Maddy is an adventurous and big-hearted student from Australia who is always looking for an opportunity to push herself outside of her comfort zone and make a positive impact in the lives of others.
I chose Project Everest Ventures (PEV) as an internship as the experience had been raved about by a close friend!
PEV, as an organisation, is focused on achieving the UN sustainable development goals through the creation of socially beneficial, affordable and sustainable business solutions that are tailored to solving social issues in developing countries, which I also absolutely love as it's a very sustainable way to make an impact.
PEV has an incredible team that's in contact with you from the very beginning. They constantly provide you with support and information through phone calls, emails or messages to ensure that you are organized with the necessary documents and have a good idea about what working in a developing country looks like prior to leaving.
Furthermore, they also run a full day of training prior to leaving for country, where you’ll get to meet your team and some of your leaders, while learning all of the core methodologies surrounding business, crisis management and project development that you’ll apply every day while overseas.
Throw yourself into every aspect of the project possible.
It is such an incredible experience to meet like-minded individuals, develop personally and professionally and be a part of making an impact in others' lives so give it absolutely everything you can. You are only going to get out what you put in, so push yourself outside of your comfort zone, identify your strengths and weaknesses and take it all in to become the best that you can be as I can promise you that it is going to fly by.
While on the project, I lived and breathed India! We were based in a small village 35 minutes out of Bhubaneswar, ate traditional Indian meals every night (chicken dopiza and samosa’s were a stable!), experienced the craziness of Indian public transport and were able to explore what makes India so special and unique on the weekends.
Each day of project varies drastically day to day; however, throughout the month, I was able to experience empathizing with farmers in the local communities, setting up and planning business meetings with government officials, developing my business skills and knowledge by running workshops, building my soft skills by increasing my EQ and integrating knowledge from my university degree back into my project.
I had plenty of fears prior to leaving on the project but my biggest one was probably the unknown.
Living and working in a different country with people you don't know can obviously be pretty daunting, and it's difficult to feel comfortable with this one. However, I encourage you to take each day as it comes, soak up not knowing what's happening at all times, and learn to roll with the changes.
If you take things one step at a time, then there's nothing which you can't accomplish!
If you're sitting on the fence, just do it. Take the leap of faith and apply, because you have no idea where this experience will take you otherwise! My internship with PEV has been a once in a lifetime opportunity where I have been fortunate enough to develop my leadership abilities in an environment that is both supportive and stimulating. My month interning was inspiring, challenging and I’ve never met a group of individuals as wholesome and committed to long-term and positive change as the team at PEV. I can safely say that my involvement with PEV is hands down the best decision I’ve ever made as a university student.
If you are interested in tackling real social issues with a multidisciplinary team of other socially-minded students, while learning leadership skills, being immersed within a local community, and being part of the global social change movement, then I could not recommend Project Everest Ventures more highly!