Te Pānui Taura
In this issue: Dressed for success, Paris Olympics, Keeping up with The Dunedin Study, and much more.
This month:
Dressed for success
Running a designer-dress rental business and a make-up business isn’t all glitz and glamour, it’s a lot of hard work, too.
No cat too cranky for award winning volunteer
Give Kytti (Catherine) Kane the choice between a demure kitten and a stroppy moggy and she’ll likely choose the latter.
Young peoples’ experiences vaping
Young people in Aotearoa New Zealand are struggling with the effects of vaping addiction, with physical and mental cravings disrupting their school and work routines, researchers at the University of Otago have found.
Plus
Are you well? Help is at hand Keeping up with The Dunedin Study A passion for paddling Calendar
Don’t forget!
3MT ® Otago’s Grand Final taking place 5pm, Thursday, 15 August at the College of Education Auditorium. Come along and support you fellow postgrads.
Digital marketing proving popular
The Otago Business Schools digital marketing paper has seen a huge jump in the number of masters students taking the paper. “Digital marketing is in big demand,” lecturer Dr Mathew Parackal says. The first semester saw 20 students in the class, up from seven in 2023.
Businesses are realising that having an app, or content available on mobile phones, laptops and websites isn’t enough, he says, and that they are merely a method for transporting a message. Businesses need to have content ready to go up on their platforms as part of their brand development. “It’s a big shift,” he says.
During the semester, his students have worked together in groups to assist one of five local businesses. Once they’ve completed their masters programme nearly all of his students find work within three to four months of
graduating, Dr Parackal says.
The five businesses students worked with this year were Otago Youth Wellness Trust, Living Well Disability Support, Brain Injury Association Otago and Dunedin Track and Trail.
Masters student Grace Mellsop says she “found a love” for digital marketing during her undergraduate degree. She worked with Dr Parackal and Dr Damien Mather over the summer and they both advised her the digital marketing paper would be a good way for her to get some hands-on experience.
Grace, and fellow masters students Jay Gong and Alok Parekh, helped put together a campaign for Brain Injury Association (BIA) Otago. “Working with a Dunedin company was a great opportunity for all of us,” she says. “It’s been really cool working with them and kind of helping the boost their social media pres-
ence.” She’s enjoyed learning how to use Facebook Meta Business Suit, as well as targeted ads and other “real world skills”.
Jay says he opted to take the paper because he found Dr Parackal and Dr Mathar’s teaching styles “really suit” him and because there is a practical element within it. “I’m more of a practical person, I enjoy studying the real-world cases,” Jay says.
Alok’s job in his home country, India, featured a little bit of digital marketing and content writing. He says there has been a shift from people using traditional offline marketing methods to using the online medium.
He took the paper because he was keen on learning the basics of digital marketing, and also getting some practical experience. Working with BIA has helped him understand how important social media is and how it can be used to increase brand awareness.
Paris Olympics Alumni athletes and support staff all set for the games
The University is well represented by both competitors and staff working behind the scenes. Leading the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) health team at the Games, which start on Friday (Saturday morning NZ time), is alumnus and Director of Performance Health at High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ), Dr Bruce Hamilton.
Bruce graduated from Otago with a BPhEd (1988), MB ChB (1993) and MD (2016), and heads both the core health team of six doctors, four physiotherapists, three massage therapists and a nurse, and more than 20 health professionals embedded in sports.
experience of working (and it is work) with the New Zealand team at an Olympic Games.”
He says the NZOC draws together an inter-disciplinary team to support the broad range of sport and athlete needs over the duration of the Games. “The opportunity to work in such a talented and motivated group is a real privilege that I never take for granted.”
Bruce says preparations in Paris for the start of competition are going well – “but relocating 400 people and multiple containers worth of equipment across the globe is never without its challenges!”
available in our support team, the athletes are sure to be ready to go once they hit the ground in Paris.”
The Olympic Village and sport venues are ready and he says the atmosphere on the ground in Paris is building rapidly. As the New Zealand athletes have arrived in the Village over the last week “the real work of the health team has started”.
Those athletes include Otago Physiology alumna and swimmer Caitlin Deans, who is in the 4x200 Freestyle Relay team; equestrian eventing team member and BCom alumnus Clarke Johnstone; and javelin competitor and Bachelor of Physical Education graduate Tori Peeters.
