Support for Pasifika students

Karena Lyons has joined AUT to help smooth the transition to university for Pasifika students

Karena Lyons' background in law and music has led to comparisons with television character Ally McBeal, but her role at AUT doesn’t centre on singing or the law.

Karena (right) is a Pasifika learning development lecturer for Te Tari Awhina and she mostly teaches in the Faculty of Business.

“A lot of Pacific Island students struggle to finish their first year here – not because of intellectual ability but because of other social aspects,” says Karena, whose background is Samoan.

She likes to form close relationships with the students. “I force them to be my friends – and I’m a big talker,” she jokes.

Although she hasn’t been at AUT for long, she loves the job and the people: “They believe in what they are doing.”

After completing a conjoint degree in law and arts, Karena worked for law firm Minter Ellison Rudd Watts, specialising in environmental law and resource management.

By the age of 22, she “had a flash office on the 27th floor and my own secretary”. But she wanted to do something “useful” with more of a community focus and made a career switch.

She left her high-rise office for Otara to run the City of Manukau Education Trust (COMET) pilot scheme, a school-based programme helping school-leavers finding suitable training and jobs.

“It was great to do something good and give back to the area.”

Karena also has what she calls her “alternative career” in singing. She has performed twice at the Big Day Out, opened for international acts like Busta Rhymes and Jurassic 5, and performed

with local bands Dimmer and Fat Freddy’s Drop. She’s also found time this year to perform in her first opera, first play and first movie and run an events management company with her sister. Karena says she fits so much in because she works with great people and is excited about her job – and it helps that she teaches time management.