{"id":11038,"date":"2025-10-23T10:35:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T21:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/?p=11038"},"modified":"2025-10-23T10:35:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T21:35:01","slug":"meet-your-new-pg-student-advisors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/?p=11038","title":{"rendered":"Meet Your New PG Student Advisors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We often post about academic support here on Thesislink; the workshops, events, and resources that can help to power-up your progress in your postgraduate research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But sometimes the issues that crop up during PG research are not academic at all. They might be to do with your confidence, your housing situation, family &amp; friends, your finances, mental or physical health, employment, and the list goes on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you would like to talk to an advisor about what&#8217;s going on in your world, there are two new PG Student Advisors available! David Lavulo and Sophia Zhang specialise in helping PG students to navigate advanced study in the context of your life and your wellbeing. They can sit down with you one-on-one to talk through whatever challenges you are facing and help to find a way forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s a little bit more about them:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"597\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/David-Lavulo-profile.png?resize=597%2C421&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Profile: David Lavulo, Student Advisor, City Campus. Malo e lelei. I'm an Aucklander of Tongan heritage with a strong background in New Zealand's tertiary education sector. I'm dedicated to supporting students through a holistic, student-first approach. I'm passionate about empowering learners - ensuring their needs are met with care and efficiency while helping them build confidence throughout their academic journey. I thrive on connection with people and believe in the power of meaningful relationships. Outside of work, I stay active with social touch rugby in the summer and enjoy learning music in my downtime. Qualifications: BA double major in Political Science and Anthropology. BA (Hons) in Anthropology. \" class=\"wp-image-11049\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/David-Lavulo-profile.png?w=597&amp;ssl=1 597w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/David-Lavulo-profile.png?resize=300%2C212&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/David-Lavulo-profile.png?resize=150%2C106&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 597px) 100vw, 597px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"602\" height=\"423\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/Sophia-Zhang-profile.png?resize=602%2C423&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Sophia Zhang, Student Advisor, City Campus. Kia ora! I bring extensive background in tertiary education both in NZ and overseas, supporting postgraduate students throughout their learning journey. I'm especially mindful of the needs of international students, and I'm dedicated to creating inclusive spaces that help them thrive, whether navigating research complexities and academic challenges, or building confidence in a new learning environment. Outside of work, I enjoy baking and painting, often inspired by music. I'm fluent in Mandarin and happy to support students in their preferred language. Qualifications: PhD in Education, MA in Educational Leadership. \" class=\"wp-image-11050\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/Sophia-Zhang-profile.png?w=602&amp;ssl=1 602w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/Sophia-Zhang-profile.png?resize=300%2C211&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/Sophia-Zhang-profile.png?resize=150%2C105&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 602px) 100vw, 602px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>There are two ways to connect with Sophia and\/or David:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Email <a href=\"mailto:postgrad.support@aut.ac.nz\">postgrad.support@aut.ac.nz<\/a>; or<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Book a time to meet via MyAUT (select &#8216;Make a booking&#8217; &#8211;&gt; &#8216;Student Hub appointment&#8217; and follow the prompts from there) <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Both Sophia and David are based on the City campus, but they visit other campuses as well. Additionally, Mandarin speakers can choose to use either Mandarin and\/or English with Sophia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Welcome David and Sophia! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We often post about academic support here on Thesislink; the workshops, events, and resources that can help to power-up your progress in your postgraduate research. But sometimes the issues that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25632,"featured_media":11051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[46,267,70],"class_list":["post-11038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-relief","tag-aut","tag-support-services","tag-worklife-balance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/David-Sophia-headshots.png?fit=547%2C382&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p83npQ-2S2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/25632"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11038"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11054,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11038\/revisions\/11054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}