Setting sail to Fiji

My Overall Experience from the Internship

I gained valuable life skills as I expanded my cultural knowledge of the Fiijain culture through the fantastic and plentiful resources that Think Pacific offered during my 4-week internship. I did my action project on the marketing campaign for Precious Plastics, which had me create an original story to market their organisation to younger Children. I based my campaign on a short film on Talei, the turtle. My campaign developed as I met with my mentor, who had a lot of positive feedback and constructive comments on areas where I could improve this idea. This led to me expanding the campaign’s appeal to take on the form of Talei travelling all over the World and seeing all the fantastic work that Precious Plastics does as an organisation. Overall I had a gratifying experience throughout the internship, and I learned a lot about marketing and gained practical skills in the creative sector.

Rocky Waves

However, as much as I would love to say that this whole experience was plain sailing, with travelling to the Pacific, both in the real world and virtually, there are always rocky waves that can cause your boat to rock. Thankfully I was not on a paddle boat making this journey through the Pacific Ocean, as I was teleported to Fiji with the click of the link.

This was one of the significant drawbacks of the internship. I felt disconnected from the Fijian culture as I was working remotely and using my laptop instead of having face-to-face interaction. It was hard to look at Fiji’s tropical beaches and sunny weather and then look out my window to an Irish Summer as the rain hit my window. Nevertheless, this was something I was used to due to the crazy year of 2020, but I felt like this hindered my connection to the culture of Fiji, which became a lot harder for me to form as I felt disconnected from the start of my internship.

First Week, learning curves

It was a challenging transition period as I was first met with this abundance of information about the internship while I was still trying to readapt myself to working remotely. Within my first Week of the internship, I felt overwhelmed with information, and this 4-week period added to the pressure of creating a high-quality piece within a limited time. This was when the Borton model of reflection [1] helped ease me into the whole experience as I took which information I needed to take in and then organised myself within what I had to do. This method of self-reflection helped me take off the pressure of trying to do everything at once. Within the first week, I felt on track and more focused as I started using the Borton model of reflection to aid in the time management that best suited me to consume all this new information.

Fiji on my screen, and rain in my ears

Think Pacific hosted multiple events that anyone could join, where they would talk about the culture in Fiji. These sessions helped me a lot when it came to completing my action task for Precious Plastics, as I learned a lot about the culture of Fiji. This allowed me to create my final proposal that celebrated the culture of Fiji and demonstrated the work Precious Plastics does to keep the World clean from plastic pollution. In addition, these sessions were a space for everyone to learn and network; I struggled initially to get involved in the breakout sessions as it was hard to separate my real life from this virtual experience, as once I shut off my laptop, I felt disconnected from the World of Fiji.

This awkwardness at the start made me feel even more disconnected from everyone else in the breakout rooms. However, as my internship progressed, I dealt with these issues better as I watched YouTube videos [2], [3] and researched further into the culture of Fiji [4], [5]. I found this additional research helped me feel more connected to Fiji through the power of the internet that I felt once disconnected me, now being utilised to help me feel more connected to Fiji. This helped me develop my action project and also helped me have a talking point with other people on the internship, as it was a common ground that we all shared and a good conversation starter. I felt like doing that extra bit at the start of the internship would have helped me feel more connected to other people, allowing me to network better throughout the experience from the very start. Still, I was glad to finally feel connected with Fiji and meet some fascinating people from all over the World through this additional research that helped me network and make connections during my internship.

Leaving the Sunny web browser of Fiji

As the tropical waves of Fiji began to send me back to the shoreline of Ireland, I knew my 4-weeks in Fiji had ended. However, I learned a lot of valuable skills about marketing, Fiji culture, creative problem solving and networking with others. All of which I took with me in my latest productions and have been seeing the benefits from, as I am more outgoing and confident in approaching people and communicating with other group members.

I had a rocky transition period at the start; I am glad to say that once those rocky waves cleared and I fully applied myself, I really enjoyed the internship from start to finish. I also realised the importance of self-reflection during the moment and using the resources available to you to mend the issue whilst it is happening. As the saying goes, smooth seas do not make a skilful sailor [6], and due to those rocky waves, I have improved in many aspects, which helped to make me a more experienced sailor of the Fijian web and a better team worker in the creative industry.

Bibliography

[1] Janse, B. (2022) Borton’s Model of Reflection from Toolshero Personal Development.
Available at: https://www.toolshero.com/personal-development/borton-model-of-reflection/
(Accessed: 20th November 2022).

[2] How the World can work Together// Think Pacific

https://youtu.be/ODQIIZxbPz8 (Accessed: 7th June 2022)

[3] Amazing Quest: Stories from Fiji Islands | Somewhere on Earth: Fiji Islands | Free Documentary

https://youtu.be/bLk7scBWWjo (Accessed: 9th June 2022)

[4] Think Pacific Website

https://thinkpacific.com/ (Accessed: 10th June 2022)

[5] World Travel Guide, Fiji History, Language and Culture

https://www.worldtravelguide.net/guides/oceania/fiji/history-language-culture/ (Accessed 12th June 2022)

[6] A Smooth Sea Never Made a Skilled Sailor

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/a_smooth_sea_never_made_a_skilled_sailor (Accessed 8th June 2022)