ADEHLIA Ebert is encouraging young people to break through the stereotypes that depict them as lazy.
Speaking during National Youth Week, the Kensington resident and UWA politics and Italian student (20) said the negative labels that millennials were sometimes tagged with were harmful.
“That stereotype is not what I see; I don’t know where it’s coming from because I know young people who have done great things, like setting up not-for-profit (organisations),” she said.
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Ms Ebert completed a three-month internship with the Duke of Edinburgh Award organisation in February, organised by the McCusker Centre for Citizenship.
“The centre wanted to get people on board and I thought it was really cool, I wanted to do an internship to help out with my career,” she said.
“The Duke of Edinburgh helps young people to prepare them for the future by gaining skills in different categories, including sporting, community service or adventures.
“I’m happy to work with young people, I’ve completed some volunteering with Teach Learn Grow, which sends tutors to disadvantaged schools.”
Ms Ebert said she wrote a policy document for the organisation’s volunteers and recruited people to help run the awards.
“Previously the onus was on schools to run the awards but it was a barrier because you might not have teachers with the time to do it,” she said.
“The internship also helped me with my problem solving; I made mistakes but I was able to learn from it.”
Ms Ebert said she was studying politics and Italian to gain a better perspective.
“When you watch the news, you can understand why countries are doing things, you can see through them and understand their motivation,” she said.
“I want to be a diplomat or barrister, I’m going to study law once I’ve finished my current course.
“Diplomacy has always fascinated me; we live in such a globalised world but when you look at America, there is a push against it. Borders are becoming less important and so people are getting scared and so you see reactions like (with) immigration. It’s all about a fear of change.”