Financial Support Funds Student’s Work With Aboriginal Communities

Celeste on-site in Australia, summer 2017

Celeste Whitman is a second-year student in the Nicholas School’s Master of Environmental Management program who has made an effort to focus both her coursework and her extracurricular activities on environmental water resource management in underrepresented, minority and indigenous communities. Thanks to the Kuzmier-Lee-Nikitine Internship Fund, David R. Brower Fund, and the Nicholas School International Internship Grant, she was provided the opportunity this past summer to travel to Australia to help a research team create a community-level framework for water and energy services in remote and isolated Aboriginal communities. Celeste was kind enough to take the time to share about her experience in Australia, the impact it made, and what made it all come together:

 

 

Celeste, how was this trip made possible? What steps did you have to take?

Before I got funding to go all the way to Australia, I had to find an internship first. I talked with one of my Nicholas School professors about wanting to do environmental work over the summer with Indigenous communities in either Australia or New Zealand, and she luckily had a contact in Australia who studies Indigenous water rights. That research contact in Australia was then able to reach out to her network and see if anyone working with Indigenous groups in Australia had room for a research assistant. Once I was put in contact with a project at Griffith University on the Gold Coast, I interviewed with the research team lead and got the position. I then applied for grant funding through the Nicholas School for my summer internship. Without help from donors and staff/faculty throughout the Nicholas School, I do not think I would have been able to afford an amazing summer in Australia working on water reduction in rural Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities.

 

How did this experience enhance your learning experience at the Nicholas School? In other words, what were you able to accomplish and experience that you wouldn’t otherwise have in Durham?

I have taken courses taught by leading researchers and practitioners in water quality, environmental policy and community-based environmental work, and been part of several class client projects that have enabled me to work with community members and organizations around environmental. However, it has been difficult for me to make connections with Indigenous communities, of which I want to collaborate with on environmental issues in my future career. My summer internship allowed me to travel into a remote and isolated Aboriginal community with my small research team and talk with residents about their water use and find out from them how they could help reduce water use within the community. I was able to get hands-on experience collaborating with underrepresented groups through outreach and engagement with Indigenous communities, which I might not have been able to do otherwise during my two years at the Nicholas School.

 

What sort of impact were you able to have (on the community, environment, etc.) by going on this trip?

I got the opportunity to learn about environmental policies in Australia and help to advance collaborations between the government, service providers, and Indigenous communities through community-level programs. The research project that I worked, when it is finished in a year or so, with will be used to try and create more inclusive water and energy service plans for a community that does not always get a seat at the planning table. A month after meeting with community members participating in the project, we have already seen a reduction in community water use and hopefully that will continue as the research team, government, and service providers continue to engage with the remote and isolated Indigenous communities involved.

 

What advice would you give to any students considering taking advantage of these types of opportunities?

The process of finding an international internship is a lot of hard work and requires extra hours on top of everything else happening in your busy student life, so you have to make sure you are passionate and committed about what you want to do and where you want to go. Use your connections to professors, alumni, staff, and others to find an opportunity that fits your interests. Keep trying and trying to find the right internship/research experience for you. The first project I was connected to was not the one I ended up doing, and sometimes you have to keep contacting people to find exactly what you want. If you are going to be traveling to an expensive place and your host internship site is not able to provide you with a lot of financial support, you will need to apply to grants and those can be stressful and time consuming. However, if a summer internship abroad is what you need to help achieve your career goals and/or work towards the completion of your master’s project, then take that leap. The worst thing someone will say is no and the best thing that will happen is you get to have an incredible summer experience.

 

Is there anything else you’d like to share about your trip?

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to the funds that enabled me to travel to Australia to do research! Also, without the help of Dr. Liz Shapiro-Garza, staff at the Nicholas School, and friends and peers helping me refine my grant applications, utilizing their networks, and providing moral support, I do not know how I would have been able to carry out my internship.

 

 

If you’d like to learn more about Celeste’s trip, check out her blog at http://blogs.nicholas.duke.edu/internshipblogs/australia-2017/ .