Love, Finn

Kia ora,

My name is Finn Shewell, and I volunteered with Unicrew from 2015-2018, while also participating in the UOSLA award programme. I also mentored for the Aspire Programme, and was part of the formation of Silverline, but didn’t play a very big part in that! 

My time with the studio absolutely transformed my path in life. It helped shape my moral compass, and ultimately made me understand that I’m capable of creating far more change than I believed I could. It’s not an understatement to say that Unicrew had the greatest and most long-lasting impact on my life while I was at Otago. It is a point of pride to say that I worked with all the aspects of what is now called The Studio. 

During my first year at Otago, Sze-En mentioned this event up in Auckland called ‘Festival for the Future’, and suggested I should apply for a scholarship. That November, I attended FFTF2015, and it completely changed my life. After graduating, I applied to work with the charity that runs FFTF - Inspiring Stories. I would say both my volunteering and UOSLA experience contributed heavily to getting that job - as Marketing & Comms Manager for one of New Zealand’s most impactful charities in the youth-development space. 

Since moving on from Inspiring Stories, I’ve been unable to shake the strong drive to do good that Unicrew instilled in me, and the work ethic that everybody in The Studio embodies. In recent times, I’ve mentored for the Wellington chapter of Ignite Consultants (another collection of amazing young people that started in Otago), Become a facilitator for The Social Experiment (an internationally run organisation that works to connect ideas with action), joined the Social Change Collective as a Trustee, and most recently have joined the Advisory Board for one of New Zealand’s most innovative Leadership Networks; Collective Intelligence. I am incredibly confident that none of that would have happened without going through both Unicrew and the University of Otago Student Leadership Award. 

As a direct result of both of these programmes, and the work The Studio does as a whole, I have been able to continue making a positive impact on the lives of those around me - at both a systems level, as above, and at an inter-personal level. I have been able to work through personal challenges I would have otherwise really struggled with, I have seen new career opportunities open up, and I have been able to help make the world a better place. 

I would attribute this all to Sze-En’s empathetic, human-centred leadership. Sze-En engages with you not as a student of the University; but as an equal - something that is incredibly refreshing and empowering. She’s always authentic, present, and open to be challenged. So much of the success I found in volunteering was because if I was ever in a tricky situation, I would simply ask myself ‘what would Sze-En do?’ 

To close - during my time at Otago, I heard a quote that had been attributed to Ashley Day, saying ‘Otago’s Residential Colleges are the jewels in the Universities Crown’. While I believe that was absolutely the case at the time Ashley made that statement, It is my belief that those jewels have been replaced by a single, shining diamond; The Studio. 

Otago’s greatest asset as an institution is it’s unwavering respect for the students, and there is no greater example of that than Sze-En & The Studio.

Nga mihi,

Finn Shewell | Former Unicrew member