Kate Pitches and Henry Hollis have created a new podcast which bridges the personal gap and highlights the level of knowledge lecturers have.
It's no secret that getting to know your lecturers when they have hundreds of other students can be a challenge.
Two students are well ahead of the game, bringing to life a new podcast which bridges the personal gap and highlights the level of knowledge lecturers have.
“Does this Count as Study?” stars Henry Hollis and Kate Pitches who interview a different academic staff member each episode.
Kate, who is currently in her third year of Applied Science (Biotechnology), says the podcast has been in the works for a while.
“It was a pipeline dream. I did one interview with a masters student last year and I thought it would be cool to interview more people.”
Kate says as a student it can be hard to find the time to get to know your lecturers who have a wealth of knowledge.
“The idea stemmed from not being able to easily have casual conversations with our lecturers and wanting to create an outlet to do this. We interview them to find out what projects they've worked on, what they do in their role at Otago and learn more about the subject they teach.”
Chemistry and Energy Science student Henry says the series is gaining new listeners.
“Our mates have been listening and their mates have been listening too. We have had listeners approach us to have a chat about it too. We are looking forward to getting questions submitted from other students on topics they want us to address or questions they want to ask.”
“Through this process we have gained skills in communicating with our lecturers and it has helped us with our confidence in doing so. We hope it will inspire other students to get to know the people teaching them and help them get to know the ones we talk to.”
“I came to the conclusion these professors are some of the smartest people on the planet; we get to chat with the smartest people on the planet.”
Henry and Kate have been recording the podcast series at Radio One thanks to the help of Programme and Promotions Manager and Otago graduate Tom Tremewan.
“Radio One is run by the students for the students,” Tom says. Last year there was a referendum to open up the studio facilities for student podcasts. Kate and Henry's one is the first.”
“What I liked about their pitch was they wanted to understand the people behind the work and talk more personally about it to bridge the gap between students and their lecturers. It's been great to watch their progress, see them picking up new skills and developing those.”
The first few episodes of the season are already available on major streaming platforms Spotify and Google. Their current episodes discuss subjects from science to religion and you can get in touch with to ask a question or submit an idea on Instagram.
Kōrero by Internal Communications Adviser, Chelsea McRae