My Time as an Intern at ZWAI

What did I learned and why I recommend you to do an internship as well.

Hi all! I am Janine from Germany and I am currently studying Sustainable Development in Bochum, focusing on our build environment and transport. From November to December I was in Ireland doing my full-time internship with the eNGO Zero Waste Alliance Ireland (ZWAI).

I first spoke with Órla, the Coordinator, and Jack, the co-founder and Vice Chairman of ZWAI. They both helped me a lot finding accommodation and planning my trip. With their support, and the help of a friend in Dublin, I was able to live in Mullingar for two months and one month in Dublin.

It was possible to work from home, but I also travelled by bus to Castlepollard to visit Jack and his wife Daila. There I could work together with Jack in his office. Jack has a wealth of knowledge about Irish history, the environment, current political events and much more. Because of this, I learned a lot about Irish culture and politics during my stay.

Within the first weeks I was invited to attend a board meeting in Galway, where I met other board members such as Sara Borkent Guigui, Jack Coffey and Claire Keating. It was lovely to meet them and it gave me a very good feeling for the weeks ahead. Over the course of my internship I was also able to take part in different meetings organised by the IEN (Irish Environmental Network), CAN and the IGBC (Irish Green Building Council), which helped me to broaden my knowledge.

So what did I gain and learn?

A new network and new friends in Ireland
Insights into Irish politics and EU-related work
Experience in researching and deepening knowledge in fields I am interested in
Improved communication and administrative skills (WordPress, social media, newsletters, organisation)
A better understanding of how NGOs work, how they change and how they are improving

In the end, I realised that I learned the most about myself and how I work within an NGO. At an NGO surrounding you can start great projects with motivation and passion. You really just need to begin and keep going. Of course, this is not easy but my time at the internship helped me to understand this and work on that. Coming from a big company, it was a huge change in how I worked and how I received tasks. Sometimes you need to find your own tasks, which is both very nice and challenging.

At the last AGM I was elected as a board member so that I can stay connected to ZWAI and continue doing voluntary work.

I can highly recommend taking the opportunity to become a member or an intern. I really enjoyed my time and I was surrounded by caring and knowledgeable people. The work they do is impressive and should be spread.

Thank you ZWAI for this opportunity.

Do you have any questions? I am happy to help: janine@zwai.ie