Chloe Pavlov, a UWA Biomedical Science student majoring in Public Health, juggled work in Perth with travel to Bunbury to undertake an eye-opening internship with Advocacy WA over the recent university break.
“I’d heard a lot of positive feedback from other students involved in McCusker Centre for Citizenship internships, and I wanted to gain real world experience in an environment that I might end up in after my studies. I was also excited about the idea of applying some of what I had learned in my degree to a real project,” Chloe said.
Through the McCusker Centre for Citizenship (the Centre) program, Chloe assisted with three of Advocacy WA’s projects at different stages of development.
“I was able to work on the Economic Participation Project, which empowers young people with disability by developing their soft skills and connecting them to industries of their choice,” Chloe said.
“Another project’s primary focus is to build confidence and empower people with disability to be a part of governance boards. I was able to assist in building the research basis in this project’s early stages to ensure that it uses the best and most current evidence-based approaches. In the third project, also in its early stages, I undertook a literature review about the lack of an effective health interface for allied health services.”
“Getting to be a part of real work that will have an impact on someone’s life was extremely rewarding and cemented my aspirations for doing work that make an impact for disadvantaged or marginalised populations. I found that working alongside people who have a real passion for what they do and the impact they can have was incredibly motivating.”
Undertaking the internship had its challenges for Chloe, but she said the opportunity to experience work in regional WA with an organisation making a difference had been worth it.
“Being a student who lives out of home and is completely financially independent has been a bit of a barrier for taking part in opportunities such as this internship, and I knew going into the semester break that filling up my time completely with an internship and my regular work commitments would be difficult. I found that simple self-care activities like getting enough sleep and eating healthy helped get me manage,” she said.
“I was really excited to work outside of Perth, and it was an eye-opening experience. I learnt how important it is to work on distributing resources, particularly healthcare services, across WA so that people living outside of the city can have equal opportunity to participate in life.
“As someone with ADHD I felt that I knew a little bit about the struggle of navigating some of the systems in place as a person with a disability, but I had no idea of the full extent of some of the issues that people with disability face. I learnt so much about the lack of accessible spaces and systems, but also how this translates directly to people living with disabilities in regional or remote areas.”
Stu Schonell, CEO of Advocacy WA, said that Chloe’s contribution had affirmed the value a McCusker Centre for Citizenship intern can bring to a not-for-profit organisation such as Advocacy WA.
“Chloe was a pleasure to have onboard for the winter,” Stu said.
“Chloe had a great attitude, a fantastic work ethic, and contributed to some very important projects. She set a high benchmark for future interns.”
Chloe said the internship was an exciting opportunity that she recommended to UWA students who were up to the challenge.
“It requires a lot of hard work, but it does absolutely pay off in the end.
“Working with a kind team in a professional environment set a positive standard that I will now be able to recognise when I enter the workforce post-graduation, and taking on a regional internship helped me to develop my ideas about what it could be like working outside of a city context.”