She has served on the University of Waikato Council since 2016 and was appointed chancellor in 2025. <\/p>\n
She is also the chairwoman of Hospice Waikato Trust and, this year, became deputy chairwoman of Momentum Waikato.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on her career, she told Waikato Herald, that while the world around young people had changed dramatically, their fundamental needs had not.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world may have changed around us, and the only real difference is that young people face far greater challenges than previous generations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need the same basic responses from us as adults that everybody always has, but they need them more.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to be more intentional, we need to be more thorough, and we need to stick at it longer because they are facing a very insecure world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite stepping away from school leadership, Hassall said she felt fortunate to still be contributing through her community and governance roles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always loved being busy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel very fortunate that even though I retired from Hamilton Boys\u2019 High School, I\u2019m still able to contribute and be involved in the lives of young people, particularly, but also in the wider community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been part of Waikato for a very long time and it\u2019s a very special place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hassall said the recognition in the King\u2019s Birthday Honours was also an acknowledgement of the importance of education and those who work within the sector.<\/p>\n
Hassall said educators held one of the most important responsibilities in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe educators of New Zealand are the ones who will make the difference for the next 25 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf somebody like me, who\u2019s just an ordinary person who\u2019s done the same things, is recognised, then I think that\u2019s wonderful for education.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said schools played a vital role in creating environments where young people felt safe, valued and able to contribute.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a school principal, you have to create a pretty safe world for them, one they feel proud of being part of and which they love contributing to,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople love to contribute and be part of things.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung people need to be intentionally loved,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can show that in all sorts of different ways, but that\u2019s the bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hassall has also continued to contribute through her governance roles. <\/p>\n
As the University of Waikato chancellor, she helped facilitate the signing of a kawenata (charter) between Waikato-Tainui and the university in 2025, establishing a framework for collaboration on programmes that support their shared strategic objectives.<\/p>\n
Looking at the region she has called home for decades, she said much has changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHamilton has grown up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is no longer seen as a place that\u2019s easy to get to everywhere else from.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is seen as a destination.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s at the forefront in terms of innovation, it has a wonderful university, great schools and a good hospital. It\u2019s a fantastic place to bring up children.<\/p>\n
But she said growth also brought challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s any risk, we have to be careful that we don\u2019t grow so fast that we lose sight of who we are,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to retain that real sense of being a small city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hassall said she planned to celebrate the honour with family and friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to get together and have a fantastic celebration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tom Eley is a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. Before he joined the Hamilton-based team, he worked for the Weekend Sun and Sunlive. He previously worked as a journalist at Black Press Media in Canada and won a fellowship with the Vancouver Sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She has served on the University of Waikato Council since 2016 and was appointed chancellor in 2025. She…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2246,17623,41932,6325,2046,48756,2947,9060,84,1138,231212,14236,7560,27981,6036,9066,5971,111,43,139,69,384,1954,31747,16085,812,8229,25824,59054,4741],"class_list":["post-457124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2246","tag-appointed","tag-belief","tag-birthday","tag-career","tag-companion","tag-dame","tag-decades","tag-education","tag-firm","tag-hassall","tag-held","tag-honours","tag-kings","tag-know","tag-loved","tag-need","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-people","tag-simple","tag-spanning","tag-supported","tag-susan","tag-they","tag-throughout","tag-valued","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}