“Get out there and get out of your comfort zone” – New videos on many career pathways into international ag for development

June 10, 2021

The Crawford Fund has for more than a decade implemented dedicated initiatives to encourage young Australians into having a go in working, volunteering or research in the international agricultural development space. These efforts have received a significant boost in recent years thanks to ACIAR’s investment into our NextGen program.

Our latest initiative for NextGen, our Career Pathways Campaign, is focused on the many and varied career pathways into international agricultural development. We have featured blogs and podcasts from an array of different young people and the paths they have taken to find themselves in a career in agriculture for development.

We are proud to release our latest two videos:

Our first features Tristan Armstrong, Senior Sector Specialist, The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade who followed an evolutionary genetics pathway to international agriculture for development; Maree Bouterakos, Head of Nutrition, United Nations World Food Programme in Lao PDR who came to international agricultural through a nutrition focused journey, and Kayla Lochner, Program Support Officer, UNSW Institute for Global Development who is an anthropologist.

And our second video includes Zoie Jones who is the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Regional Communications Officer for Africa and followed a communication pathway, Kirt Hainzer, Senior Researcher with CQU who has followed a pathway from finance to ag for development, and Anneliese Austin, who ended up with Bees for Sustainable Livelihoods via a pathway focused on environmental science.  

These videos add to a suite produced last year which also capture the enthusiasm and rewarding experiences many young Australians have found in developing careers that significantly and positively impact on the lives of many people in the developing world, as well as on themselves.

These videos will be used in conjunction with our project-based high school learning materials. The first set of resources were released last year to excite educators and students to the impact of work around global food and nutrition security and the broad range of career pathways to involvement, and further modules will be released in the coming weeks.

Thank you to ACIAR, our NextGen partner, and to Tristan, Maree, Kayla, Kurt, Zoie and Anneliese for all their efforts with these videos and for the blogs and podcasts they have worked on too. We hope their passion and experience will highlight the many and varied opportunities available to choose your own adventure into a rewarding global career.