Hi from Down Under! I now officially have less than a month left in my study abroad program—I truly cannot believe it. Time really does fly when you’re having fun! Living in Australia these past few months has shown me that each day is full of its own small, impactful moments. Whether it’s waking up early to catch the sunrise or having a positive interaction with a stranger, the city of Sydney is magical.

One of my most positive experiences while abroad has been my internship with Planting Seeds. Planting Seeds is a nonprofit focused on biodiversity education and urban regeneration. On the marketing side, I run their social media, write newsletters and articles, and perform any other outreach tasks that may be delegated. However, a large part of my role is also volunteering at local primary and high schools to run our B&B Highway incursions. The first month of my internship was mainly spent in the office, focused more on administrative tasks and talking about our education curriculum. This is because schools in Australia end their summer break in late January/early February, meaning that our programs couldn’t realistically start running until kids were back in a school routine.

My first volunteering day was around a month after the start of my internship, meaning that there was a lot of anticipation built up regarding the visit. I’ve always loved working with kids, and I have held jobs babysitting, working at a daycare over the summers, and volunteering with various youth-oriented organizations in the Pittsburgh area. I was curious to see how schools in Australia were different from those in the United States. I was also excited to see Planting Seeds showing its impact in real time.

The day was full of adventure, challenges, and surprises. Kids are the same universally, showing excitement, curiosity, and impatience over building bee habitats and getting to plant native groundcover in their new garden. My first challenge came when conducting our biodiversity quest, where a group of nine-year-old girls pulled me to a log with “slaters” on it. I had to pretend I knew what a slater was for a few seconds, before realizing this creature was a roly poly. Much of my day was spent answering questions about my accent, discovering differences in species names across the world, and helping to wash soil from dirty hands.

My experience working in Australian schools has been extremely eye-opening to my career trajectory and my time abroad. Interning at Planting Seeds has taught me that I can work in a business role that also had direct community impact. While working for large firms is rewarding in its own way, my experience has shown that I would operate better in a smaller firm that has proven, hands-on connections to the community. I have also grown to love working in the nonprofit sector, especially with kids. Designing a new worksheet that helped kids better understand native Australian pollinators is just one example of how I’ve been able to see a task through to the end by working in a smaller organization.