Laura Kerrison - Master of Social and Community Leadership
Laura Kerrison has a Bachelor of Design and spent approximately eight years working in the technology sector in user experience design.
This involved researching and designing digital products for a range of clients, including many non-profit/for-purpose organisations.
The Master of Social and Community Leadership (MSCL) came up at the perfect time when I was looking for a change, and trying to understand how I could bridge my existing experience more fully into the world of social impact.
"I've always been drawn to social impact work and, while I loved working with technology and design, I found myself wanting greater fulfilment from my work. Additionally through working in technology over the years, I had seen many instances of non-profit organisations struggling to find, use and effectively maintain technology for their missions."
Laura’s long-term career goals are to solve how digital technology can enable non-profit organisations to be more sustainable, scaleable and innovative and help organisations to achieve this.
The MSCL has helped her by enabling her to research this area more deeply with academic integrity, and better understand the social impact and community organisation sectors.
“Non-profit organisations need to use digital technologies for a variety of reasons. However, they face many obstacles."
My research dives into how non-profit organisations in Aotearoa are dealing with digital technology, which impacts their efficiency, sustainability, and ability to
innovate. It focusses on the specific challenges that organisations face when
trying to effectively embed digital technology into their organisation, and,
therefore, how to help improve this.
One of Laura’s goals is to provide actionable and usable recommendations based on the real-world experiences of people operating in the non-profit sector.
“The people that I have met have been such a highlight. This masters course brings together a really varied group of people, who are all connected by a desire for positive social and community impact.
“This means that I've got to work with passionate, incredible people. Additionally, the teaching and leadership staff are absolutely amazing and provide an extremely high-quality experience. There is a great depth of knowledge across this course and, as a student, you're given so many opportunities to engage with these folks in different ways.”
Laura did her MSCL study full time while also working. She says this was “really full on”, but the only way that it was feasible for her.
“Balancing my workload and ensuring I had enough time to do the study justice was my biggest challenge. However, I was really well supported by faculty and my peers and enjoyed the ability to really dive into my study.”
One of Laura’s hopes is that by shining a light on the challenges that non-profit organisations face regarding digital technologies, and recommending some potential areas for improvement, the digital capability of the sector and those support it will be lifted.
“This, in turn, could have the potential to improve the reach and depth of the impact of non-profit organisations, and their sustainability in an ever-increasing digital world.”
The participants of Laura’s research were representatives of over 20 non-profit organisations from around Aotearoa New Zealand.
“They are just a small group of an amazingly talented sector who lent their experiences and time to help build my body of knowledge.”
Laura acknowledges her supervisors, Dr John Fenaughty and Dr Laura Ann Chubb, both of whom are Senior Lecturers at the University’s Faculty of Education and Social Work’s School of Counselling, Human Services and Social Work (CHSSWK) and says that they offered her much guidance and support during her MSCL studies.
“Their collective years of experience and wisdom helped me, not just in my thesis, but my general approach to research and the topic."
For anyone who is considering studying for a MSCL at the University of Auckland, Laura says that her advice based on her own experience would be to: “take the opportunities to connect with other students and faculty.
“At times it felt easiest to focus inward on my research and studies, but without a doubt one of the biggest and long-lasting benefits of my Masters is the connections and relationships that I have made with a wide range of awesome people.”
Laura submitted her Masters thesis in July 2023. Since then, she has made the plunge fully into the social impact sector by beginning work at NZ Drug Foundation, whose mission is to reduce and prevent drug harm in Aotearoa New Zealand.
“I'm so excited and grateful to have found this role and start putting my studies into practice even more.”
Beyond that, Laura enjoys painting and crafts. “I have a small side project where I create illustrations of Māori kupu (words) which keeps me pretty busy as it couples my love of crafts and painting with my journey to improve my reo Māori.”
Laura also loves the outdoors, getting to the beach and finding new delicious foodie spots around Tāmaki Makaurau.