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Last modified: 15 Aug 2023 10:47am

A close up photo of Clara in a garden outside the Council buildingA chance to make a different in emergency management, while travelling to a place with magnificent mountains on your doorstep was a no-brainer for French student, avid hiker and former firefighter Clara Aubergeon.

Clara has spent the last five months interning at the Council as a part of her Master of Disaster and Natural Risk Management at Paul Valery University, France.

During her time at the Council, Clara was tasked with drafting a ‘whole of Council resilience framework’.

Head of Emergency Management, Al Lawn says the report identifies areas where the Council has increased resilience, what’s being worked and further areas to work on and gives a holistic view of the impact of natural disasters across all areas of the Council.

In July, Clara also spent some time at SCION research institute helping them with wild-fire case studies. She says she has learnt a lot of new things about emergencies that she will be taking back to France, to finish her master's degree.

She thoroughly enjoyed her time here in New Zealand and made the most of exploring the country, hiking almost every weekend. “I would encourage people to do an internship overseas, because you learn lots of things about you and about other people.”

International placements in Council Emergency Management teams are becoming more common across the country, as overseas students become drawn to the way we manage natural disasters, Al says.
"Internships are a way for us to grow as an organisation. They enable the next generation of leaders to develop and give an opportunity for the interns to teach us. Having interns from overseas is a great way to expand our thinking."