Rowan's Internship Abroad in Malaysia | Malaysia
My name is Rowan and I completed an Internship Abroad with EPIC - Extraordinary People Impacting Communities in Malaysia in February 2019. At Murdoch University, I am studying Sustainable Development and Community Development.
The key factors for myself choosing to do an Internship Abroad were:
1. Experience in my chosen field
2. Learn about another culture
3. Challenge myself to live in another country
A little about my Internship Abroad...
I worked for EPIC - Extraordinary People Impacting Communities. EPIC is a Non-Government Organization that is assisting Malaysia’s remote communities to break the poverty cycle and help to bridge the urban/remote living standard divide that occurs between people from the city and those in remote villages. EPIC is broken into several business units; I was working for EPIC Collective whose role is to oversee the other business units. I was assigned a research task to get the background of a Community Development Fund (CDF) which pools money from server sources (Community, Town, City, and States) to assist the community to build infrastructure. During my research, I found that we were talking about Saving Group. Many Saving Groups feed into the CDF; however, EPIC want the funds to stay at the remote village level. I was able to visit one village during my internship, and I could understand the village people are in extreme poverty. I was able to finish the report and build a presentation to get people from the city and business to hopefully put in Corporate Social Responsible funds. I could see the work I was working has the power to empower the village people and improve their lives.
EPIC is a young business (10 years old) and the people are happy to work for them as they are making a difference to the village people’s lives.
A little about the city I lived in, Kuala Lumper...
My internship was in Kuala Lumpur (KL) – Malaysia. KL is a very modern Asia city that has three many cultures (Malaysian, Chinese, and Indian) – All three cultures could be seen in the food and festivals that happen when I was there (Thaipusam –Indian and Chinese New Year – Chinese). These festivals allow me time to explore KL and the surrounding areas of Malaysia. I was able to travel to Penang and Malacca. I found to get around using public transport was pretty easy (MRT, LRT, monorail) all where effective ways to get around.
The best part of my Internship Abroad was...
Working for EPIC, I could see the work
I was doing is going to be applied, and I believe that it would empower the
village people when that enough money to get EPIC in to build community
infrastructure.
Some challenges I faced and how I dealt with them...
As this was my third exchange program and internship I was aware that the internship is slow to start as the business generally are not ready for you to start. This was the same for my internship at EPIC. The other issue that meant I didn’t get to present the presentation was caused by Chinese New Year taking my supervisor away from work for a week made it was impossible to organise a time for the presentation. As it was my third international exchange, I did experience culture shock, but I still missed home (I’m a mature age student who has a wife and child (5yr old), so I was a little homesick. I was able to not overthink about home by socializing with the other Australian student that was also in KL on internship.
A little about my accommodation...
Global Students, the organisation that organised the internship and got me to travel to KL arranged the accommodation. I lived in a shared apartment (with two other guys) which had pretty basic features. Most importantly it had a great internet connection and was close to public transport (so close I could easily see and hear the Lite Rail Transit line/station). I could almost walk any direction from my accommodation and get food cooked by the roadside (which was super cheap – I could practically live in KL on about AU$6, so it was super cheap). Aircon in every room was required, I hate to sleep with it on, but I need to be able to sleep.
A little about how I funded my experience...
New Colombo Plan and Innovative Research Universities both gave me scholarships but I used a small amount of personal savings as well.
Some places I visited included...
During the internship, I was able to visit Penang and Malacca. Malacca was a day trip from KL that showed all the 6-week Global Students about the history of this town. I was able to travel to Penang during one of the long weekends with three other students (More travel but didn’t stay as long as us). I was great fun to get around Penang with all the other Australian students.
My advice to you would be...
Challenge yourself. It was really worth the time I spent over there and having done two internships in Perth, I need another challenge. You’re never too old to do an internship (I’m 39), and I was able to go and do this internship. Mature Age students can travel. As we know in our units at Uni, that younger students don’t have a problem and generally, like us in the class so why would this be a problem overseas. I have found really been able to fit into the group really well.
- Rowan completed an Internship Abroad with EPIC - Extraordinary People Impacting Communities in Malaysia
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