“Being in the surreal environment of the Games, supporting New Zealand’s elite athletes during a pivotal life moment is a privilege, a responsibility and an overwhelmingly fantastic experience,” Bruce says.
“It’s difficult to find adequate superlatives to describe the
“We spent four to five days preparing the New Zealand area of the Village for the arrival of the athletes, including establishing our own self-contained health unit – with physiotherapy, massage therapy, nursing and medicine all represented. When combined with the nutrition, physiology, psychology and conditioning support that we have
Former Otago students competing at the Olympics and Paralympics also include Paralympian and javelin thrower Holly Robinson; rowers Jordan Parry, Davina Waddy and Phillip Wilson; and canoe competitors Finn Butcher and Lucy Matehaere. Another alumnus working behind the scenes at the Games is HPSNZ Physiotherapy lead, Jordan Salesa, who heads the Olympic therapy team. He says the health team is all set and “already in full swing with our athletes”. Jordan graduated from Otago with a PGDipSportMed in 2002. In preparation for the Games, he says they sent a couple of 44-foot
containers of gear and supplies to Paris in March.
“It takes about a week in the pre-opening to set up our whare. We’re allowed 10 people in before the official opening (which was on 18 July).”
Jordan says the facilities in
the village are great, and include cardboard beds and plastic mattresses, which are “quite comfortable actually”.
“The Paris Olympic Village is outstanding, the people are great, and the city and country is on a high.”
Also supporting athletes at the Olympics is alumna and NZOC Mental Skills Consultant Dr Kylie Wilson, who graduated from Otago with a BPhEd(Hons) in 1997.
Dressed for success
Running a designer-dress rental business and a make-up business isn’t all glitz and glamour, it’s a lot of hard work, too.
Graduate Diploma in Marketing student Shanae Barton started her first businesses - SB Dress Hire and Make Up by Shanae - in 2022. Shanae saw the business as
a way to build up her own wardrobe, while also making money from renting to people who might not otherwise be able to afford to purchase and wear the top-of-the-line dresses themselves.
“You only wear them once; the dress is going out on multiple occasions to different people and they’re
all getting to enjoy it,” she says. “It’s also a bit more sustainable too, rather than buying multiple dresses for multiple events.”
The dress-hire business is going well now but took a while to ramp up.
“You come into a market, and you’ve got build your name up, build up your reputation for people to trust you, and also, with dress rental obviously you’re renting out designer garments and they’re expensive to buy.
“You’re not going to start with 50 different dresses to rent out, you’ve got to slowly build up your collection.”
Initially with fewer dresses available fewer people were inter-
ested but as the collection grew, so too did business; “that’s when you get more traction”.
Shanae says she’s always had an interest in making art and during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 she was able to channel her creativity into various make-up looks. She started an Instagram account documenting her looks at the behest of her friends, and in 2022 she started taking clients. Her make-up business is also doing well.
“Especially during ball season, you’ve got all the school balls.”
She gets a lot of clients attending 21st birthday parties, too.
Shanae’s advice to any students looking to start their own business it to “just do it” but be prepared to work hard.
“I think a big misconception, especially for rental business, is that it’s super easy. And while it’s not the hardest job in the world, it’s definitely not easy.”
While the majority of Shanae’s customers are amazing, there have been the odd few situations where she has unhappy customers which she says gives her the chance to grow as a business owner.
“You’ve got to deal with customers who aren’t always going to be happy, unfortunately you can’t please everyone.
“You have to try and navigate ways to come to a solution that is suitable for both parties. I do think they’re good learning opportunities.”
Another consideration with rental businesses such as hers, renting expensive goods, is they cost a lot of money.
“At the start, you’re not getting bookings every weekend, so you’re investing a lot of your own money.”
New business owners need to be prepared to invest their own money, and then keep investing any money made back into the business to keep it growing, Shanae says.
“It may be a while before you can actually make a profit.
“And it’s very time consuming. I think people are like ‘oh, self-employed, you get to work whatever hours you want’. But I think, when you’re self-employed you work more than you would if you were working for someone else, because time is money.”
No cat too cranky for award winning volunteer
Kōrero by Claire Finlayson
Give Kytti (Catherine)
Kane the choice between a demure kitten and a stroppy moggy and she’ll likely choose the latter.
This keenness to take on a good feline challenge is one of the reasons the 23-year-old Bachelor of Entrepreneurship student was recently crowned 2024 SPCA Young Volunteer of the Year.
