Communicating Nature as an Intern – Why did I choose ELF?

I decided to have my communications’ assistant internship in ELF because of the values that ELF carries in itself are similar to what I believe in. Luckily ELF also thought I would fit in and here I am! I am a student in the University of Tartu and I study semiotics major and communications minor on the BA level. I have seen that ELF is slightly more biocentric than I am by my views but as I’ve learned from my studies, it is also important to be a bit distant, a bit outsider as a communication specialist from the organisation you work for. Every organisation wants to be heard by as many people as possible and it is surely important to have somebody with an external view of an organisation for its healthy development.

I’ve always loved being in the nature: gardening, hiking, collecting berries or mushrooms are part of my favourite activities and forms of meditation. Though in my major studies I’ve relearned what the meaning of nature is and how it relates to people. By that I have become more holistic in my understandment of the world. I am also interested in advocacy, policy making and politics in general, which my short time of one week in ELF shows to be an important part of the organisations everyday. I feel that especially as a PR worker it’s very important that the values of you as a worker and the values of the organisation are common. ELF definitely is one of those organisations that do meet my need to do better for the nature and the society that thrives in that nature.

In this short time of my internship I am planning to firstly get to know the organisation better and through that be there for the PR team. I’ll try my best to be critical, think thoroughly and add value to the decisions made. I am also hoping for developing some well needed practical skills in my field such as interviewing, social media analysis, making press releases, communicating with policy makers and helping in coming up with the messages to the auditorium.

I envision a future, where almost everybody is treating nature from a new holistic perspective, where all life is cherished (yes I am also talking about you, spiders, even if you are VERY scary). Where the modernist opposition between nature and culture has fallen. This means the politics of the world has to change tremendously, but I believe that the collapsing ecosystem will bring a change unknown to human and a change in policy making too. I believe if you want to be on the right side of the history, then working towards a better environment for humans and other creatures is upmost important. It is not just an environmental crisis, its humanitarian, public health, capitalist and feminist crisis all at once and I will try my best working towards solving those difficult problems in our world.