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Planning student lands eco-job in Germany
A University of the Sunshine Coast student who has just finished her Regional and Urban Planning degree is set to launch her career in Germany.
Monica Romanyk, 24, of Noosa, has gained a six-month internship with ICLEI, a local government organisation committed to sustainability.
“My internship will be in the eco-mobility sector based at the world secretariat in Bonn, so I’ll be flying to Germany on Thursday (25 November),” she said.
Travel is nothing new to Monica, an International student from Canada who decided to study at USC after holidaying in Noosa five years ago.
She said her studies at USC had established her preferred career path.
“The Sunshine Coast was a really interesting place to study regional planning because of its growth and the USC degree inspired me,” she said.
“I’m excited about working in the field. It has so much potential. We have to work with communities and not forget the social implications of planning.”
Monica pursued her interest in social planning through a minor in Sociology.
“As an intern with ICLEI, I will help plan the first EcoMobility World Congress in Korea in October 2011. This will involve researching successful local government active transport initiatives worldwide, such as bicycle lending.”
Monica’s studies were enhanced by a recent visit to Wroclaw, Poland as part of a program with UN-Habitat, the United Nations agency for human settlements.
“I applied to the European Urban Summer School and was selected to join 50 young professionals and academics from a range of countries to discuss sustainable urban planning with UN-Habitat,” she said.
“It was an incredible learning experience over 10 days. Wroclaw, the fourth largest city in Poland, was the focus of our case study.
“We discussed all aspects of sustainability – social, economic, environmental – in relation to the past and present ways of planning.”
– Julie Gatehouse