He jokingly describes himself as “the worst example of a student” and “unmarketable”, but Dimitris Potusa is secretly pretty proud of the fact he is set to cross the graduation stage with a double degree from Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington with his equally proud family looking on.
Dimitris, who grew up in Ōtara, South Auckland, is graduating with a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Spanish. He’s the first in his family to get a law degree, a feat that will be celebrated by many members of his extended family who are descending on Wellington to surround their boy in love and recognise his success.
From an early age Dimitris showed an aptitude for language, and excelled at English and Spanish in secondary school. After winning a scholarship to Te Herenga Waka, he chose to study law alongside Spanish and Chinese language papers. But Dimitris found the pressure of first year law fairly intense, and initially wasn’t sure he’d made the right decision.
“I thought about the prospects of a career stuck in an office and the potential lack of work-life balance, and told my parents I wanted to pull out of law. But mum told me if I didn’t continue I’d have to get a job in the real world and help pay the family’s bills, which would have been completely fair,” he says. “So we struck a deal where if I got into second year law, I’d stick with the law degree. I worked harder and got into second year, which made a massive difference to my motivation levels.”
But then COVID-19 happened, and turned everything on its head for Dimitris.
“I ended up moving back to Auckland and working full-time in traffic control, while trying to study. So my grades were pretty bad—I was barely passing,” he says.
It was towards the end of his degree that something clicked for Dimitris.
“It may have aligned with Covid dissipating, but my grades started getting better, I was back in class, and was making friends in my cohort,” he says.
Dimitris has been an active member of the Pacific Island Law Students’ Society (his mother is Tongan and his father is Sāmoan), and won Te Herenga Waka Law School’s Luke Cunnigham Clere Māori and Pasifika Negotiation and the Bell Gully Pasifika Moot competitions for 2023.
Another highlight for Dimitris was when he was selected to go on a university exchange to Spain.
“I went to Barcelona and did some law papers, which was so cool. My language was good enough to be taught legal philosopy in Spanish, which was a challenge but still really, really fun,” he says. “I made so many friends there—everybody wanted to be friends with the exotic guy from New Zealand.”
He’s also grateful for the University’s help through the Alumni as Mentors programme, which connected him with a general counsel at Fonterra.
“He has given me lots of advice that helped me find a job in the public sector, but he also has a lot of contacts across the private legal sector if I end up picking that path,” Dimitris says. “He took a lot of time to look over my CV, cover letter and other application materials, so it’s been super helpful.”
He credits his law professor Dr Mele Tupou Vaitohi with lighting a fire underneath him.
“I couldn’t have made it out of law school without her—she gave me valuable career advice and was my maternal Tongan pastoral support person while I was so far from my family. She’s amazing and I have so much gratitude for all she did for me.”
Dimitris is now working at the Pacific Justice Sector Programme, which provides training for anyone engaged in the justice sector from 15 countries across the Pacific.
“It’s probably the best job I’ve ever had—I’m pretty happy where I am right now and feel really fulfilled. It’s Pacific justice work so as someone who’s Pasifika I’m pretty passionate about that.”
Throughout all of this, Dimitris has been working hard at his side hustle—directing music videos.
“It’s been a passion I’ve had for many years. It had always been a dream of mine to make music videos full-time—I’m looking forward to exploring my newfound love for law alongside chasing this dream.”
Dimitris says giving back to his family has been a huge motivator for him to succeed at university.
“One of the best parts about graduating is that I’ll finally be able to work full time, because my goal has always been to make money to pay my parents’ mortgage and buy a big house for my big family,” he explains. “I mean, helping people is cool, and learning things is cool, but my main impetus for the next 10 or 20 years is to help out my parents and siblings and aunties and cousins. That’s what drives me—the love of my family.”
He’s looking forward to celebrating his huge achievement with his family at the graduation ceremony.
“I just want them to sing because I'm like, yes! I'm so proud of them and I want everyone to see my big family, whom I love with all my heart, for whom I do everything, and without whom I would not not be here or who I am today. It's also my dad's 50th birthday on Monday, so I guess I’m gifting him my degrees in a way. I can’t wait.”