To broaden and develop our teams’ collaborative skills while offering visiting students the chance to expand their scientific networks and gain cultural experiences, BRT encourages students to join our team for internship opportunities. These internships aim to facilitate idea exchange, foster professional growth, and create opportunities for collaboration.
Recently, we hosted Zoe Cilento, a graduate from Australia. Read her blog here.
Enjoy reading about her experience with BRT!
My time as a BRT intern has been a unique experience that I will remember for a long time to come. During my first month with BRT in December, FTZ was visited by several academic groups from Ukraine. I had the opportunity to join the campus tours, collect media for the communications team and meet the collaborators. This was also an opportunity for me to see the campus and I most enjoyed visiting the greenhouse, botanic gardens and animal facilities. Outside of joining visitors, while I was in the office, much of my time was spent assisting the communications team with projects such as video editing for the recent COMUNIDAD project trip to Colombia and Chile, creating some design ideas for the upcoming BRT newsletter, and compiling a “day in the life of a BRT intern” reel (you can watch it on the BRT Instagram). While most practical lab work was hindered by the coinciding of my program with the holiday season, I helped PhD student Abdulazeez with preparation of growth media for his phosphogyspsum fertilizer trials; along with assisting in the setup of bioreactors for testing of existing inoculum for upcoming trials. Overall, I gained a deeper insight into global sustainability and social problems and was delighted to interact with people working to solve these issues.
I also enjoyed learning about the rich history and culture of the Czech Republic. The break over the Christmas/New Year period gave me time to explore the city and offered unique insights into Czech holiday traditions very different from my own. Making connections with team members from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures has been a highlight of this trip. I ventured out of my comfort zone and have made many friends and connections from around the world.
I very am grateful to the BRT team for hosting me and for all their support. I look forward to seeing where my career takes me and am keen to visit this beautiful city again in future!
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