Meet Olivia (Olive) who is the OUMSA Social Officer. The recent “Wine and Cheese” evening proved to be a huge success thanks to her great organising abilities and there are many more exciting social events on the OUMSA calendar to come!
How did medicine come about for you?
I haven’t always wanted to do medicine, growing up I was super interested in being a television presenter and doing law. But as I went through NCEA English I realised my writing abilities weren’t the best and science was far more interesting. Going into health science I had no idea what to expect and I made myself into a bit of a hermit at Selwyn College trying my absolute best to get in. Unfortunately my best wasn’t enough but I was determined to try again. So I entered my science degree feeling pretty awful and dreaded the next 2 years. HOWEVER I found a love for physiology. I absolutely loved my degree and it really confirmed my passion for science. However I still had medicine in my mind and when the acceptance email finally came I was over the moon! So that’s my wee journey!
Tell us a bit about yourself
I hail from the great Dunedin; yes I am originally from Dunedin and have been here my whole life! I went to St Hilda’s Collegiate and then went to Selwyn in my first year. I then moved straight into flatting with some epic flatmates that haven’t changed in the past 4 years. In my spare time…what spare time?! But honestly I do keep myself pretty busy with study and working at No7 Balmac (great place for brunch, definitely go there!) but I always make time for hanging out with friends and taking some time out for myself. I love running and running with friends kills two birds with one stone! I also enjoy just generally being outside but when the Dunedin weather is its usual ugly self I love to cook and bake, I have a passion for cooking and love being in the kitchen. I have an older sister and younger brother who are both at Otago but all doing different things which is very refreshing!
What does the social officer do?
Well I think I have the fun job! I get to organise all the fun events for all the meddies! Most of what I do is pretty self-explanatory and you will see me in the lecture theatres a lot spamming you all with information for our events. They are all such great events and a lot of time and effort goes into planning them for you so it would be fantastic if I you all came.
What are you most looking forward to this year?
I am very ,very excited about being behind the scenes in all the events. I loved every single one of them last year and I can’t wait to give you guys the best events ever. They are all such great opportunities to meet everyone in your year and forget about the books so I’m so excited to give you guys these events! I am also looking forward to doing something a bit different than just study at university. Since being at Otago I haven’t really done anything for the university so it’s nice to give back a little for, hopefully, my last year in Dunedin.
Any advice for this year?
I came in as a post-grad so I came into medicine with a slightly different attitude to health scis, however I can give you some advice that will help everyone. There are really three basic rules that you should follow if you want to pass ELM2. 1. Make some really good friends; your classmates are your best teachers as everything is more simply put than asking the lecturers. 2. Keep on top of your work. Do the prep for the tutorials and labs (as long as you look over them you’ll be fine). And just keep on top of it. Only a few hours a day of looking over the content is enough. 3. Start early, because these are full year papers just start chipping away at some content during the 2nd semester, doesn’t have to be much just the most important concepts so you have nailed those before you get to the exam period. And of course have a good year. This will be by far the easiest year of your life so just relax and enjoy learning the content instead of freaking out that you need to know all the details!