Here at The Habitat Foundation, we are committed to empowering young and passionate nature enthusiasts who could be the future environmental conservation. We have continuously and consistently provided opportunities for young interns to learn, grow and contribute to the work that we do.
Xuanyi (aka Ozzie) and Amin are interning at The Habitat Foundation to work towards their Roots & Shoots Malaysia Award (RASMA). This is a programme to energise and inspire young people of Malaysia to play an active role in environmental causes.
We checked in with them partway through their internship to find out how they were doing.
Q : Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Xuanyi : I’m 22 years old and currently studying in University Sains Malaysia, majoring in Zoology.
Amin : I’m 20 this year. I’m a first-year student Universiti Malaya studying a Bachelor of Science in Ecology & Biodiversity.
Q : How did you two get to know about RASMA and the Habitat Foundation?
Xuanyi : I came across RASMA through social media and I found it to be a good platform. It provided me the entrance into various organisations to volunteer and intern with. I applied for The Habitat Foundation’s internship because I have a particular interest in the study of endangered mammals, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to learn and gain some insight into that.
Amin : I heard about RASMA from my seniors and since I’m studying in the environmental field, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity for me to apply for an internship to gain practical experience.
Q : How has the experience of working with us been so far?
Xuanyi : We’re absolutely enjoying ourselves. We get to learn so many more things that we’ve never learnt before, stuff that isn’t taught in textbooks, and talking to the staff here who work in this field is also great.
Amin : For me, since I’m only a first-year student, this has been eye-opening for me. Seeing how an organisation like The Habitat Foundation operates is really interesting
Q : What’s the most enjoyable part of interning so far?
Amin : Definitely going out to do fieldwork. Especially doing population sampling for freshwater crabs on Penang Hill.
Xuanyi : I agree!
Q : What are some of the things you hope to gain from this experience?
Xuanyi : I hope to get more hands-on experience observing wildlife like langurs and macaques in the field. I would also love to be able to talk as confidently as the naturalists at The Habitat Penang Hill do when interacting with people.
Amin : I agree. As interesting as the ‘fieldwork’ side of things are, personally I would love to engage with the public more and learn to communicate about nature and the environment effectively. Though, I’m not sure if I’ll get to do much of that now because of this post-MCO situation we’re in!
Xuanyi and Amin will be interning with us for 2 months and 1 month respectively. They will be exposed to a range of work which includes developing educational materials, assisting with nature interpretation and fieldwork.
