Meet our local interns
We partner with national leadership programmes and host graduates dedicated to fulfilling tasks aligned with their needs and interests. These interns receive a working experience in the conservation field and get an up close with the inner workings of a conservation organisation. This is likely their first experience in a more formal work environment and it is important that they get involved and understand all aspects of being part of a successful team.
Julian Johnson-Barker
January 2024 - December 2024 (NMU Student)
Julian Johnson-Barker grew up in Cape Town with a background in beekeeping and a love for exploring mountains. Julian’s passion lies in fynbos conservation ecology, but he also has strong interests in bird life and coastal ecosystems. His love for fynbos ecology stems from time spent in the Table Mountain National Park, and many excursions into the Cederberg and Outeniqua mountain range.
Floris Kotzee
January 2024 - December 2024 (NMU Student)
Floris Kotzee is a former nature filmmaker turned aspiring marine conservationist on a mission to protect our oceans. Transitioning from filming nature’s beauty to diving deep into academia, he is driven by the desire to understand the natural world on a profound level. His main hope is that this journey will pave the way for him to advocate for marine protected areas.
Floris joins the NVT team as a long-term intern from the George campus of the Nelson Mandela University, where he has been studying Nature Conservation. This is his final year, centred around practical experience.
Nokwanda Ndlovu
May 2023 - March 2024 (WWF-SA intern)
Nokwanda Ndlovu was born and raised in Kwa-Zulu Natal, Durban and is now based in Nature’s Valley. She studied BSc Marine Biology and Education at UKZN with an interest in Environmental Education and Awareness, Conservation, Biodiversity and Ecotourism which is what made her pursue a career in Environmental Education as she is now an Environmental Educator for Nature’s Valley Trust as a WWF Intern.
Being granted such a great opportunity she believes she will be able to gain the rightful skills and knowledge needed to save and protect the blue and green environment not only for now or today but also for future generations yet to come. Under the supervision/mentoring of Prof Hendri, she will be working on a number of tasks including managing the Environmental Education and WESSA Eco-Schools Programmes which will include recycling and upcycling projects, creating Environmental Education lessons and relevant activities with resources under Adopt-A-Beach and Birding Connect project topics, environmental-related community engagement and awareness, assisting with preparations, collections and sorting of materials for field research and data ccollection. Nokwanda is very much thrilled to have received such an opportunity and looking forward to learning and gaining new skills and knowledge from it.
Yonela Rubuluza
January 2023 - December 2024 (Groen Sebenza intern)
Yonela Rubuluza was born and raised in the Eastern Cape’s Wild Coast. Attended the Cape Peninsula University of Technology where he obtained a B. Tech in Horticulture. Further enrolled for a Master’s in Horticultural Science in a research project specializing in micropropagation of a South African medicinal plant, Lessertia frutescens (L.).
Yonela is an environmentalist at heart and enjoys the outdoors, adventure, and sport and likes participating in community upliftment-based programmes where he shares knowledge and skills gained in natural science. He chose horticulture because it is one of the natural focus areas that does not limit one to plant production knowledge only but exposes them to areas such as pest management, mechanization of machines, environmental management, project management and landscape technology.
He is currently stationed at Nature’s Valley Trust on a Groen Sebenza programme by SANBI and the National Department of Environmental Affairs.
My long-term goal is to one day own a commercial indigenous nursery, a plant tissue culture lab and an Agri skills advancement facility that would be based in one of the previously disadvanted towns of the former Transkei in the Eastern Cape.
Lauren Moriarty
April 2019 - March 2020 (WWF-SA intern); January 2021- December 2021 (Conservation Scientist Intern and Educator)
Lauren Moriarty is a master’s graduate in marine botany from Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth. She has a great passion and respect for the environment. Her goal is to help in conservation efforts, promote sustainable living, and educate others about the environment. Lauren has joined the NVT team as a WWF intern. She is looking forward to being part of the NVT team and is eager to take on new challenges, experience a diverse range of work environments, and learn as much as possible to help bridge the gap between studying and working.
Chris King
January 2020 - December 2020 (NMU Saasveld intern)
Chris grew up in Cape Town and has always loved the marine environment, being an avid fisherman since the age of 5. This has allowed him to gain a good understanding of the sea and the need for it to be conserved. Chris has joined NVT for the year to complete the practical portion of his National Diploma in Nature Conservation at Nelson Mandela University.
During his time here Chris is excited to be getting involved in all the NVT’s current and future projects to gain some highly valuable work experience in the industry to better qualify him to get a job in the future.
