27-year path to academic success

Thu May 12 2016 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

27-year path to academic success

12 May 2016

Tahua O’Leary with partner Megan Hall and four-year-old daughter Aine.

The road to academic success has been a long and tough one for 47-year-old Aucklander Tahua O’Leary.

Of Irish and Māori descent, he is graduating from the University of Auckland today with a PhD in philosophy, completing a 27-year journey that has been fraught with debilitating setbacks.

A high school drop out and estranged from his family at 16, he was living rough on the streets and facing a bleak future until a social worker acquaintance saw his potential, offered him a place to live and encouraged him to go back to school.

Leaving without enough qualifications to get into university, he ended up enrolling into the University’s Wellesley programme, a course designed to prepare students for tertiary study.

Completing it allowed him to sign up for a Bachelor of Science in 1990, but major hurdles lay ahead.

A family tragedy sent him spiralling into depression and not long after, he was diagnosed with testicular teratoma which had metastatised into his lymphatic system.

Recovering from surgery and a brutal form of chemotherapy but still determined to continue his study, he enrolled in a chemistry course with a view to becoming a lab technician, but his heart wasn’t in it.

“My partner at the time suggested I quit and do what I cared about,” he says, which turned out be anthropology, “with a side interest in philosophy”.

Deciding to continue on with the history of philosophy, a course that included ethics, metaphysics, logic, and epistemology (theories of knowledge), he discovered his overriding interest, philosophy of mind; a branch within the wider subject that deliberates on whether ‘minds’ are material or not.

Battling all the while with ill health, which at this stage also included a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and possible seasonal affective disorder (SAD), he graduated with a Masters in philosophy, with first class honours.

Turning down opportunities to further his academic career overseas in favour of staying in Auckland to be with his former partner and her child, he embarked on a PhD in philosophy at the University of Auckland that was to consume the next 16 years of his life.

“I did have to take a lot of breaks and time out to deal with my health issues and I also suffered heart failure (idiopathic cardiomyopathy) in 2011,” he says.

What kept him going through it all?

"Stubborn determination and the support of family and friends, especially my partner Megan."

Today he will be proudly graduating with his partner Megan Hall and four-year-old daughter Aine by his side.

His hopes for the future lie in teaching others what he’s learned.

“Often human values are assumed and unexamined. I would like to use the knowledge I have gained to teach critical thinking skills, especially in the area of values."

Now all he needs is a job.

http://www.maoritelevision.com/news/regional/phd-graduation-comes-after-lifetime-challenges

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