Through a partnership between the Australian National University (ANU) and the Environmental Institute of Australia and New Zealand (EIANZ), I was fortunate enough to undertake a three month internship at SESL Australia – Canberra office, under my Bachelor of Environment and Sustainability at the ANU.

During my time at SESL Australia, I was involved in field work and reporting aspects environmental site assessments for new developments, and a number of soil surveys for residential and infrastructure projects around Canberra. I particularly enjoyed working on the generation of site maps as this gave me the opportunity to explore new computer software programs and online spatial data catalogues such as ACT Mapi.

The internship was an excellent way to gain some real world experience, build industry networks and explore my own career values. University is a great learning opportunity, however it can be hard to see its applicably beyond graduation, thus the internship was invaluable to my career planning.

I learnt so much during my internship however my top lessons were to:

• Be proactive and driven - try everything, challenge yourself and don’t wait for the opportunities to come to you.
• Reflect on experiences and learn from them, whether good or bad.
• Be open to feedback and use it as a tool to improve yourself.

I would highly recommend the internship experience to any university student; you won’t regret it!

Thank you to Kelly Lee, my supervisor, for taking the time to mentor me and allowing me to work with you on such great projects.