On January 15th 2023 we had the awesome opportunity to spend five days down in Dunedin at the University of Otago for the hands-on programme. We got to experience what “Uni life” looked like; from the classes/projects we did, meeting tons of other students from all around Aotearoa, meeting with faculty of the university and as well as current students at the University of Otago.
We were allocated to a project, one of ours being law. For the law project we went to the police station to learn about the process that occurs there as well as the relationship between police and lawyers. We also went to court and learnt about what happens in high court and district court.
Lastly we held a mock trial with all the other students in the law project. The other project was Sociology, gender studies and criminology. We learnt about some of the social responses to crime as well as crime itself and its causes. We also learnt about social justice and injustice.
We also visited the old Dunedin prison. We were also privileged to have a chance to see what projects they had to offer which we would head to after our main projects. Everyday had something new in store for us to learn about.
Overall the experience we had at Hands-on at Otago was a blast and very memorable.
Nga mihi
Ihapera Tairua-Cross & Danielle Cooper
