Hi everyone, thank you for taking the time to get to know me! My name is Stephanie Penales (but I prefer Steph) and I’m an intern at 4Pillars.
I just joined 4Pillars last week, but even in this short time I have been offered so many opportunities to learn and challenge myself. Thankfully, from the start of work with 4Pillars, I have been surrounded by a really supportive, diverse, enthusiastic, and well-experienced team.
I work with 4Pillars in Sydney, but I currently reside in Canberra where I am halfway through completing a Master of Environmental Management and Development, specialising in natural resource management. I haven’t always had this passion and desire to study the environment though, and I actually first completed an undergraduate majoring in government and international relations. Throughout the degree, the environment and climate change kept popping up, and I was increasingly intrigued about the opportunities and challenges that these issues provided in social, economic, political, and cultural spheres. So far, my Master’s degree has been an essay-filled, coffee-and-tea-dependent, and worthwhile experience where I am able to apply my passion for the environment to public policy and development. It is such an honour to further channel this passion for the environment with 4Pillars.
When I am not working, you’ll most likely find me playing with my adorably giant dog named Ccino, swimming, reading, and searching for cheap-eats with my friends and family.
My favourite film is too difficult to choose but my default is usually ‘James and the Giant Peach’ directed by Henry Selick. It’s a bit of an odd and old choice, but one of my life goals is to eat a peach as perfect looking as the one in the movie. My favourite book is ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee.
To end off, a random fact about me: I lived in Spain briefly, and in Spanish my last name ‘Penales’ roughly translates into ‘criminal’ so mailmen and women would often laugh at me when delivering mail. It is one of my fondest memories.