When fur starts flying at the SPCA’s Dunedin Centre, the first responder for claw-facing duties is the wrath-ready Kytti.
“Every time there’s a mad, howling hiss coming from one of the rooms, my workmates say, ‘This one’s got your name on it, Kytti.’ I foster the hissy, spitty, spicy ones. I adore them. They’ll
be growling with their ears back, but you just give them all your love. Then, when you pass them to a new owner as a happy, purring cat, you get to see the hard work pay off.”
It’s not the only reason her teammates nominated her for the award, though. They were lavish in their praise.
“Kytti’s positive influence, inclusiveness, kindness, hard work, dedication, and knowledge have made her a treasured volunteer. Despite facing serious health issues, she remains one of the most positive and inspirational people, often going above and beyond her duties to help. The animals and team in our Dunedin
Centre don’t know what they’d do without her.”
Though she’s only been working at the SPCA for three years, Kytti’s been a self-appointed animal welfare officer since her primary school days. She was the kid who’d arrive home from school in Rangiora with lost kittens or injured birds. Her favourite charge was a raucous one-eyed duck named after Beatrix Potter’s book character, Jemima Puddle-Duck.
“She was blind, she was losing her feathers, but she just refused to die. When I moved away from home, Dad had to look after her. He referred to her as ‘Jemima the disappointingly immortal duck’.”
These days, Kytti fits her animal care in around a full-time Bachelor of Entrepreneurship (BEntr). She chose the programme with an eye to creating a business that will allow her to combine the things she cares most deeply about.
“I decided to go into entrepreneurship because I wanted to become an advocate for disabilities. My special interest is animal care, so I was keen to make a business around that. I want people who have disabilities to be able to walk into a pet shop and see the products they need and not have to order them in from overseas.”
Animals have long been a lifeline for Kytti. As someone who struggles with autism, ADHD,
and FND (Functional Neurological Disorder), she says their signals are easier to decode.
“I find human body language hard to read, so I’ve gravitated towards working with animals. They tend to be quieter and more understanding. People can often fake emotions, whereas animals don’t. If a dog is mad at you, it’ll let you know. Same with a cat.”
Kytti’s health issues impact on her ability to flourish in busy settings – especially FND, which can throw regular curveballs her way.
“Some days are worse than others. With FND you don’t really have a typical day. If I’m quite tic-y, I might still go to classes, but if I’m having seizures I’ll stay
home and work online. I just have to keep pushing through – and I’ve had some good help from the Uni.”
Because it’s hard for Kytti to hold down a typical job, she receives a disability benefit. Volunteering at the SPCA, then, makes her feel like she’s paying that benefit forward.
“I could just sit at home and wallow in my room, but where is that going to get me? I might still be there in 20 years –overweight with 50 cats, watching someone else live out my dream life on TV.”
Kytti has come a long way from the youngster who was pegged to fail.
“I got told by a primary school teacher that I wasn’t going
to go very far in life – and I’ve been running on spite ever since!” That teacher should know that Cat Rescue and the SPCA have already approached this young entrepreneur to flag their interest in her future business ideas.
Kytti credits the BEntr degree with giving her lots of good life skills – and she knows it’ll look shiny on her CV.
“Being able to say, ‘Hi, I’m a graduate from the Otago Business School, here’s my idea’ will have so much pull. The programme allows you to take a dream idea and make it practical. I now know how to get all my ducks in a row.”
Excellently immortal entrepreneurial ducks, of course.
Are you well? Help is at hand
Kōrero by Laura Hewson
If it’s feeling like life’s getting on top of you, just know you don’t have to handle it alone. Laura Hewson looks closer at Student Health’s Mental Health and Well-Being service.
Coming to university is an exciting time but it also brings significant change, growth and adjustment for many students, Mental Health and Well-Being Clinical Group Leader Richard Mooney says.
“This can include increased academic pressures and a change in learning style to more independent study. There’s also change when it comes to living arrangements, often with a shift away from home and familiar support networks. And there can be increased financial stressors and the pressure to make new connections.
“In addition, adolescence in itself is a time of significant growth and change and is often the time when mental illnesses emerge.”
These challenges can have a big impact on students, which makes it vital that the University has a high quality and responsive mental health service, he says.
MHWB comes under the umbrella of Student Health Services (SHS), which is a “one-stop shop” for students, whatever their
health issues may be.
