Future17's SDG challenge offers students a fresh approach to sustainability

Our group had what felt like the biggest amount of students participating universally. Among them were, Stellenbosch University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and three students from The University of Exeter, including myself. 

The first thing is to take the project very seriously, because our group were only offered to come as interns because we gave a good presentation and had a helpful rapport. So you need to be able to communicate with the partner organisation very well and you need to really show them that you can genuinely help and make real change. It’s about getting to grips with how the organisation you are partnered with functions and helping them to find practical solutions so that they can potentially offer you and give you a leg up in terms of applying for an internship.

I'm quite a young student here, so a lot of the people that come here as interns are master's students, but I've been given this amazing opportunity because of the relationships Exeter and Future17 provided. 

I applied to support all sides of the project with a big focus on the think tank side because that's what applies to my course the most, in politics and sociology. It's the thing that interests me the most, but I've also been supporting so many projects from the coffee production, to communicating with the farmers, going into the fields and helping the students run the events. It's been great and i've learned so much on all fronts. 

During Future17, it was a lot about working as a group and a lot of online skills because all of that was done virtually. Right now, I'm working in person with a team. We do have a few people working virtually around Indonesia, but working in the office, I've become a lot more accustomed to professional work and a proper strict nine-to-five schedule, whereas during the Future17 course, it's just like a module that you're doing virtually and you need to really tune in and be hard on deadlines and be hard on rules as a team so that you can see real changes as a team.

Otherwise, it's not very realistic. Everyone becomes lazy and you need to coordinate it as a group. You need to both be self-organised and really put a lot of pressure on the group to work which is a hard skill, but it's possible. So, from your very first day, be very organised in your meetings and really outline a clear system that you will follow.  

Firstly, intercultural communication, because at times there is a slight language barrier and I think other teams may have experienced that even more. Secondly, Organisational skills are huge. You really need to be able to plan professional work, so people have big expectations of you and need to see things materialise. So you need to be able to deliver.

Thirdly, you need to be a confident member – you need to really show yourself and prove that the group can help the organisation and that you're not there just for a fun time, you really need to show that you're serious about it. 

I've been here two months now. So very, very quick. Straight after I heard a presentation, 'Would you like to come for an internship?'. I jumped on that and within a week I'd booked my flight. 

I would recommend getting involved, showing that you're enthusiastic and reaching out to the organisation. We were lucky to be offered an internship, but if you're not offered an internship and you feel like you've done a good job, never be afraid to reach out.

As soon as we got offered the internship, I sent an email and I gave su-re.co a very specific set of dates that I could work in, I updated and attached my CV and everything. And it goes from there.  

No. Well, I didn't really feel the need to reach out to the university, I thought it was on me to do the work and to show my interest. And I think that's the way it should be. If you want it, then you should really ask for it, be assertive and show that you can really make an impact. 

Definitely, I mean, it's the first sort of experience i've had at university that's properly opened up careers to me. The experience has led to a really great experience here in Bali. Future17 had a big influence on the way I thought about what I want to do professionally and later on after university – it made it really easy. 

With thanks to Zainab Zafar, Future17 alumnus, for her assistance with the interview.