Leila Nefdt 2016/17

Interning at SAEON Egagasini is an amazing opportunity for me to not only build up my skill set within the field that I love but it is a great opportunity for me to network with other pioneers within the field of Science. Since I’ve joined SAEON, I have been under the wing of Dr. Lara Atkinson and Thomas Mtontsi. With Lara, I’ve been exposed to and am assisting her in biodiversity-related projects, mainly with the completion of the invertebrate identification guide which will facilitate the crews on-board with the identification of species collected during dermersal trawl surveys within South Africa, assisting Iziko Museum and SANBI with the completion of the SeaKeys Project and other various projects. The other half of my internship is spent in education outreach with our Education Officer, Thomas. I thoroughly enjoy the fact that I get an opportunity to work with the youth due to it being another passion of mine. Amongst working with the monitoring teams from the adopted SAEON schools, my involvement in the outreach programme also includes assisting with exhibitions to create awareness of marine science (DST Minister’s Budget Vote, DST Minister’s Imbizo in Sutherland), the Eskom expo, and the logistics planning and implementing of workshops and marine science programs for learners. The internship is an exciting experience because it creates an opportunity for my passion in Marine Biology to grow as I continue to develop myself as a working individual. I am aiming to continue my studies in 2017 in order to further my qualification to a master’s level, hence I will also be on the lookout for a possible research project.