The first of his family to go to university, School of Psychological Sciences assistant lecturer Ryan Meachen (Ngāti te Wehi, Ngāti Huia ki Poroutawhao), stepped foot on Kelburn campus in 2013 with a “rock star” dream.
“I wanted to become the Mayor of Hastings,” he says. "I wanted to make a positive difference back in the little community that I grew up in, in a part of the world that I really loved.”
Although not likely to run for mayor any time soon, Ryan says what has been consistent all the way through his studies and later career, is the part of that dream that could make a positive difference in people’s lives.
As a Bachelor of Science student majoring in geography and public policy, Ryan says he was “no model student”.
“If you looked at my transcript, you'd be very surprised that I became a lecturer here at the University.
“I believe those first few years of study are about figuring out the person you want to become. If I could go back and give some advice to little old me, it would be to just embrace the crooked pathway towards your potential and the life you want to live.”
That first pathway saw him walking down the steep hill from Kelburn campus after completing the final exam of his undergraduate degree, with one thought in his mind; he’d finished and wouldn’t be back.
Seven years later, Ryan had helped over 2,500 first-year students grapple with the big, heavy, almost existential questions that come with being a first-year student. Starting as an RA and then later becoming a Deputy Head of Hall of several different Victoria University halls of residence, Ryan realised that he still faced the same questions himself.
“Although I loved being in those roles, I realised I was still trying to make sense of my own potential. So, I decided to enrol in a Master's degree."
It was during his Master of Business Administration that Ryan was first exposed to the field of organisational behaviour and organisational psychology.
“Dr. Paul McDonald's organisational behaviour class just lit a fire in me—I absolutely fell in love with the field and I thought, ‘this is what I want to do’. I could see that there was this pathway that aligned with what really mattered to me—making a positive difference in the lives of other people.”
That fire sent Ryan to Harvard University in the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship and then continued to fuel the completion of his PhD at Te Herenga Waka in his late 20s.
At Harvard University, Ryan studied under Professor Arthur Brooks, one of the world’s leading professors in Happiness Studies.
“As a part of the Harvard MBA programme—Masters of Business—Arthur teaches a class called Leadership and Happiness, which is all about the science of living a happy and fulfilling life and how to apply that science to lead people effectively within the workplace,” says Ryan.
“I wanted to study with him because as far as I could see, across the universities from all throughout New Zealand, not one university taught a distinct class on the science of how to live a happy and fulfilling life.”
Ryan brought that knowledge home, and as well as appearing on Oprah Winfrey’s podcast with Professor Brooks, he has since intertwined it with his own passions on finding your path and fulfilling your potential. He now teaches many classes including an introduction to well-being studies and what makes a good life.
From his first day at Te Herenga Waka to now, Ryan’s path has moved in many directions.
“Having a path like that that doesn't mean that you've failed,” says Ryan.
“It just means as you've grown and developed towards realising your potential—your dreams will grow and develop too. So, when you're thinking about this idea of who you could become, it shouldn’t be a fixed destination, but a North star that moves as you do.”
For Ryan, this University, and Wellington more broadly, is a place where people come to discover who they are, and to experiment with who they want to become.
“Students would show up straight from their parents' house all prim and proper. Within a couple of months, they had dyed their hair a different colour and they were changing their style, raiding Recycle Boutique for new clothes.
“I would have never dreamed that my first day at Victoria University of Wellington, doing a Bachelor of Science, would lead me to do a PhD in Organisational Behaviour, become a lecturer at School of Psychology, and to receive a Fulbright scholarship to study at Harvard University.
“Could not have pictured it in my wildest dreams.”
Catch Ryan on Open Day at the School of Psychology where you can ask him the question—what is a good life?