The Guest Speaker

Dr. Jennifer Park is a researcher specialising in gaming disorder and online behavioural addictions, whose extraordinary academic journey began long before her work took her to Yale.
After skipping two years of high school, Jennifer began a Bachelor of Health Sciences at the University of Auckland at just 16 years old. By 18, she was conducting research into gaming disorder - an emerging field that would eventually become the focus of her PhD and take her from New Zealand to the United States.
Today, Jennifer is a postdoctoral associate at Yale, researching the brains and behaviours of young people experiencing gaming disorder and exploring how we can develop more accessible and effective treatments for behavioural addictions.
In this episode of The Guest Speaker, Jennifer takes us inside the psychology of gaming addiction: why some games can be so difficult to put down, what happens when gaming begins replacing sleep, school and relationships, and what parents should actually look for before assuming their child has a problem.
We also explore the rapidly changing world surrounding young people online - from sports betting and prediction markets to social media and AI chatbots - and why unprecedented access to these technologies is creating new challenges for researchers, parents and young people themselves.
But Jennifer's story is also one of education, curiosity and opportunity. She reflects on leaving home for university at 16, deciding medicine wasn't actually the path for her, discovering public health and research, finding mentors who changed the trajectory of her career, and the chance conversation at a conference that ultimately led her to Yale.
An episode about gaming, addiction and the attention economy - but also about what can happen when curiosity is encouraged early and you're willing to follow it somewhere unexpected.

Roelien Du Plessis first considered becoming a police officer at just 16 years old. But instead of heading straight into policing, her journey took her through university, elite sport, community rugby and youth mentoring - experiences that ultimately brought her back to the career she had once imagined.
A former Head Girl, representative netballer and rugby player, Roelien studied Human Performance Science at the University of Waikato before building a career creating opportunities for women and girls through Waikato Rugby. Later, while mentoring young people through Blue Light, she realised the impact she wanted to make could lead her somewhere new: the New Zealand Police.
In this episode of The Guest Speaker, Roelien takes us behind the scenes of the journey from applicant to probationary constable. She breaks down the recruitment process, psychometric and physical testing, the SCOPE experience, life at the Royal New Zealand Police College, the academic and practical training involved, and what it actually feels like stepping onto the frontline for the first time.
She also talks candidly about confidence, learning under pressure, firearms and driving training, the importance of fitness, working with people through difficult situations, and why being a good police officer is ultimately about far more than enforcing the law. For Roelien, it comes back to helping people - including victims, communities and even those who have made mistakes.
For students considering policing, Roelien’s advice is refreshingly open: develop your people skills, get experience working in a team, look after your fitness, ask questions - and don’t feel pressured to follow anybody else’s timeline. Whether you join at 18 or later in life, the right path is the one that makes sense for you.

Steph Wood never imagined she would become an entrepreneur.
Growing up in Western Australia, Steph struggled to find her place at school and left at 15 after securing a pharmacy traineeship. What followed was anything but a traditional career path: pharmacy, makeup artistry, building and architectural design, travel, surfing, and eventually a move to New Zealand.
Each experience gave Steph another skill she would one day use to build Sol Goods, the New Zealand-made natural sunscreen and skincare brand she founded after struggling to find a reef-conscious, mineral sunscreen that could withstand long days in the ocean.
What began with Steph making zinc in her own kitchen has grown into a brand stocked in around 120 stores across New Zealand, expanding into Australia and earning national recognition at the 2026 Viva Beauty Awards.
In this episode of The Guest Speaker, Steph shares what building a product business actually looks like - from bootstrapping her first production run and learning about formulation, testing and manufacturing, to understanding margins, finding sales channels, teaching herself Meta advertising and making plenty of mistakes along the way.
But this conversation is about more than sunscreen.
It’s about backing yourself before you feel completely ready, recognising that skills gained in one chapter can become invaluable in another, and understanding that there is no single timeline or pathway you need to follow.
For anyone wondering what they want to do, changing direction, or sitting on an idea they’re afraid to pursue, Steph’s message is refreshingly simple:
You’ve got time.

Caitlin Easter is a clinical psychologist whose career has taken her across child development, mental health, care and protection, corrections and sport psychology.
Growing up in Cambridge, New Zealand, Caitlin was far more focused on sport than becoming a psychologist. A talented netballer and swimmer, she became Cambridge High School’s inaugural Sports Captain before receiving the prestigious Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship to study at the University of Waikato.
Initially drawn to the idea of sport psychology, Caitlin went on to complete postgraduate training in clinical psychology alongside a master’s focused on sport psychology. She shares what the pathway really involves - from undergraduate study and the highly competitive clinical psychology selection process to supervised client work, internships, oral examinations and becoming a registered psychologist.
Caitlin also takes us inside the profession itself. She discusses working in prisons as a psychometrician, assessing children for developmental conditions including autism and ADHD, working alongside multidisciplinary healthcare teams, and navigating the emotional responsibility that comes with helping vulnerable people.
We also explore the importance of supervision, self-reflection and boundaries; what makes someone suited to clinical psychology; how psychologists protect themselves from burnout; and why there is no single place a career in psychology has to lead.
For students considering psychology, Caitlin’s story is an important reminder that you do not need to have your entire career mapped out at school. Her advice is simple: seek out different experiences, talk to people already doing the work, stay curious about what interests you - and give yourself permission to change direction along the way.

In this episode of The Guest Speaker, Jessica takes us inside the pathway to becoming a physiotherapist: from choosing high-school subjects and applying for university, to practical exams, clinical placements and navigating those first years in the workforce.
She also breaks down the different areas of physiotherapy many students may never have considered - including musculoskeletal, cardiovascular and neurological physiotherapy - and shares how her own career evolved from private practice and sideline rugby into concussion rehabilitation and chronic pain management.
Jessica also opens up about a side of healthcare that isn't always taught in the classroom: the emotional weight of spending every day with people experiencing pain, learning to create boundaries, and recognising that being a great physiotherapist requires far more than simply understanding the human body.
For students considering physiotherapy, healthcare, sport or rehabilitation, this episode offers an honest look at what studying and working as a physiotherapist can really look like — and why communication, empathy and connecting with people may be some of the most important skills you can bring to the profession.