Lyndsey Bartlett is a VSA UniVol based in the Cook Islands at the University of the South Pacific (USP), where she works as a research and academic assistant. She had been having a wonderful time on assignment, connecting with her colleagues, local community and network of other current volunteers – but she couldn’t have predicted two rather more random connections.
In July, a group of VSA volunteers were gathered at a beach bar in Rarotonga. Among the group were Lyndsey and former VSA volunteer Lauren Turner, who stayed behind chatting after the others had gone home. Suddenly, a woman pulled up a chair next to them.
‘She said, I’m so sorry to interrupt, but I saw that you’re wearing a VSA shirt, and I just had to come over and introduce myself because I was a VSA volunteer 50 years ago,’ says Lyndsey. The woman turned out to be Sue Bree, who did indeed volunteer with VSA from 1979-1981, as a midwife with Lemakot Health Centre in Papua New Guinea.
From left to right: former VSA volunteer Sue Bree, former UniVol Lauren Turner, a friend of Sue's who was also going to go on a VSA assignment but wasn't able to in the end, and Lyndsey.
‘It was crazy,’ continues Lyndsey, ‘because she went on to tell us how that assignment literally changed the whole trajectory of her career. She wasn’t too sure about doing midwifery but working in PNG on placement solidified it for her, and she’s gone on to have this wonderful career in midwifery in New Zealand and says she owes a lot of that to that placement. It was really awesome to have that conversation with her.’
It was sheer chance that Lyndsey happened to be wearing her VSA t-shirt that day – she had actually changed her mind about what to wear that morning – and she says the whole encounter had a ‘the stars aligned’ feeling about it. ‘It was just amazing for me and Lauren to meet this former volunteer who was able to speak about her experience 50 years later,’ she says. ‘I felt like I was looking into my own future. It was very, very cool.’
One such encounter felt fateful enough. But there was more in store. While at work at the university a few weeks later, Lyndsey was making friendly conversation with some visitors.
‘These two women came up and we got to talking about what I was doing there, and when I mentioned that I was on a volunteer placement with VSA, one of the women’s eyes lit up,’ recalls Lyndsey. She turned out to be Patina Edwards, who volunteered in South Africa with an assignment related to registration and education around their first democratic election in 1994. ‘Like Sue, she had such amazing things to say about both her placement and the subsequent career she’d had as a result of the work she did with VSA,’ says Lyndsey. ‘A lot of the things she’s gone on to do have focused on NGO work, human rights and advocating for minority rights in New Zealand. It was just such an amazing experience to talk to someone who could still recall so many awesome details about their placement so many years later, and see so many flow-on effects. Very inspiring stuff.’
Lyndsey with Patina Edwards.
Both encounters have left Lyndsey feeling even more positive about her assignment, which she says has been ‘an incredible experience’. Although her position was billed as a research and academic assistant role, she says it has been more of a ‘student learning support consultant’, intended to provide in-person support to the students of USP, who receive all of their teaching online from professors in Fiji.
Lyndsey, who previously worked in professional services in Auckland, has found myriad ways to apply her skills in her UniVol role – the UniVol programme being VSA’s dedicated programme for recent graduates (you can find more information here).
Lyndsey presenting to local students.
‘As with all VSA placements, my assignment has sort of expanded a little bit beyond just the initial role description,’ Lyndsey laughs. ‘I’ve also been working with the university’s management and my counterparts to help improve some of their business processes, put in place some automated tools to help them do things a little bit quicker and easier, that kind of thing.’
A particular highlight was a totally unexpected project: helping out with a student robotics club, continuing the work of previous UniVol Dee Kim (2020). Lyndsey has no experience in robotics, but was brought on board to offer support to the students and manage the club’s social media presence – spreading the word and boosting fundraising. The club was competing in an Olympics-style international robotics competition and were sending a team of five students to Greece.
The mentors of the Cook Island Robotics Club 2024 (aka, the Cocobots), from left to right: Miimetua (Mii) Nimerota, Lyndsey and Jim Nimerota (lead mentor).
‘It’s very cool stuff, especially for these Cook Islands kids, some of whom had never left the island before,’ says Lyndsey. ‘And the girls we sent to Greece ended up winning a gold medal! That was a huge accomplishment for us. It was really great to give some students, especially female students, some exposure to the STEM space.’ The opportunities for girls in the Cook Islands to explore STEM subjects – which open up promising avenues for future study and employment – are minimal, which made it even more meaningful to be able to contribute to this project.
Lyndsey with Mii Nimerota, Director of the Centre of Excellence in Information Technology, showing off their gold medals!
Overall, Lyndsey has been enjoying her role and the change of pace immensely. ‘I think volunteering in this environment has been so fulfilling and clarifying,’ she says. ‘I’ve learned a lot about myself.’ Referring to the idea of bringing two kete on assignment, one full of skills to share and one empty, ‘to say that my empty kete has been completely filled up with lessons both about myself and about what work should be like, and what your attitude towards work should be like, that would be an understatement’.
Meeting Sue Bree and Patina Edwards has also proven to her that this assignment is a step on her chosen path. ‘It just confirmed for me that this experience is going to follow me into the future,’ she says. ‘That’s really exciting and reassuring.’