Internships with Deakin
Biodiversity Officer Intern at Hobsons Bay City Council
Building on the experience I gained at Conservation Volunteers New Zealand, I went beyond the requirements of my degree and had the opportunity to complete an internship in 2023. The goal for my 14 week work integrated learning elective was to further my professional experiences at Hobsons Bay City Council as a Biodiversity Officer intern. I was tasked with facilitating the Habitat Gardens Program to “encourage and support residents to use indigenous plant species in private gardens to increase local biodiversity resulting in broader ecosystem connectivity with conservation reserves”. In line with the Biodiversity Strategy 2017 – 2022 goals, the program focused on “establish[ing] greater genetic diversity, habitat for wildlife, food sources … across the municipality to lower the risk of species loss” to combat the pressing issue of biodiversity loss.
My role as an intern was to support the delivery of this program by engaging with stakeholders, maintaining the habitat gardens inbox, and reviewing gardening resources. The key events I was involved in included the native plant giveaway events, habitat gardening workshops and native nature strip visits tailored to the needs of the community. By having a curious approach to the conversations I was engaged in with a range of residents, I tailored my communication style to effectively meet the needs of residents, sharing the aims of the Habitat Gardens program and building positive experiences for community members. By meeting residents and participants of various Habitat Gardens program events, I learned from a range of perspectives. I used these insights to tailor my online correspondence to ensure the Hobsons Bay community was well-informed and felt part of the initiative. As a result, the native plant giveaways were a success, receiving satisfaction ratings that totalled over 95% from surveys sent to participants. By connecting the program aims with the aspirations of the community, I successfully implemented and evaluated the Habitat Gardens program during my time, contributing positively to the program objectives of supporting the Hobsons Bay community. From this, I wanted to share my experience as an intern working on this program. Due to the program being in its second round, feedback was essential, therefore, I gave a presentation during a monthly directorate meeting. I outlined the Habitat Gardens Program and its success alongside my internship experiences. This opportunity built my leadership as I practised my presentation skills, reflected on my experiences, and shared the success of the program with my managers and directors, positively influencing the continual investment into the program and the opportunity for future intern opportunities.
My experience at Hobsons Bay City Council developed my leadership capabilities as I furthered key skills including organisation, stakeholder liaison, and project management. As a continuous learner, I contributed to the successful implementation and evaluation of the Habitat Garden program to influence positive change within the Hobsons Bay community, making environmental action accessible and achieving program objectives. With my commitment to sharing the objectives of the program, I positively influenced environmental wellbeing and the values of others, reaffirming their trust in public service. By contributing to the awareness of others through professional correspondence and social media, I positively impacted the Hobsons Bay community during my internship. For example, I promoted National Tree Day alongside my co-workers in the local newspaper, representing how achievable environmental change is, a value of mine and a strong aspect of leadership. Following my internship, I defined my passion for community action and discovered that I enjoy delivering community initiatives, this experience showcasing the next steps and aspirations for my career. In future, I hope to continue having a positive impact on the wellbeing of others and the environment. By engaging with a range of perspectives to refine and redefine my leadership values, I learnt that leadership is a continuous learning journey. My experience as an intern was a truly enriching experience as I combined my discipline-specific understanding with community liaison to create necessary change, developing my leadership capabilities to contribute to a sustainable future.
“Cheryl exhibited remarkable growth in leadership and made a positive impact on the Hobsons Bay community ... Cheryl’s leadership development and her proactive engagement with the community have been influential in advancing the goals of the Habitat Gardens program, particularly in fostering positive community involvement in conservation efforts.”
Social Impact Team Intern at Sustainability Victoria
For my last elective, I decided to draw on my experience with governance at different levels (NGO, Council and policy) and contexts (local and international) alongside my academic understanding to complete an additional internship with Sustainability Victoria in 2024. The project I was tasked with for my 104-hour internship was to create a document that summarises research conducted by the Social Impact team. The research was completed as part of the process of creating a roadmap to inform campaigns for behaviour change. This roadmap aligns with the recently published strategic plan for Sustainability Victoria titled ‘Our Strategy 2024 – 2027'. With a focus on identifying key circular behaviours across a range of sectors, I had to be thorough and succinct. To tackle this, I summarised the data and asked for feedback from my supervisor during our weekly check-ins. After learning more about the context of my presentation, I tailored the document to the behaviours at a consumer level. Upon sharing my presentation with the wider team, I took on feedback and tailored the document to include relevant data for the audience of this resource including the team, wider organisation and partnered stakeholders. By including the purpose of the document, providing linked resources and the context of the strategic plan, I created a tailored and holistic document to be used for identifying key behaviours, making a positive impact on the Victorian community. By experiencing governance at a state level, I learnt how national targets are translated into state plans and actions. I learnt that state government work with key stakeholders, providing research and resources to support community initiatives. This project taught me that in governance, collaboration and approvals are required to ensure the best quality of work which differs from my approach at university. I learnt to embrace the processes of governance and my curious nature to be a continuous learner for my graduate life. During my time, I found that the skill of seeking and taking on feedback is highly regarded and necessary as a learner to implement positive outcomes as everyone collaborates towards common goals.
In addition to my project, my learning extended outside of my discipline and I enhanced my professional development. By working with the Social Impact team, I learnt that media and communication are crucial for creating an understanding of circular economy within Victoria. I developed a deeper appreciation for media as I learnt about media trends and message delivery. Engaging in discussions about creating content that resonates with the user, my awareness of others deepened. Thinking critically about communication, I redefined influence and impact. Influence means receiving a message and impact means translating the message into action. This insight taught me the power of communication and how it can be utilized positively to create action. This was significant for me as I discovered my perspective as a science student who is accustomed to reporting is different to the experiences of others, I learnt the importance of expanding my awareness and communicating accordingly to influence positive actions. Furthermore, by engaging in a range of conversations across the organisation, I learnt from diverse perspectives and informed my thinking. For example, the common trend that I saw across my conversations was flexibility in career journeys and life decisions. Hearing from people well into their careers, I felt a sense of reassurance and excitement for my journey ahead as a graduate. From this, I wanted to share the same sense of empowerment with fellow STEM students during my women in STEM mentoring role. This was important to me because I learnt from my peers that they felt preconceptions and uncertainty as young women in STEM and I wanted to challenge their thinking and share the same sense of confidence. By exploring what resonated with me during these conversations, I defined how I want to be a leader in everyday life, this includes having an open mind, choosing resilience and empowering others. By prompting meaningful and effective conversations, I deepened my awareness and contributed positively to the work environment as a curious learner. Following my internship, I endeavour to bring the leadership qualities I developed into future opportunities to continue having an impact.