It includes educating people on how to reduce waste and recycle properly, researching illegal dumping in the city, and offering workshops on recycling, composting, worm forms and sustainable crafts.
Jessica says she did the internship last year though then it was part-time and her role was only focused on composting.
“My passion is sustainability, and being able to help educate the public is what interested me.”
She says she has been enjoying working with her team.
“They are really experienced and knowledgeable. I’m learning a lot, doing different things to last time, and educating people. It has been very interesting.”
Jessica thinks doing the internship broadens your horizons.
“You learn from other people and learn how much you don’t know. You are opening your mind and learning new skills.”
She says she wants to work in the waste and sustainability space, and that working with the team in council will give her experience that will help her in the future.
Cleo Armingeat is an intern doing data collection about the city centre, where she goes out to interact and look at the city centre environment, taking notes and putting them into maps and statistics.
She says she wanted to get some experience related to the industry of architecture, and when she heard about this internship she thought would be a great first step into the building industry.
Cleo says so far she has enjoyed being given quite a lot of independence and being left responsible for her work outputs.
She has also been enjoying the experience because everyone at council has been really supportive, she says.
Cleo is hoping the internship will give her more clarity about where she is headed within architecture.
During the welcome event, Rotorua NZ’s Justin Kimberley gave a presentation on the future of Rotorua.
During his speech, Geoff Williams said it was a delight to welcome the interns. He hoped the interns had an enjoyable experience and were able to take the opportunity to explore the city.
Fisher Wang said one of the central aspects of working in council he had come to understand was working in partnership and working together.
“Working together can make a real difference. Rotorua has amazing potential and we need to find way to help unleash it, to enable it, and I think the centre to that is our young people.”
He said he wanted to thank the interns for choosing to come back/to Rotorua and contributing to Rotorua’s future.
