An internship with a high-profile government agency has helped Bryce Robinson find his career direction.

Bryce Robinson is studying a Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Laws Flexible Double Degree, but he doesn’t want to be a scientist and he doesn’t want to be a lawyer.

He’s looking, he says, for “something in between”, and an ANU internship program is helping him find it.

“Science policy sits somewhere between science and law, so I was interested in finding an internship in that field,” Bryce says.

“A mentor at uni recommended I contact the Australian Research Council, which is a Commonwealth entity reporting to the Minister of Education and Training, and that led to an internship with them.

“I’m looking at the implementation of the National Science and Research Priorities that the government released this year, and also the collaboration between research institutions and industry.”

Bryce says despite being an intern he feels like “a pseudo staff member”, giving him real workplace experience.

“I have my own set-up and they tell me vaguely what I should be achieving but I’m in charge of how I go about it.

“I feel like they take my work seriously.”

Most valuable of all, the internship has helped Bryce clarify what he wants to do after uni.

“I know now that I definitely want to do something in science policy, and probably in the field of international science policy.

“This internship showed me that many scientists aren’t policy-literate and many policy makers aren’t science-literate. You need a connection where scientists are exposed to how policy works, and policy makers probably need to learn some degree of science.

“It’s helped me see the real value of my double degree and where that can take me.”