Lindsey Pointer, Ph.D.

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August has been another full and exciting month in Wellington!

At the beginning of the month, I competed in Victoria University’s Three Minute Thesis Competition. The Three Minute Thesis competition challenges postgraduate students to explain their thesis research to a non-specialist audience in just 3 minutes. The goal is to clearly outline your research, engage the audience, and make them want to learn more.

I competed last year and was surprised and honored to win first place. You can read about that experience and see the video of my presentation here.

Because I had so much fun last year, I decided to participate again! This year, I won first place for International Students. You can watch the video of my presentation here.

This term, I have taken on the role of tutor for the Graduate Certificate course in Restorative Justice at Victoria University. I have enjoyed answering questions, marking papers and hosting tutorial sessions. This month, I was a guest lecturer for the course and delivered an interactive workshop on Restorative Circle practice. The content was well received and I enjoyed the opportunity to share with the class. To read more about designing restorative circles and how I am using this practice in the university context, see “How do you design a circle process?”

I have continued to interview facilitators for my research throughout the month and am learning so much from these conversations. To hear more about a recent insight, see “How does restorative justice counter biases?”

This month, I also received further training to be a facilitator in a pilot project using restorative practices to respond to elder harm issues. I am excited to be part of this new application of restorative practices.

Finally, this week I attended my first meeting with the Rotary Club of Wellington. It was a wonderful experience and I met so many great people! The speaker was Dr. Bronwyn Wood, whose speech was titled “Young people today: active or apathetic?” She suggested that these categories need to be challenged and outlined the ways in which youth and young adults are politically active in a different way than previous generations. It was an insightful and thought-provoking talk. As the Rotary Four Way Test was recited for the new members joining the club that day, I felt immense gratitude for this committed and passionate international community and for my place as part of it.

“Service above self.”