thanks

Shannon