“Student Health Services is an extremely well-resourced integrated primary health care service that has teams of GPs, nurses and mental-health clinicians all working collaboratively in support of our students’ health and wellbeing.”
The MHWB service, which employs about 16 mental-health clinicians, is designed to be accessible and low cost.
“Our service does not have any entry criteria, so any student can refer themselves to the MHWB team if they think some additional support is needed for any mental health concern they may have.”
Students can call to book an initial appointment with an experienced clinician, which typically takes place either on the same day or within the week.
“The initial appointment is primarily an assessment appointment to determine what the person requires in support of their mental health, to explore what strategies might be helpful in addressing the presenting issues, to assess any risk issues and to formulate a collaborative treatment plan where appropriate,” Richard says.
MHWB works to a brief-intervention model, which is widely used in primary mental health services both within New Zealand and internationally, Richard says.
“Our experience indicates a brief-intervention model is the most effective approach to meet the majority of our students’ needs, while minimising wait times to access our services.
“Brief intervention can be very effective for managing issues
such as stress, anxiety, depression low mood, relationship issues and other mental health or substance use concerns that students commonly present with.”
The team typically offers up to six sessions of talking therapy depending on the presenting issues and level of need or complexity. If students have more serious mental-health issues, or require longer term intervention, the team will work with them to access an appropriate service that is best equipped to meet their needs.
Students access the service for a range of reasons, and no issue is too small.
Common reasons include home sickness, challenges adjusting to university life or making new connections, family and inter-personal issues, difficulties with substance use, issues
relating to anxiety or low mood, trauma and emerging unhealthy eating habits or eating disorders.
“To name but a few of our more common presenting issues.”
In recent years there has been a trend, both nationally and internationally, of increasing demand for mental health services, particularly amongst young people and adolescents and the MHWB team has significantly increased staff resourcing over the last few years in response to this.
“The reasons for increased demand for mental-health support are complex and multi-faceted. However some of the reasons are a growing awareness of the importance of managing mental wellbeing, an increased willingness to talk about mental health, health-pro-
motion campaigns and the impact of recent and current world events such as Covid and the climate crisis.
“Our main priority is to support students to thrive and achieve their academic goals.
“Remember, help is available. We’d encourage students to reach out and access support from our service, if they feel that they need it.”
You can self-refer to the Mental Health and Well-Being service by calling Student Health Services reception on 0800 479 821.
University of Otago students who are not based on the Dunedin campus can access mental health support via Puāwaitanga or by phoning 0800 782 999.
Don’t miss all your postgrad news online:
Keeping up with The Dunedin Study
A Dunedin Study algorithm that indicates how people age has been used by one of the world’s most influential families.
In yesterday’s season finale of The Kardashians, some family members took an epigenetic blood test to discover how fast or slow their bodies are aging.
Their data were analysed by TruDiagnostic using the Dunedin Study’s DunedinPACE algorithm to determine their pace of aging - how many years their bodies age for each calendar year.
The DunedinPACE tool is like a speedometer with an average rate of one year of biological aging per one year of chronological aging. That means if a person’s pace of aging is 0.8, they are aging 20 per cent slower than most people of their age.
Fossil reveals penguins’ wing evolution
A tiny fossil penguin plays a huge role in the evolutionary history of the bird, an international study shows.
Published in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, the study describes a new species of fossil penguin which lived in Otago about 24 million years ago.
Named Pakudyptes hakataramea, the penguin was very small – about the same size as the little blue penguin, the smallest in the world – with anatomical adaptations that allowed it to dive.
Lead author Dr Tatsuro Ando, formerly a PhD candidate at the University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka and now at the Ashoro Museum of Palentology in Japan, collaborated with researchers from Otago, Okayama University of Science and Osaka University.
See full story
See full story
A passion for paddling University’s sustainability wins
The University of Otago is in the top five per cent of universities globally for sustainability, despite more vying for that ranking in the QS World University Rankings.
The University has also slashed energy emissions by half while reducing waste faster than expected; and Otago has won Australasian Green Gown Awards every year since first entering in 2021, claiming an international Green Gown Award last year for Te Oraka: The Good Space, a thrift shop and sustainability hub.
In a report to Council, Sustainability Office Head Dr Ray O’Brien says these successes should be celebrated, but the hard work is not yet done.
