First week at WA Deaf Society

Hello everyone!

I'm Winnie (Hui Ni) and this is my very first contribution to the PR393 Reflective Blog. I would like to share some of my experiences so far and hopefully I get to read some of your experiences too as well! Seems like for Semester 1, 2009, I am the first to blog an entry?

Well, getting down to my experiences so far, it was a rocky road in the beginning but its slowly starting to smoothen up and I'm really glad. Prior to me starting my work placement with the WA Deaf society, I was stressing up quite a bit looking around for a suitable organisation that I wished to gain work experience. I was really rushing to look for an organisation and made quite a few calls to various companies to get the right contact in order to address my resume to. Really, it wasn't as easy as I thought! Of cause, I had a few rejects because they already had interns and couldn't accommodate more.

Then finally, I managed to arrange for two interviews with Company A (name of company shall not be disclosed) and with the current organisation that I am with now, WA Deaf Society. So my first interview was scheduled with Company A and when I was there, I knew that that was not an organisation that I would want to be at due to the very obvious politics. No doubt every organisations has its own issues, but when Company A interviewed me and had a chat over what kind of work placement I was looking for, the chairperson and the secretary started arguing in front of me and really, it was verbal vomit! Strong words were used at each other and imagine how I felt witnessing that situation during the interview! And when it was over, I walked over to the chairperson to say thanks for giving me the time and it was great meeting them but he gave a very unwilling handshake and indirectly said he was very angry with the secretary. I was really disappointed that very day and thought how will I be able to work in such an environment.

Thankfully on the other hand I kept my options open and had another interview with WA Deaf Society! It was simply smooth sailing and I was really glad that something was going in the right direction (as for now). Marisa is the Business Development Manager for WA Deaf Society and she is a really nice and friendly person. I contacted and forwarded my request regarding this placement and was told to call Jenni, who was the in-charge for volunteers, to arrange for a time to come in and speak to them. So I went on in and met both Marisa and Jenni. Marisa then told me more about what WA Deaf Society does as a non profit organisation and which areas I could help out and gain some hands-on public relations area to suit this placement. Then I got this placement approved by Katherina and yesterday was my first day at work.

I am currently doing two days a week from 9-5pm every Wednesdays and Thursdays. Yesterday being my first day, I must say, I really enjoyed every single minute I was there at the office. Jenni gave me some annual reports, newsletters etc to read and gain a better insight to the organisation. Brainstormed on some ideas for their membership program (which would be further looked at in the later part of the placement) and read through their current website and did some editing to areas I thought that can be improved or re-structured. Auslan (Australian Sign Language) classes is also conducted for volunteers and I was able to attend the one hour class every week! This class is taught by a deaf teacher who also teaches as TAFE. It was tough in the beginning but by the end of that one hour, I managed to gain some skills to understand Auslan! I am really looking forward to learn more and communicate in Auslan too.

WA Deaf Society has volunteers who are profoundly deaf and communicates in Auslan. Thus with me learning Auslan, I can have basic communication with them.

Today was my second day at WA Deaf Society and it was a busy day! I helped with editing a media release for Marisa and right after that we rushed down to Curtin to set up the booth for the Curtin Careers Day. So maybe some of you who are currently reading this entry may have spoken to Marisa or myself! It was fun as I got to share my experiences (although it may only be a day at work but I've gained so much!) and told them about how they could also do volunteering with WA Deaf Society. Many were interested in learning Auslan.

Here are some pictures of our booth today at the fair...




After the fair, we headed back to our office and I assisted in some basic office duties because we had to get the newsletter mail outs as soon as we can and the machine was a little cranky on us. It has been a good experience so far and I am glad to have hands on experience.

Looking forward to next week again! I hope all of you are also enjoying your placements as much as I am currently.