Bryan Benjamin recently graduated from UWA with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Anthropology and Sociology, but not before making a meaningful contribution to the Centre for Accessibility Australia as an intern in the McCusker Centre for Citizenship’s program.
“I assisted with the identification of and application for grants, which helped the Centre for Accessibility Australia (CFA Australia) gain funding for their community-based projects,” Bryan said.
“The main highlight came only after I completed my internship: finding out that one of the grant applications I had worked on had been approved and that the project was going to move forward.”
His efforts earned him a nomination for the McCusker Centre for Citizenship’s Outstanding Intern Award, with CFA Australia CEO, Dr Scott Hollier, saying Bryan’s work directly supported people with disability, their families and carers.
“The original expectation for Bryan was that we would put together a grants submission calendar and potentially submit a grant,
“Not only was this achieved, but Bryan was so dedicated to the role that we completed three grants, updated several online resources, wrote a number of news items and supported critical administrative tasks,” Dr Hollier said.
“Bryan provided a revision of the Help Desk on our website, in effect, ensuring its up-to-date relevance to changing technology; our Help Desk is one of our most essential services that people with disability utilise, and this was a necessary update.”
Through the 100 hour internship, Bryan said that he had gained friendships while learning about working in a community-focused organisation.
“I was able to build on my understanding of disability and disability services through the mentorship of my wonderful supervisor, Dr Scott Hollier, as well as learn more about the behind-the-scenes work done by all my friendly and helpful colleagues,
“I believe that this experience has benefitted me tremendously in terms of working experience, as well as lived experience working alongside colleagues with disability; I found myself gaining a deeper understanding of how my colleagues saw their day-to-day lives and learned how to be respectful towards people from various backgrounds, while sharing my own beliefs and experiences with them as a collaborative effort within the office,” Bryan said.