CSF Canadian Intern

Since the beginning of May, Devan has come to join the CSF team. She comes all the way from Canada! She is here as a part of CSF-Canada Corps internship for the summer of 2005. Devan is a Canadian student intern at the Center for Social Forestry for 3 months. She will be working for the CSF as a part of the Canada Corps University Partnership Program. During her internship, Devan’s task is to create a video C.D. which will be used to promote and market the CSF to international NGO’s and associate members. Her task is to assist with initiatives to strengthen the collaboration between the Centre for Social Forestry and major extractive industries (timber, coal mines, palm plantations): such businesses have a major impact upon the socio-economic and environmental relationships among communities and surrounding industries. The expected outcomes of this intern include: 1. The development of training materials. 2. To assist CSF in improving communication and facilitation techniques. 3. To improve marketing and coordination of CSF’s orientation programs. 4. To improve and develop the intern’s capacity to work in an international work environment. Recently, Devan-Marie has also been appointed as a guest speaker for students at PIN (Government Academy, UNMUL). She has been asked by Ketut Gunawan (CSF member and UNMUL lecturer), to assist in encouraging students to learn, and speak English. Her seminars are a beginning to an ongoing English Day for the students at the Academy.

Devan is a full-time student from Thomson Rivers University. She is currently pursuing a Batchelor of Arts Degree, with a major focus in Geography. She will return to Canada in August to complete her final year of studies. Devan’s academic background in geography, her interest in environmental issues and her work experience with native communities in the Canadian north have made her an easy choice for this internship. In addition, Devan sits in the top one-third of her class academically and plans to go on to complete a Master’s degree in environmental conservation. She has successfully completed a third year course on the Geography of East and Southeast Asia and has demonstrated a keen interest in the work of the Centre for Social Forestry. She is happily residing in Samarinda. She is enjoying her work with the CSF family and learning immensely from its members.