Skyler Watt
Student, Bachelor of Health Science (Honours) in Psychology
Graduate Diploma in Health Science
Bachelor of Arts in International Studies with minors in Japanese and Psychology
The student culture at AUT is warm and supportive, and there are many amazing people to meet, says Skyler Watt who is currently finishing his Bachelor of Health Science (Honours) in Psychology.
“I’d absolutely recommend studying at AUT – it’s not cold and standoffish like some universities can be. If I ever ran into a problem, the staff were amazing about sorting things out. Or if I had a question about how to do things, there was always a student happy to give advice.
“The smaller class sizes have been great for learning as you get to interact with your lecturers rather than just being a number in the crowd. AUT has some of the best and most passionate lecturers, which really made a difference in my learning journey. The friends I’ve made have been a joy and a huge part of my support system as I moved through my degrees. AUT also has some great student clubs where you can meet others with similar hobbies and make friends with others from different degrees.”
Skyler – who completed a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies, with minors in Japanese and Psychology, before enrolling in further study in psychology – says his biggest challenge was transitioning from high school to university.
“I went to high school in the United States and moved around a lot, and every place I ended up in had a different curriculum, in a different order. Therefore, I completely missed the opportunity to develop any academic writing skills and had no idea was APA was. Through the support and guidance of Sonja Gallagher, my academic writing teacher in my first year, I was able to bridge this gap and finish out the year with an A+ and the confidence to continue my academic journey.”
Gaining skills and confidence
For Skyler, one of the highpoints of his time at AUT was completing AUT’s employability awards to help him stand out to his future employers.
“I participated in the AUT Edge Award and that experience was so valuable, so later on I decided to also do the Beyond AUT Award. AUT is unique in that it really promotes connections between industry leaders and students. The employability awards were a great way to experience this.”
Gaining skills and improving his confidence though the volunteering, leadership and employability workshops was a great opportunity for growth, he says.
“The Beyond AUT Award pushed me outside of my comfort zone through events like the networking workshops and volunteering opportunities. I got to meet many people I wouldn’t normally have met, which opened my worldview on what having a career could look like for me.”
Making a difference to the rainbow community
Now enrolled in a Bachelor of Health Science (Honours), Skyler plans to become a counselling psychologist in the future.
“I’m interested in various aspects of psychology including prevention, psychoeducation and empowering others to improve their overall wellbeing, which is a key focus of counselling psychology. After I finish my honours degree, my goal is to make it to the next step of my study, which is the master’s degree in psychology.”
For his honours degree research Skyler is investigating the impact of gender-affirming healthcare on body image for gender-diverse individuals. His research is supervised by Dr Liesje Donkin.
“I chose this topic because I’m rainbow and trans, and would like to make a positive impact for the wellbeing of the rainbow community. There are numerous studies on gender-affirming care and body dissatisfaction in the gender-diverse population, which have been linked to poor mental health outcomes. However, there’s a lack of information on how this impacts this population's body satisfaction and mental health. Understanding the connection between body image satisfaction and gender-affirming healthcare may help better inform psychological practice and interventions when working with gender-diverse populations.”
