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This course followed well from the last workshop, Leadership, reiterating many conversations that were had. It touched on what it means to be a leader personally, within a team and as a citizen within the community. I had never thought of what it meant to be a leader to myself and it was interesting to see cases of Monash University alumni advocating for social justice and reform.

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Background and Introduction to My Role

This internship so far has been a great opportunity to widen my scope and learn about new areas of Science. Throughout my studies, I've had a focus on Human Biology through Genetics and Immunology and have never completed an Earth and Environmental Science unit. This internship is within the Water and Coast team within the Climate Change and Sustainability division and my primary role is working under my supervisor Hayden who is responsible for the Beach Hand Cleaning Trial, a 12-month trial of hand cleaning 100% of Mornington Peninsula beaches to determine its efficacy and sustainability when compared to the previous method of mechanical raking. Within this role, I'm involved in site visits for the testing of microplastic and wrack presence through different monitoring methods. All the data collected is accumulated in an Excel spreadsheet and from this I will represent this data and provide a summary document to serve as a progress Report, to be made available on the Shire's beach cleaning webpage to the general public. There have been community concerns with this trial since its commencement, having been the first council to introduce a 100% hand-cleaning methodology and the importance of the coast to the way of life on the Mornington Peninsula. I'm currently completing one full day in the office (9 am-5 pm) per week on Tuesdays and will involved for more days in the larger monitoring rounds the week of mid-semester break.

Challenges

A major challenge I have faced is feeling that I lack relevant knowledge of the role. During my interview with my now supervisor, I informed him of this and the whole team have been supportive and wanting to help me learn and provide me with so much knowledge. The team have each involved me in their roles getting to see different sites and learn more about the coast including conservation, coastal erosion, coastal risk, coastal planning, flooding and drainage. Despite lacking experience I have learned so much and now I'm feeling more confident in my abilities and feel that I have more to contribute to the team.

Expectations vs Reality

I didn't know what to expect within a council office and did not truly understand the processes and the structure of the organisation. I have found it interesting to learn about the political dynamics within the council and the process of receiving funding for projects. I've found that within each small team individuals curate and present projects to councillors for funding and where approved seem to be tasked with this individually with help from the team where possible. I expected that within funding there as greater allocation to certain causes such as maintenance and safety of coastal property and structures and more importantly the preservation of the coast through coastal erosion prevention strategies.

Feedback

My supervisor and I recently had a progress meeting to talk about how each of us was feeling in the internship. This was a great opportunity for some validation of my professional skills, communication, teamwork and adaptability while being able to ask questions about my expectations and plan out my role and deliverables each week.

Growth

So far I think this has been a great experience to put me out of my comfort zone and test my abilities to work within a professional environment, gel with coworkers work on projects that I don't think I otherwise ever would have and gain knowledge. I think have grown in confidence within the workplace and my abilities and think it's providing valuable insight into the science industry as well as the government sector.

Despite this internship being so far from what I'm studying I've realised it's the day of the week I most look forward to. I like the dynamic working schedule between in the office and out on site and it provides the opoI'm invested in my project and the organisation and would love the opportunity to extend my internship or stay with the project in a different role to see it through until the 12-month trial is over.

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Hi everyone, my name is Liv and I'm a third-year Bachelor of Science student majoring in Immunology with Minors in Chemistry and Genetics. I am currently undertaking an internship at the Mornington Peninsula Shire within the Water and Coast Team of Climate Change and Sustainability division. My focus is data collection and analysis for representation in a Progress Report for the first quarter of the year-long Beach Hand Cleaning Trial. The goal of this Progress Report is to create a short summary resource of the trial so far and to provide transparency, context and preliminary findings to be accessed and comprehensible by the general community. Feel free to reach out and connect on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/livparker

Post from Slack LinkedIn Profile Channel

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Sorrento was a site where we did both the metre-squared and 100m area transect tests at 6 and 12-week frequencies respectively. This beach had a smallest distance from the vegetation to last high tide line, it also had the lowest result for microplastic per metre squared and litter per 100m area.

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Rye was a site where we conducted just the short monitoring round where the metre-squared microplastic and wrack coverage assessments were conducted. This was done by taking the area microplastic per metre from three different areas of the beach; at the vegetation, last high tide line and then the midpoint of these two quadrants.

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Safety Beach was a site where we conducted both the short and long monitoring rounds. The three-quadrant test of metre-squared squares at the vegetation, shoreline and the midpoint of these points assessed the microplastic presence and seaweed coverage. The longer round assessed 4 random number generator-determined regions of the beach. Four transects of 25 metres in length and varied width from last high tide line to vegetation were used to represent the amount of litter present on the beach. Safety Beach was one of the beaches with the highest amount of litter and seaweed presence and this is a common theme amongst the northern Port Phillip beaches of the Mornington Peninsula.

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This experience was so much more enjoyable than I initially expected. I came into it unsure of what to anticipate, but it turned out to be a really rewarding experience. I’m so grateful for the chance to meet and work with such a wide variety of talented and knowledgeable individuals, each bringing their own unique skills and perspectives. These people became invaluable resources, helping me grow and learn more than I thought possible.

I gained a deeper understanding of the coast and the environment, and it’s really shaped how I now view and engage with my local environment. The knowledge I’ve gained has also influenced my personal values, making me more conscious of how my actions impact the world around me.

Working within local government was also a highlight. It was really interesting to learn more about how the council operates, the local election process, and the steps it takes for things to actually get done. Seeing the decision-making process up close was eye-opening, and it gave me a better appreciation for how local governance works.

I feel very fortunate to have been paired with a supervisor who not only made me feel comfortable asking questions but also helped me develop my professional skills and deepen my knowledge in environmental science. They played a big part in making this such a positive learning experience for me.

Fitting in with the rest of the team was easy, and while my supervisor was away, I had the chance to work with other team members and assist on different projects, which gave me more opportunities to learn and grow. Overall, I’m really thankful for this experience and everything it taught me.