Making Waves: Our Summer Interns Share their Experience

This summer Stream Foundation & Stream Ocean offered two students the opportunity to participate in an internship, exploring the fundamental structure and processes involved in a foundation and start-up. Working closely with the team, Varun and Amaya spent the past 3 weeks undertaking various projects for both Stream Ocean and their partner Stream Foundation and expanding their knowledge of the practicalities of a workplace and experiencing one firsthand.

Varun Biniwale

‍I am passionate about technology and the sciences so I was immediately very excited about the prospect of experiencing what it’s like to work in these fields. We got the opportunity to try out different areas of work ranging from training AI models and organising fundraising to helping with accounting.
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This internship provided me with an invaluable introduction to the professional world, and I enjoyed every moment of the enriching three-week experience. Stepping outside my comfort zone, I was immersed in the world of NGOs, marine biology, and startup culture, and it was very rewarding.
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My favourite part of the 3 weeks was helping write social media posts to engage followers with the mission as I used the opportunity to familiarise myself with the marine life shown in the videos. I also really enjoyed watching the feed from Stream Ocean’s cameras for interesting clips. Similarly, when helping train the AI model, I learnt about the many species of fish and how to identify them, a skill that I would have never learnt otherwise.
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I also gained a new awareness for the work being done towards marine monitoring, sustainability and restoration. Before, I had a vague understanding of what was going on, however now I have a new perspective on the scale of the effort put into keeping our oceans alive. I am very grateful for this experience and I am excited to do more in the future.

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Amaya Gowdie

‍This internship was my first introduction to the workplace and I can most assuredly say that it was nothing if not positive, eye-opening, and joyfully challenging. From morning coffee runs with my coworkers to creating social media posts and going through financial ledgers, I struggle to recall a moment where I was not fully engaged and encouraged by those around me to apply my skills while learning new ones.

As a high school student with a passion for natural and environmental sciences there was very little hesitation on my part when the internship position was first advertised. I viewed it as an opportunity to “trial” one of the career paths I was considering entering in order to narrow down my potential tertiary education options. Not only has this opportunity provided me with insight into my future, but it has given me a new found awareness of the active work being done to remedy the issue of biodiversity loss. This issue, in the past, had seemed more detached and impersonal; something that I myself would be concerned about but never see any direct action towards. Now, not only am I more aware of the problem, I feel actively involved in finding and implementing a solution.

Personally, the most meaningful experience I’ve had while working at Stream Ocean has been exploring getting involved in the planning, preparation, and (later this year) execution of fundraising events with their partner, Stream Foundation. This particular task created the opportunity to demonstrate and develop critical and creative thinking skills which I will most certainly be using for many many years to come and has prompted great excitement at the possibility of continuing to contribute in future workshops and events.

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We would like to express our sincerest gratitude to the Stream Ocean team for making this such a unique and wonderful experience. Being surrounded by such a close knit crew that embraced us so readily and warmly allowed us to challenge ourselves regularly and truly engage with the workload. We entered this experience with very little besides motivation and excitement and we are confident in now saying that we will be leaving with much much more, from knowledge, to connections, to heavy hearts at the thought of not spending 8 delightful hours a day with this amazing team.

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