After thirteen years of welcoming students through the gates of Otago University, student liaison officer Prajesh Chhanabhai is leaving campus (sobs). Critic Te Ārohi linked up with Prajesh via Zoom to reminisce about his time at Otago and find out what the future holds for the man who has impacted so many students.
Prajesh began his journey at Otago as a tour guide, showcasing the best of what campus has to offer for students entering their scarfie era. Presumably this involved more cherry blossoms and Clocktowers than broken glass and Birkenstocks.
After a while, he was prompted by his manager to apply for a liaison officer position. “I applied despite not knowing a lot about the New Zealand school system,” Prajesh said. He got the job. “It was meant to be a one year contract but I’ve been there ever since.” With this man’s charisma, felt even through a computer screen, the job of travelling to schools across the country to bribe enrolments with an irresistible combination of selfies and fresh Otago Uni merch was the perfect fit.
Prajesh has lived many lives within the Uni. His achievements have included starting his own podcast called ‘Baskets of Knowledge’ (ig:@basketsofknowledge). “We wanted to talk to people [about] their journeys. It was a big shift for us. We currently have had over 135 guests to date talking about their stories,” said Prajesh. The podcast also includes life lessons and stories from entrepreneurs, students, and professionals. On top of all this, Prajesh was voted one of the top ten teachers by his students during his time as an assistant lecturer for a health informatics postgrad paper.
Many people will recognise his Instagram username @student2scarfie and chances are you’ll spot yourself or a mate in one of the 1,909 posts (mostly smiling selfies). Prajesh said that while COVID posed many challenges when his job was literally to go to as many schools as possible, it did allow for the avenue of social media to become more accessible with students. “It meant future students could maybe recognise a familiar face and realise people from their home towns have made the moves, so they could too,” he said.
An uncanny ability of Prajesh is remembering names. Despite having ushered countless students into Uni, he’ll know your face – probably what you studied, too. Prajesh credits the talent to his time as an RA at Arana. “It's actually when I first came to New Zealand, I lived in Arana and felt like one of many and I just felt like it was not cool […] So when I eventually became an RA I wanted to know everyone's names and who people are,” he said. How he actually remembered all these names, however, was a task of association, “whether it be what they studied or what school or city they were from.”
Head of Schools’ Liaison Rhonda Brodie remarked to Critic Te Ārohi, “The team is sad to be farewelling Prajesh [...] he is a well known face at Otago and will be missed around campus.”
You can keep up with Prajesh’s antics on Instagram and LinkedIn.