Julene Capazario
January - December 2020 (NMU Saasveld intern)
Julene comes from a small town in the Free State, and although living far from the ocean she has always had the urge to protect and learn about all its wonders. Julene is currently a Nature Conservation student at the Nelson Mandela University in George, Western Cape completing her practical experiential year which aims to expose students to the daily tasks and challenges of the working and conservation environments.
Julene joined the NVT team to broaden her knowledge on all aspects of an active NGO, develop the skills she needs to achieve her goals and create a solid foundation for her future working career.
Julene’s goal is to use this obtained knowledge to create awareness about issues in the marine environment, practice active conservation efforts and promote better sustainable living. She is especially interested in the marine debris and microplastics crisis and what detrimental effects it has not only on the animals and environment but also human wellbeing.
Jesse Wildeman
January 2020 - December 2020 (NMU Saasveld intern)
After having completed her BTech in Nature Conservation at Nelson Mandela University in 2019, Jesse has returned home to Plettenberg Bay and joined the NVT marine team to gain more work experience in the conservation industry. Having previously worked in terrestrial ecosystems, Jesse is excited to explore the marine environment and expand her knowledge in all aspects of conservation with which NVT is involved. Jesse is particularly interested in gaining experience with regards to human-wildlife coexistence and environmental education and awareness, as she believes these are essential skills to have going forward in conservation.
Hannah Basson
January 2019 - December 2019 (NMU Saasveld intern)
Hannah Basson is a Nature Conservation student from Nelson Mandela University in George, currently undertaking her third year of studies, which consists of an experiential training year in the field. The practical year allows for exposure to the workings of a conservation organisation and enables the student to gain valuable knowledge and understanding that forms the foundation of their career.
Being raised in the waters of the Cape Peninsula allowed her to develop an interest and a passion for the ocean and that sparked awareness of the conservation issues that the marine environment is currently faced with. She is particularly interested in exploring the extent of the marine plastic debris crisis while seeking solutions to the problem and educating people on the detrimental effects that single-use plastics have on human and environmental health.
I am grateful for the opportunity to acquire knowledge and working experience in the marine conservation sector as part of the NVT Marine Team for my experiential training year.
Aquila Stadtherr
January 2019 - December 2019 (NMU Saasveld intern)
Aquila has lived in Plettenberg Bay his whole life and enjoyed the benefits of being able to go to the beach almost every day. He has surfed the waters of Plett since he was about 8 years, lifeguarded for 3 years and has grown a deep love and respect for the ocean.
He’s long-term goal is to one day be able to educate people about the natural environment, how to live more sustainably and have a better impact on the natural environment for future generations to come.
He has joined NVT’s marine team to learn the skills he needs to achieve his goals and he cannot be happier knowing he will be working to conserve the ocean in his very own home town.
Simphiwe Gininda
April 2017 - March 2018 (WWF-SA intern)
Simphiwe is a Swati-speaking girl from Mpumalanga. She recently obtained her Master’s in Zoology,with distinction, at Rhodes University, and is seeing the sky as a limit to her success. In addition to being an ecologist, Simphiwe is professionally trained as a teacher, teaching science at the FET and Senior Phase level of basic education. The combination of education and research in environmental sciences made theoretical sense to her as a student. She then opted for a career option that integrated both her fields of expertise. The conservation education internship position offered by WWF-SA through NVT came as a perfect fit to her interests. She is impressed by how Nature’s Valley remains natural even though its residents are in immediate contact with wild animals within a protected area. Simphiwe believes that education is key to better management of natural resources, and because humans are the main drivers to environmental change and sustainability, they need to be empowered by sharing of knowledge through education. As an Environmental Educator Intern in NVT, she feels that she is doing exactly what she was born for, being an environmental spokesperson. She will never trade the experience she is currently gaining for anything.
Anathi Mbona
April 2017 - March 2018 (WWF-SA intern)
Anathi was born and raised in a small town called Cala in Eastern Cape. She grew up spending most of her leisure time as an adventure seeker which fostered her passion for nature. When the opportunity to come to the shores of Nature’s Valley through the WWF-SA Leadership programme arose, it was too good to pass up. She will be assisting in coordinating a number of long-term research projects: mosquito fish and macroinvertebrate monitoring project in the Groot River system. Being involved in these projects will help her to broaden her research skills in relation to reliable indicators of water quality and river health biomonitoring methods. Working for a small organization like NVT will also help her to diversify her skill set by participating in different projects and discovering what she would like to pursue for her career in environmental management.
