Jessica Elakis' internship experience

Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)

Completing a law degree is no easy task. The life led by most students is more often than not consumed with study. Through all the pressure of exams and assessments, haven’t you wondered, have you not asked yourself, if all of this is worth it? Have I chosen the right course? Is this right for me? Now in my fifth year as a law student, I have asked those questions numerous times throughout my degree and have not really found the answer until my internship at the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in Sydney as part of the Aurora Native Title Internship Program.

Let’s start at the beginning. Spring semester in 2012 began like any other. The first weeks of semester came and went, all while knowing that this was the calm before the storm of pending assignments and exams. I decided then that I would apply for an internship with the Aurora Native Title Internship Program well before this storm. To my surprise I was fortunate enough to be awarded an internship. My thirst for exposure and experience in the world of social justice issues would be quenched.

During the summer of 2013, I had the privilege to spend six weeks of my break interning in the Sexual Orientation, Sex, and Gender Identity Team at the AHRC. First and foremost, the Commission is an independent statutory body that monitors and advocates Australia’s implementation and compliance with its human rights obligations.

The work carried out during my internship at the Commission gave me a great opportunity to conduct various and interesting tasks concerning lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and gender-queer (LGBTIQ) issues, especially with the proposed consolidation of Commonwealth Anti-discrimination laws. This not only allowed me to gain practical skills in research, but overall I was able to utilise the skills and knowledge I had attained from the past years of study in my law degree. This allowed me to see the practicality of all those late nights of study, and appreciate to a degree the stress and anxiety I underwent throughout my years as a law student.

There were many rewarding aspects of my placement. However, it was most exciting to be acknowledged and called upon by the Commission’s President Gillian Triggs to conduct personal legal research. Furthermore, I had the opportunity to meet and work alongside talented, highly experienced, friendly, committed and passionate individuals – particularly my supervisor, who was essentially a one-man team. In addition, I was fortunate enough during my internship to be placed with three other interns, each in separate divisions.  We shared our experiences and created friendships throughout the six-week placement. All of this and more allowed my experience as an intern at the AHRC to be enriched, and allowed me to understand and appreciate the value of my law degree as an instrument to affect change on a large scale.

My time as an intern with the Aurora Internship Program granted me a whole new perspective toward my law degree and has given me hope to one day wield it to change the world for the better. So if you were like me, and suffered doubts and nagging questions as to whether your law degree is right for you, an Aurora internship may be able to remedy those doubts, provide an antidote for those pestering questions and hopefully inspire you to realise the endless possibilities that your law degree has to offer.