Report from Meitena Navarro

FIG Foundation Young Surveyor Grant Recipient to attend the FIG Working Week 2016 in Christchurch, New Zealand

How was your perception of attending the Working Week?

My perception of attending the Working Week was positive in all the ways. That gave me the chance to listen professionals from different parts of the world and also could meet them and lots of young surveyors as well, and share lots of experiences with them.

In addition, even though I already considered that surveying makes an important impact to the society in lots of areas, I got impressive with all we can do as surveyors to help development countries. I´m keeping that in my mind to take my career to that side.

What sessions and other activities did you attend?

Most of the sessions I chose to participate where the ones related with land administration and un habitat because they were the topics that I was more interested in. If I went to a different one was to support the person that was doing the presentation. Also every evening I attended the social events, I went to the training to use the¨GLTN software, I did the 5k Run and I was present at the Gala Dinner (invited by the Foundation).

What were the most important outcome for you from the Working Week?

As I said, the beautiful people I met and finding out the social side of surveying.

How have you been able to use the outcome of your participation afterwards?

It´s hard to explain in short words but I´ve been separated from surveyor work for a year.
When I participated in the Working Week I had just arrived to Australia with a working holiday visa for a year, after graduating as a surveyor in Argentina. It wasn´t in my plans but I met my boyfriend in Australia and after a year together I decided to move to Australia and try to make my career here.

I´ve just come back , after some months visiting Argentina where I did some work there as a surveyor. I will have to complete three months with tourist visa here so I´m not able to work yet.
But thanks to some people I met in the Working Week I got some papers about Surveying Law in English so I´m becoming familiar with this topics. Also other guy I met there have been talking me about his experience of being a foreign surveyor in Australia.

What would you recommend to other applicants?

I recommend everyone the experience, I did a video talking about it for a Conference of Young Surveyors in Argentina, my country, inviting everyone to participate. Most of them were scare about the language, but I told them that you don´t need to be perfect in English to understand the presentations considering that the slide on the big screen helps a lots and also the people I met were really kind with me and patient with my english. I hope lots of people from my country and Latin America join the Working Weeks.

/Maitena Navarro
Argentina