A thankyou to Ryan Whitener for his 3 month internship with GWA

Our newest intern at EnviroStrat is Ryan Whitener, 23, who joined us from a small coastal town of El Segundo in California. Ryan completed a degree in Organisational Communication at Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU). His professors included Dr. Rob Gailey – who met EnviroStrat founder Dr Nigel Bradly and together developed the opportunity for EnviroStrat to host graduates from the University through international internships. 

Reflecting on his three-month with EnviroStrat in 2025, Ryan says he’s grateful for the knowledge and confidence gained from being an integral part of a small team that’s working across ocean regeneration initiatives in New Zealand. 

Q What did you know about EnviroStrat prior to your arrival?  

I knew a lot of the work would be centred around ocean regeneration and conservation, which really appealed to me. It’s where I wanted to elevate myself. My degree is versatile but quite broad, and I wanted to bridge that gap between studies and gain experience doing research and getting a deeper insight into how environmental conservation work happens in practice. 

Q Tell us about some of the highlights of your time with EnviroStrat? 

One of the biggest was the opportunity to be involved all across the board. That was really special. I would’ve been okay being in the office but to be invited on the seaweed farms of Greenwave Aotearoa and to talk to different stakeholders was really valuable. 

Q Tell us about some of the things you managed to get across the line with us during your time... 

I was mentored and guided by Liam Hansard as the Project Manager for Save Our Scallops venture and he wanted me to have some input in this large, indepth scallop research report being developed and sent to regional councils, investors and iwi Māori. Even though I don’t come from a biology research background, I was able to dive in and do a lot of synthesis, points of redundancy and clarifying topics that weren’t so clear and communicate them to a wide spread of people. Building a few frameworks was new to me, I knew it in practice but to be given the trust and responsibility from Rebecca Barclay-Cameron was really encouraging, and something else that was fun was building content for the social media pages for ORA Reefs. Ali  [Communications Lead Alison Smith] has been a guiding person for me, a really big help guiding how to actually be a communicator making an impact. It’s always been a passion of mine but to apply a personal passion to a professional context where I can be a visual storyteller and help to drive engagement on social platforms - which these days is important – was a lot of fun. Helping Hamish Howard on an investor video was another highlight, where I got to work with a script and use my voice on a 2 minute edit. To be given that creative freedom to do the editing of it was really cool. 

Q What’s next for you, Ryan, and how do you think you will take this experience forward? 

It has inspired me within the environmental consultancy field back home in California, where there are a lot of cool things happening with artificial reefs, and I’ve narrowed in my sights a bit more. Talking to Liam and Nigel about building networks has been really helpful for me. I feel that after three months internship, I’m able to leverage my university knowledge, and I can be more confident about what’s next.  

Q I know you did a lot of great adventures outside of the office too, Ryan, how have you enjoyed New Zealand? 

This has been the time of a lifetime and I’ll remember this for many years to come. To be able to do some work, building friendships and connections and have a lot of fun, what a truly special and unique place this is in the world.