UWA students Alyssa Young and Annabella Jaramillo recently put their creative skills to use to support the work of Community Legal Centre, Consumer Credit Legal Service (CCLS), through the McCusker Centre for Citizenship’s internship program.
Alyssa is studying a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Marketing, and Communication and Media Studies, while Annabella is studying a Bachelor of Arts with majors in Law and Society, and Criminology. Along with the support of the CCLS team and internship supervisors, they were able to work together on ideas for the resources they created for the organisation.
“My role was a Volunteer Engagement Intern at CCLS, which involved helping to source and recognise volunteers. CCLS thrives with the help of its volunteer paralegals and needs a continuous flow to ensure the standards of service provision remain high,” Annabella said.
“The projects I worked on included revising and updating the volunteer recruitment process, creating digital resource packs to share with local law university clubs to encourage more people to volunteer, and creating resources for CCLS to use at careers fairs.
“I also created a CCLS colouring book with educational infographics about home loans, car repossession, debt collectors and more. It also had self-care and mindfulness activities,” she said.
Alyssa’s role was Digital Content and Digital Media Engagement Intern, focussed primarily on creating education videos.
“I created two videos for the CCLS website, one centred on scams and another about mortgage stress,” she said.
“These videos can help educate members of the public about important legal matters, and what steps they can take next if they have been affected. While the main goal is to prevent these issues from occurring in the first place, they can also help support individuals who have been affected.
“My internship opened my eyes to the fact that there are a lot of people in Australia who lack basic legal knowledge regarding their consumer rights; this was especially evident in the amount of calls received by CCLS from members of the older generation,” Alyssa said.
Sarah Holman, CLE (Community Legal Education) and Communications Coordinator and Leah Vagel, Communications Officer with CCLS, provided guidance to Alyssa and Annabella through their internships.
Leah said that the diverse perspectives that McCusker Centre interns brought to the organisation were greatly appreciated.
“Our experience working with Alyssa and Annabella was truly delightful. They embraced feedback willingly and exhibited strong teamwork throughout their involvement,” she said.
“Alyssa and Annabella were a pleasure. It was lovely to witness them collaborating on projects,” said Sarah.
“Not only did they apply their skill effectively but also demonstrated that they were important members of our team. We wish them all the best with their academic journey,” she said.
“We look forward to continuing our partnership with McCusker Centre for Citizenship.”
While Alyssa and Annabella’s internship contributions had direct positive outcomes for the community, they also recognised the benefits for their own learning and professional development.
“The highlight of my internship was presenting my video in a team meeting,
after I had spent so many weeks working on it - seeing your hard work payoff is an incredibly rewarding feeling,” Alyssa said.
“I have gained some invaluable skills in the areas of marketing and media communications and have expanded my graphic design and content creation knowledge,” she said.
“The most rewarding part of my internship was the ability to gain experience in a workplace that supported me and gave me the freedom to be creative - I was encouraged to think of ideas and solutions outside of the box, and I could contribute to an organisation that does amazing work for our community,” said Annabella.
“I am fortunate to have interned in my preferred area of work for my future professional life. I got to experience the work environment of a Community Legal Centre, and CCLS’s welcoming and encouraging atmosphere has motivated me to continue working towards my goals.”