20-year-old Byron Brunhuber is kicking goals after interning through Indigenous program CareerTrackers.
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The Moruya local and proud Yuin man said the Sydney internship with health group Bupa was "huge".
"For someone like me, from a small town in Moruya, the opportunity to intern at a big corporation like Bupa, it's been incredible."
Mr Brunhuber is from the Djiringanj and Brinja nations and said there was a negative stereotype of Indigenous people in Moruya. He wants to rewrite this narrative.
"Growing up came with more negative connotations than positive," he said.
"Find your passion and make it happen. Don’t let other people place you in a box and limit your potential, regardless of nationality or colour."
- Byron Brunhuber
"There is a form of racism where the colour of your skin defines your Aboriginality."
"I was involved in a camp in high school - The Aspiration Initiative (TAI) - where I went out on Aboriginal country and learnt more about my culture and lore. That's where I started to feel more comfortable about who I was."
Mr Brunhuber looks forward to the future holds after his third and final year studying a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Canberra.
A keen rugby league player in Moruya, he easily switched his enthusiasm for sport towards basketball in Canberra.
"I'm really passionate about sports and helping people," he said.
"I would like to go back to my community and if I could work helping Indigenous communities, that would be great.
"I thought there’s no way I could go to university, I thought it wasn’t in the scope for me.
"I found out that I actually enjoy learning, and that I am actually more intelligent than I thought and I want to just keep learning."
Mr Brunhuber said he was lucky to have had experiences with TAI and CareerTrackers and it was important to grasp opportunities.
"You never know what could happen or where it could take you," he said.
"If you put yourself on a good path, surround yourself with good people, those opportunities will come to you when you're doing good things.
"If I've learned anything, first of all is you've got to finish year 12. Education is so important.
"Find your passion and make it happen. Don’t let other people place you in a box and limit your potential, regardless of nationality or colour."
During his internship, Mr Brunhuber assessed wellness discounts available to Bupa employees and offered strategies to improve their health and wellbeing.
"I analysed all of the responses, took those findings and presented them in a PowerPoint presentation. It involved lots of researching and reading over the written responses," he said.
"A cool part was that I was able to have the freedom to do that task, and based on the feedback and a little bit of my personal outlook, I was able to put forward my 2019 ideas as to how we can improve our wellness discounts."
He said a highlight was meeting leaders at Bupa and seeing how his role could play out on a larger scale.