Brittany Arendse
April 2015 - October 2016 (WWF-SA intern)
Brittany comes from a small town near the West Coast an hour from Cape Town called Malmesbury. She completed her Undergraduate degree in Marine biology and Ecology and her BSc. Honours and Masters degrees in pollination Biology at the University of Cape Town. She then completed a year internship through the NRF with the Custodians of Rare and Endangered Wildflowers (CREW), where she gained experience in plant identification and field sampling.
She then applied for the WWF-SA environmental leadership programme, which placed her with Nature’s Valley Trust. Here she functions, primarily, as a research intern, taking ownership of some of the long-term projects. These include estuarine mosquito fish sampling and sampling fish stocks (using various methods), as well as projects in the Fynbos: field guide development with Kellyn Whitehead and tracking the phenology of flowering plants in and around Nature’s Valley. She is also very keen on ericas and is running a solo project on the breeding system of the closed-flower Erica, E. nabea.
She is very grateful for the opportunity to work in such a dynamic part of South Africa. A little bit of paradise, where ocean, river, forest and fynbos collide in an explosion of beauty.
Yanga Manyakanyaka
June 2013 - November 2015 (Groen Sebenza intern)
Yanga has a combined 10 years of work experience in sales, marketing and debt collecting. He has always been passionate about the environment but spending many years in the city had pointed him in other directions. During a visit to his grandfather’s farm after many years, seeing the change in the landscape and infestation of alien species, resurrected his curiosity for the environment. He was selected by NVT due to my passion and work experience with no formal education in the field.
Yanga was part of Groen Sebenza’s first intake of pioneers and he is currently working as an environmental educator and a community outreach intern with NVT.
It has been an exciting and eye-opening journey that requires me to always be on the alert because I had to learn the science language and understand the systems. NVT has presented me with an opportunity to not only be responsible for my performance but to understand how an NGO operates from admin fundraising and assisting on research projects. The environment of Nature’s Valley has completely changed my life I will forever be grateful for this phase of my life.
Noluyolo Obose
June 2013 - November 2015 (Groen Sebenza intern)
Yolo is from Somerset West and was working towards her diploma in Nature Conservation while working at NVT. She was a Groen Sebenza matric graduate intern working in our Environmental Education division.
Ruth Moeti
May 2014 - November 2014 (Groen Sebenza intern)
Ruth was a Groen Sebenza intern filling a post in mainly research with some focus on environmental education. She comes from a small rural area in Limpopo with a background in Environmental and Geographical Sciences which she obtained from the University of Cape Town.
Babalwa Mqokeli
April 2013 - September 2014 (WWF-SA intern)
Babalwa is an industrial bred girl from Durban, who came to the shores of Nature’s Valley through the WWF-SA Environmental leaders Programme. She describes her time at NVT as being a ‘well needed, challenging and yet nurturing experience’. As a research intern she was involved in coordinating 3 major research projects: the Groot River macroinvertebrate monitoring project; mosquito fish monitoring project, and the Groot River Estuary fish monitoring project. Being involved in these projects has help Babalwa develop her research skills as well as nurturing her understanding of estuarine ecology and the relation between macroinvertebrate and water health and management. One of the benefits of being part of a small organisation is that one can be part of various activities.
Babalwa has also had many first-time experiences during her time with NVT. These include: delicious potjiekos meal organised by a few Nature’s Valley residents, horse riding in a game reserve, hiking trails on weekends, interacting with national and international volunteers and once in a life time opportunities, such as swimming with seals.
I loved my experience here, not only because of the work that I did but most importantly because of how I’ve grown and developed as a person, the amazing set of friends and people I got to interact with.
Nelishka Singh
June 2013- February 2014 (Groen Sebenza intern)
Nelishka started her post with NVT as Groen Sebenza environmental educator and research intern, which was very exciting for her because it allowed for skills in many different sectors. Her research project entailed research in the Fynbos biome, on the interaction between plants and birds but her true passion has always been education and instilling passion and drive, for safeguarding the environment, into young scholars.
Matome Mamodumo
April 2013 - March 2014 (NRF intern)
Matome is from Polokwane and completed his BSc degree in Environmental Science at the University of Limpopo. He was a 1-year NRF intern doing Environmental Education with NVT.
Mulatedzi Mullaudzi
April 2013 - March 2014 (NRF intern)
Mulatedzi is from Makhado and completed her BSc. degree in Environmental Science at the University of Venda. She was a 1-year NRF intern working with Cindy on the Environmental Education side of NVT.
Graham Burt
April 2012 - November 2012 (NRF intern)
Graham is from Johannesburg, where he studied at the Tshwane University of Technology. He joined NVT as part of the National Research Fund (NRF) internship programme and served under the Environmental Education (EE) banner. During his stay at NVT he was involved in many of the Educational and awareness projects.