Motivated by success

Nearly 40 years after graduating as a medical doctor from the University of Auckland, Dr Louise Webster has become a doctor again – this time in music.

Louise is the head of several paediatric teams at Starship Children’s Hospital, including the palliative care and pain teams and one that provides emotional and psychological support to seriously ill children and families.

While her role requires her to support the mental health needs of others, she’s careful to look after her own mental health as well. Louise is a composer, pianist and violinist who has found writing music has been beneficial to her own mental wellbeing.

“It’s a varied job and a great team, but you do have to pay attention to your own support, resilience and ways of coping and managing the sadness and grief. That’s the case for anyone who works in child health. Having outside interests is very important for doctors, to prevent burn-out,” Louise says.

“Music is my place for replenishment, it’s an enormous support to me personally, both playing music and writing music,” she says.

Louise received the only Doctor of Music awarded at the University’s Spring Graduation, for an advanced composition and research programme equivalent to four years’ full-time study. She completed it over six years, fulfilling a lifelong desire to master composition as well as medicine. “I had a debate with myself as a child whether I was going to go to medical school or pursue composition. In the end, I chose medicine because I naively thought if I go to med school I can still do music, but not the other way around.

“I also had very good bursary marks in music, which ironically got me into medical school because back then your entry was based on your bursary overall rather than specific subjects,” she recalls.

But her passion for music never waned. Louise took a year off med school in 1975 to study piano performance with Judith Clark at Victoria University before returning to the University of Auckland to complete her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) and to continue piano studies with the late concert pianist, Associate Professor Janetta McStay.

She established her career as a paediatrician and child and adolescent psychiatrist, and had four children before returning to the University in 2003 as an undergraduate in composition, beginning the course of study that would finally lead to her doctorate in music.

“I didn’t need a doctorate as such to open any work-related doors, but it has been invaluable for my journey as a composer. Writing music can be very isolating and it was a way to have ongoing tuition, support and critical appraisal from people I really respected, such as Leonie Holmes and Eve de Castro-Robinson.”

Louise has composed for the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and her works have been recorded by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. She is also a member of St Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra and the New Zealand Doctors’ Orchestra.

Louise’s experiences in clinical settings often influence her work, with themes of grief and loss working their way into her compositions. One example is Cries of Kathmandu for six voices and string quartet, inspired by her time volunteering at Sir Edmund Hillary’s Himalayan Trust hospitals in the foothills of Nepal. It was performed by the Song Company of Australia and the New Zealand String Quartet at the Adam Chamber Music Festival 2015.

Other works include Where Moons Circle and Burn for soprano and orchestra, performed by Elizabeth Mandeno and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in 2015; and In Hollowed Bone I Hear the Seas Roar, a concerto for violin and orchestra performed by Helene Pohl and the St Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra 2016, and also recorded by Yuka Eguchi and the NZSO in 2017.

“Writing music was always something I did on the side,” says Louise. “I was a doctor first and a composer second, but now I can say I am both.”

Danelle Clayton

Both nature and nurture probably led Katrina Browne to graduate with a Bachelor of Civil and Environmental Engineering (with honours), the third generation of civil engineers in the family to graduate from the University of Auckland.

Katrina’s father Allen graduated in the 1990s, her grandfather Murray in the 1950s (when the school was based at Ardmore), her uncle Graham graduated in the 1980s. Her younger brother, Nathan, is in his third year of his BE, also studying civil engineering.

“I do wonder about it,” says Katrina, of the nature versus nature question.

“There are so many career options and my brother and I are very different personalities. But with five of us all in the same family, you do wonder what the likelihood is of us all ending up in the same area of expertise.”

Katrina is one of a growing number of women going down the engineering road.

“My grandfather didn’t have any females in his class and Dad had around 10-15 percent.” (Her father’s 1995 class photo confirms only ten out of a class of 71 were women.)

“I do wonder if I subconsciously picked up on some of the things Dad was often talking about, even if I wasn’t particularly interested in those things at the time.”

She recalls a family holiday overseas and her father raising a “super complicated question” about how deep some piles had been dug into bedrock.

“Once you start thinking about things the way an engineer does, you never really stop, even on holiday.

“Now I drive past cuts in the side of the road where you can see the earth and I tend to ‘nerd out’, and think about what geological class the material is, or note down areas on long, windy drives where the slope faces aren’t looking very stable.”

When it came to getting a job, fate played a part. She was booked for an interview with the transport, geotechnical and environmental teams at a company but only the geotechnical team leader was available.

“So I worked with the geotechnical team for my first summer internship and I absolutely loved it,” she says.

“There’s just something about being able to combine design work with getting out on site and getting your hands dirty!”

Katrina says while technology and software is constantly developing to make our lives easier, there are other challenges for engineers.

“We’re now facing the issue of sustainable designs that will last longer and are able to withstand natural disasters.

“Adapting the engineering we know to meet the changes in technology and urbanisation, especially here in Auckland, is a priority for the industry.”

Margo White
 

Graduate teachers Tamausu Fa’alepo Vaotuua and Teuila Vaotuua say sharing the same world view as many of their students is a real benefit.

The hardworking couple both received their Graduate Diploma in Teaching (Secondary) on 24 September and already have jobs at De La Salle College, an integrated Catholic secondary school for boys in South Auckland.

“Being a teacher of Samoan descent at a largely Pasifika school (51 percent Samoan) means we know and relate to our students’ struggles and can recognise their strengths as genuine strengths,” says Fa’alepo.

“It means we don’t always have to employ all the ideals of Western pedagogy, but can use our cultural intelligence. As a teacher, it’s rewarding to be able to tap into our heritage and connections to the community to strengthen relationships and teaching within the classroom.”

Both have special connections to De La Salle, with Fa’alepo an old boy and Teuila’s father, Arthur Solomon, a long-serving teacher there. Both of their brothers were also former pupils.

Fa’alepo started at De La Salle as an itinerant music teacher (piano and voice) as well as being the campus minister, a role funded by the De La Salle brothers who encouraged him to enrol in part-time study at the University’s Faculty of Education and Social Work at Epsom. He is now the school’s permanent music and religious education teacher. He wants to be known as “a teacher who cares for his students”.

Teuila returned to study in 2017 with some graduate Arts courses, enrolling at Epsom in 2018 where she did her final placement at De La Salle. She started as a religious education teacher at the school this year.

She says it’s important to be an authentic role model for students and also “the kind of teacher who never forgets what it’s like to be a student”.

As well as studying full-time last year, the couple are parents to seven children. Two are working, one is a student at the University, two are at secondary school, one’s at primary and the youngest is a pre-schooler. Fa’alepo’s parents also live with the family.

“With 11 people living in our house, we are a modern-day village,” laughs Teuila, who admits juggling everyone’s needs during the past few years has been tough.

“Everything coming together was a huge mental, spiritual and physical challenge and mostly it was a matter of survival because so much was at stake for our big family.

“We knew if we couldn’t balance family, study, work and church during the final practicum [placement], we likely couldn’t pull off the real deal. We prayed a lot, and by the grace of God we got by.”
Teuila says returning to study was a way of honouring their parents and grandparents.

“It’s our responsibility to honour the sacrifice they made coming to New Zealand for a better education and quality of life for their offspring. Continuing our education is our way of saying thank you and of giving back to our community.”

The couple also want to raise the profile of all the good things that happen in South Auckland.

“Our South Auckland and Pasifika kids are super talented and we want to work in the education space where we’re able to contribute to breaking negative stereotypes and building a legacy of success for our people.”

Julianne Evans