Lucy Bundu Au is amongst four retirees who has served and worked at the Somare Institute of Leadership and Governance (SILAG) since 1979; back when it was known as the PNG Administrative College. Lucy was just at the age 20 when she left her first employer the Public Service Commission and joined SILAG as a student admin clerk. She has occupied a number of senior management positions in the last 43 years whilst working with SILAG including, an officer in charge for Student Admin, an OIC for Revenue Finance section, an OIC for Registry as well as an acting building and facilities manager from 2018-2019. In 2019, Lucy was appointed as the Acting Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) Business Project Coordinator. Around the same time, the position GESI and Industrial Relations Officer was created, and this is the current position she occupies. During the time that she has been the GESI officer, her office managed to have come up with four internal polices which she leaves behind as a legacy. These policies include, family sexual violence, child protection, disability policy and harassment policy. She is one of the very few individuals who have witnessed the changes that have taken place from the time the Institute was known as PNG Administrative College to PNG Institute of Public Administration (PNGIPA), then to Pacific Institute of Leadership Governance and now to Somare Institute of Leadership and Governance. As part of her journey at SILAG, Lucy recalled the first time she joined the institute sharing memories of the campus which was filled with multi-racial people from Australia, Africa, Asians and other Pacific countries as well as a few Papua New Guineans who were also among those that strived to be the first trained public servants in the country. She stated that the Administration College then had more than six hundred students and stayed on to seeing it transition to this day with more new management coming in. Her greatest achievement according to her, was contributing and being part of the institute's transitions and policies that came with it up until today. In addition to sharing her journey, Lucy had a few role models herself that she looked up to in which have left the institute except for one, Michael Barobe; the Chief Executive Officer of SILAG. She described Barobe as a natural born leader with no nonsense and that is something she has always admired about him and through his strict leadership, has changed the institute in which is now recognized as the only mandated school of government. SILAG has come a long way, and she believes a lot more can be achieved through under his leadership. An emotional Lucy shared that SILAG has always been her second home to her and her family. “SILAG has shaped my personal life and professional career into something I may have never achieved if I had worked somewhere else.” “For 43 years this place has been familiar to me compared to my own home.” From a 20-year-old to now a 65-year-old, it has been memorable journey for her who has lived through the challenges and the positive changes for SILAG. Before taking the final bow, she expressed how grateful she is to the past and current management for their leadership and for mentoring her throughout the years and with that leaves with a piece of advice to the young staff that have just recently joined SILAG; “Work hard and work smart, learn as much as you can.” “Every day comes with new challenges, take on those challenges and focus on your own career plan.” Lucy is the longest serving staff of SILAG followed by her other colleagues and fellow retirees who are, Samuel Yangu, Wesley Waninara and Job Minan.