Myah Darby is studying a combined Bachelor and Master of Biological Science in Wildlife Conservation at the University of Western Australia (UWA) and contributed 100 hours to public campaign work with the Conservation Council of Western Australia (CCWA) through a McCusker Centre for Citizenship internship in Semester One.
“The internship with CCWA provided me with a great deal of insight into the important work that conservation organisations do.
“It was challenging to be confronted with the sheer scale of a lot of the environmental issues prevalent in our society today, however the internship gave me perspective on how small actions make a difference when people work together towards a common goal; when communities come together to support a cause, every little action has the potential to drive serious change,” Myah said.
Through her internship, Myah was able to help with the Save Scott Reef campaign launch, as well as joining the Better Climate team to work on a report focused on potential solutions to support a better climate in the future.
“The work I undertook in my internship helped raise awareness of the environmental issues we currently face, but more importantly, steps we should be taking going forward to achieve a clean and reliable economy in the future,” she said.
Liam Lilly, Fossil Fuels Program Coordinator and internship supervisor at CCWA, said that Myah had demonstrated reliability and professionalism, quickly picking up a good understanding of the organisation’s work.
“Western Australia is home to iconic natural places, unique wildlife and globally significant biodiversity. At a time when so many of WA’s unique plants and animals are already being driven further toward extinction by extractivism, industrialisation, land clearing and increasing greenhouse gas pollution, it is crucial that young leaders like Myah becoming active and engaged in environmental protection,” Mr Lilly said.
Myah said that seeing behind-the-scenes work bring the community together for the public Save Scott Reef campaign launch event was among the highlights of the internship experience, while other highlights were the opportunities she had to meet like-minded people and make professional connections in the conservation field.
“I decided to apply for an internship with the McCusker Centre in order to get some real-world experience in the workplace and become more active in my community.
“My internship at CCWA allowed me to develop and enhance my communication, time-management and professional writing skills, the sort of skills that will stay with me for life and are transferrable across many working environments.
“I would definitely recommend a McCusker Centre internship to other UWA students. It’s a great way to achieve credits towards your course and, personally, it allowed me to undertake an elective unit that I am actually interested in, as well as one that has allowed me to gain real-world experience in the workplace.”