See full story
Wellington campus lead administrator Sophie Petelaud signed up to paddle with the University’s dragon boating team in the summer of 2020, excited to participate in something different.
Fast forward four years, and Sophie is participating in national dragon boating competitions, and even has her sights set on competing internationally.
When she joined the University of Otago Wellington Leisure & Sport (U-Owls) team Sophie was a team sport rookie, not knowing what she’d signed up for, and with no knowledge of what dragon boating actually involved.
She enjoyed her first season so much she stayed with the team, taking on the role of manager from 2021 to 2023, a task she compares to “corralling caffeinated cats - challenging yet oddly rewarding”.
See full story
Strong emotions, intense craving and daily disruptions
Young people’s vaping experiences
Young people in Aotearoa New Zealand are struggling with the effects of vaping addiction, with physical and mental cravings disrupting their school and work routines, researchers at the University of Otago have found.
The researchers interviewed 22 young people between the ages of 16 and 20 based in the Dunedin or Christchurch areas to ask about their experiences with vaping. The results are published in the international journal Drug and Alcohol Review.
The co-leader of the study, Anna Graham-DeMello, a Research Fellow with the ASPIRE Aotearoa Research Centre at the University of Otago, Wellington, says the young people spoke of vaping dominating their thoughts throughout the day. Some reported vaping continuously in long bouts and losing track of how frequently they were vaping.
“The young people we talked to reported disruption to their daily routines, especially at school, as they succumbed to cravings and looked for opportunities to vape, whether in classrooms, bathrooms, vehicles or outdoors. They created excuses to leave their classes as they felt driven to vape.
“Many of the study participants became irritable, uncomfortable, moody or angry if they had to delay vaping. They expressed these emotions in different ways, and would sometimes shut down and not want to interact with others.”
All the participants in the study described themselves as being addicted to vaping. Most recounted a rapid transition from vaping socially to feeling addicted - typically within just a few weeks.
“Once they had obtained a device of
their own (and no longer relied exclusively on others sharing vapes with them), their level of vaping increased rapidly and many quickly felt out of control.”
The commonplace nature of vaping in social settings encourages ongoing and more frequent use of vapes by young people, Ms DeMello says.
“Participants told us they see vaping everywhere they go, and that, unlike smoking, their friends and peers are usually not judgemental about it.”
Fifteen per cent of 15-17-yearolds and 25 per cent of 18-24-year-olds in Aotearoa report vaping every day, with Māori 2.5 times more likely to vape than non-Māori.
Professor Janet Hoek, co-director of the
ASPIRE Aotearoa Research Centre and senior author comments:
“We know that although young people initially enjoy the flavours and social bonding vaping offers, addiction brings profound regret and undermines their wellbeing. We urgently need stronger policy measures that protect young people from the aggressive marketing that continues to target them.”
Ms DeMello says the speed with which those interviewed became addicted and the disruption and distress to their lives demonstrates the need to reduce the widespread availability, affordability and appeal of vapes. “Targeted health promotion campaigns aimed specifically at young people which feature personal testimonies could deter vaping uptake. We also
need vaping cessation programmes that are specifically tailored to youth.”
The research team say the Government should consider ending the sale of vaping products in retailers, such as dairies; capping overall retailer numbers to lower the density of stores selling vapes; stopping any vape store from operating within 500 metres of schools and marae; and preventing
retailers from discounting vapes or using loyalty programmes. They also say close monitoring will be needed if the Government proceeds with its plan to end the sale of disposable vapes, given how quickly vaping companies create new technologies that undermine the intention of the law.
Publication details: ‘Young people’s experiences of addiction to nicotine vaping products: A qualitative analysis from Aotearoa New Zealand’ , published in Drug and Alcohol Review. The researchers were Ms DeMello, Professor Hoek and Dunedin School of Medicine students Katie Frost and Olivia Sloan: https:// onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/dar.13902
Students supporting Ōtepoti Whānau Refuge
Fundraiser featuring many events between 10 August and 26 September, see story for full details.
OUSA Art Week
Many events - including an exhibition, market day and DJ competition - taking place on campus between 12 August and 16 August, see link for times, dates and places.
University Photo Comp
There’s still time to enter photos in this year’s photo comp, see story for full details.
Writers competition
Do you have a way with words? Put pen to paper and submitt a piece in the University’s writers comp, see story for full details.
