Starting at MLC

Lachlan Abbott, Bentley Campus

Despite having completed 12 days of my internship this will be my first blog post. I have found I have been so busy, and the days flown by so quickly, I’ve barely had time to think of anything but my work.

I was fortunate enough to learn of a placement opportunity through a friend of mine working with the Office of Development and Community at Methodist Ladies College. While it was not my only option for placement I decided against continuing to work with the Department of Water, where I have worked for the past four and a half years. The difference in working environments between the public service and corporate has been quite drastic, despite both being in-house positions. This difference will be the focus of my first entry.

Whilst working with the department previously I have had many opportunities to become involved in the political and policy making processes. Although this work can be interesting, I found it to be very monotonous and dry, and a lot of the time I was short on work. This experience has been vastly different to what I have been able to accomplish so far at MLC.

My day to day duties have significantly changed, from media monitoring and speech writing, to events management and writing a lot of web-based news articles. I have found my journalism major to be invaluable, as the experience I have had in units such as Print Production and Online Reporting have prepared me well for writing quickly and working with online news publications.

The most interesting difference for me between the department and the college has been in observing the different levels of independence. At the department there were very strict rules concerning what could be said, at what time, and to whom, as well as tedious communication approval procedures. I have been fortunate to begin my placement at MLC during a time of transition, with a new director starting just last week, which has meant a lot of the time our small group has been able to come up with ideas for fundraising and events and allowed for greater creativity without so much of the red tape. This has also lead to greater responsibilities being taken on by everyone, but just last week the group was commended by MLC’s principal, Rebecca Cody, for their amazing work during a difficult period.

 

One of my Latest News article for the MLC website.

I think the extra level of autonomy allowed at MLC  is definitely a good thing, as it has allowed me to have some input into the direction of fundraising and events.  I will go into detail of some of the projects I'm currently working in a later post.  Until then!