Love, Will G

To the Social Impact Studio,

My interaction with you, UniCrew and It’s Not Awkward Bro through 2020 and 2021 was the perfect unknown missing piece to my university puzzle. You put me in a position to both meet so many wonderful people and do so many amazing things that I otherwise never would have during my 5 years at the University of Otago.

The volunteer work I did with UniCrew allowed me to get into the wider Ōtepoti community and appreciate the role students can play in Otago whilst we are there. Without you I genuinely wouldn't understand what makes it such a unique and beautiful place to live. Seeing the real good students could achieve when we banded together and the happiness students got from this always ensured our cups were kept full. The leadership positions I was put in when planning and going on these events helped increase my personal confidence, social awareness and logistical skills, which is something I am incredibly grateful for. Growing these skills is a highlight of my time with UniCrew and is something I have kept with me now in my working environment.

Because of these experiences, I understand and appreciate how much more of a diverse journey a student at Otago University could have, and for this, I thank you.

My role at It’s Not Awkward Bro was smaller than that I had with UniCrew, yet still so meaningful. Immersing myself in the realm of open mental health discussion was something that I, nor many guys I knew at the time had had the experience of. Helping to understand these raw and real emotions through this experience has been so beneficial for my state of mind when I was studying but also now as I carry on with my life. I look back now happy, knowing that students will continue on this mission at Otago, only further strengthening and ingraining this appreciation of mental health, in whatever form it may take, at Otago University.

The studio, these stories I tell would have been told already countless times before by the students you have influenced before me and NEED to continue being told by students for generations to come. The experiences that you provide the students who are lucky enough to be impacted by your mahi in any way have such a profound effect. They can be as small as making a student smile at a Chit Chat and a Bitta Impact or the warming bond created by students working together to plant a tree at a Good Deed and Feed OR as large and far reaching as impacting their views on pivotal social issues whilst engaging in some hard-hitting conversations about who we are as people and where we are going. I speak for myself and so many others when I say all of these memories and lessons stick with us for years and years following our departure from Dunedin.

The University years are the best years of many students' lives, and YOU make those years so much better. Your hard-hitting social impact is perfectly balanced with your chill, loving and down to earth attitude.

Studio, keep doing you, because you and all you do is so, so awesome!

Will Gatting