Social Impact Entrepreneur Experience in Fiji

PEV is an incredible platform to improve personally and professionally. A great opportunity to meet various people to connect with and to learn from. I have learnt and talked about many things from others varying from talking about home countries to weirdest experience ever to crying all together. I had the greatest if not the best month of my life while in Fiji with PEV. Staffs from PEV are all very kind and always open for a good chat and that made me feel very welcomed into trekking with them

As a first year university student lacing significant work experience in social and corporate work environments, going on an overseas internship to Fiji of all places was extremely eye-opening! Not only was I able to develop myself on a professional and personal level; in which the soft skills I have obtained will forever remain in my favour, but I was also able to immerse myself in a new culture and experience life in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by like-minded individuals from countless backgrounds!

Project Everest Ventures provides a great immersive month where you are pushed out of your comfort zones but supported by great leaders and team network to achieve new personal and professional goals. Sometimes conditions are tough and not ideal but those opportunities allow you to find new strengths within yourself. The unique team environment also allow your to optimise yours and others performance. In country you are able to love like a local and visit local villages to identify, survey and understand the problems faced by the local community. You Are also provided with training sessions on empathy and pitching to better aid your autonomous village visits.

An internship with Project Everest is a great way to gain valuable work experience while working towards a good cause. The workshops that were conducted during the month were immensely helpful for my professional and personal growth - I felt like I learned something new everyday and I was constantly being pushed to step out of my comfort zone. The people at project are diverse and great and I learned a lot from interacting with them. Additionally, PEV’s model of using social enterprise to solve problems is able to create meaningful impacts in local communities, as opposed to voluntourism programs.

Going into Project Everest with no idea what to expect, given that I had inspiration from a friend, I wanted to see where this project will take me.
During January 2020, I went to Nadi, Suva and visited villages to learn and experience the Fijian culture. I have also developed as a person, especially my leadership skills and resilience. The group of trekkers are an amazing bunch of people, everyone is so diverse!
Everyone is very supportive and we all seem to get along with everyone very well!!

The sight seeing is incredible in Fiji!! The food provided is the best I’ve ever had with lots of options to try new things!! The work life balance is great with end of day early and enforced so that we do not over work ourself and are actually able to enjoy the trip!! The houses have incredible views worth the hike up the hill!! Not knowing anything about social consulting Project Everest provides workshops to ensure you know what you are doing. Morning exercise is mandatory and has variety so you can take it easy with yoga or go all out with tabata.

The main outstanding fact that separates PEV from other placements are that they work with local communities in developing countries. I loved this because the whole experience was very rewarding and thrilling. It had very school-camp vibes but also during work hours, it was very chill and very much like modern workplaces that aim to foster high business morale. When working with locals we would do things that are unique only to PEV such as surveying farmers and visiting villages. This let me and a lot of other trekkers have a more authentic and traditional experience of Fiji.

I wanted to sign up for PEV because I was so interested in social impact and interested to learn how it could be done through social enterprise. The whole internship was planned so well, executed so professionally and it has helped me grow personally as well as in my work. I can say that I made friends for life with the trekkers and all the people i’ve met at PEV have been absolutely genuine. I have no regrets signing up to adventure somewhere out of my comfort zone, to be able to work on something I’m passionate about and meet amazing people along the way.