Conor‘s career is exciting, fulfilling and ever changing. He is enthusiastic and inspiring. Conor strongly believes that you are responsible for seeking out and making the most of your experiences and opportunities.

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO SINCE WE LAST SPOKE?

For the last ten years, Conor has been self-employed, curating his skills as a Visual Storyteller and Development Communications Specialist. Conor identified early on in his undergraduate studies that community development was what interested him and that he also wanted to visually document this through photography. He started with personal photographic documentary projects focused on local social or environmental issues, then worked more broadly in Australia and eventually he was exploring stories around the world.

Conor’s approach to storytelling community development is to build long-term relationships, which allows him to understand and document changes and experiences throughout the development process. Conor uses longitudinal storytelling, to document long-term the changes and experiences of individuals and communities during a community development project in a way that can then be used to determine what aspects of a project were successful, unsuccessful or even unintended.

As an independent practitioner, Conor is able to choose to work on projects that really interest him. Conor has expanded his documenting medium to also include film. Conor’s photography and videography skills are completely self-taught. Film heightens Conor’s ability to communicate more complex stories about community development projects.

Using film also allows Conor to create deeper connections with the people he is working with. He can interject himself and his observations of the situation into the production.

HOW RELEVANT HAS YOUR DEGREE BEEN SINCE YOU GRADUATED?

“I regularly refer to my Development Studies degree when talking with people.”

When speaking with people who have an interest in social change, or global issues, Conor often finds himself referring to his Development Studies degree, and also the relationships he developed at the time with fellow students.

During his degree, Conor made lifelong friends and he is still in touch with some of the academic staff he worked with during his degree. Conor highlighted that as he has progressed in his career the environmental sustainability courses he studied have been more important. These courses provided Conor with an essential baseline of environmental sustainability awareness, which he has continued to build upon.

Studying at Aboriginal Studies with The Wollotuka Institute also provided Conor with a foundation of learning about another culture and feeling a connectedness to culture. This is an important aspect in Conor’s work as he is constantly surrounded, immersed and communicating within vastly different cultures in the many countries where he works.

Since high school, Conor has had a keen interest in volunteering. During his three years at university, in the summer break Conor volunteered in Africa, the Middle East, India and Nepal. When he could, Conor volunteered his time and his photography skills at events with various groups that he had connected with via social media. While Conor was a Development Studies student he was also working in the youth homelessness sector.

Conor’s advice to get the most out of the Development Studies degree, is to pair the knowledge you’re gaining in the classroom with experiences outside of university and also develop the friendships and relationships you make along the way. It is really up to you to actively reach out and find those enriching experiences that will elevate your career and passions.

“What made my Development Studies experience so rich, was that I paired it with a lot of other aspects of personal development.”

ADVICE: ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE AND ACTIVE LISTENING

If you are wanting to get into the same field of work as Conor; working internationally, independently and cross-culturally, you need to get experience. There are several ways to gain this experience. For example Conor suggests approaching local NGOs who may have a footprint overseas.

“Don’t limit yourself if you want something that is a little bit outside of the box.”

Approaching an organisation can be daunting, especially when you are still studying, or you have only just graduated. To stand out, Conor recommends that you should articulate not just your interests and say why you want to volunteer but you should also show that you have a strong interest in learning about the organisation and what they are working on. To do this effectively, you may want to ask for a meeting where you can listen and learn. From there you can ruminate on the information and consider why you want to volunteer with the organisation. This ability to show that you have listened will make a person much more receptive when considering your request.

“Go in for a cup of tea and ask a few questions to learn.”

To develop the skill of active listening, Conor recommends the book, ‘The Lost Art of Listening’.

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

Travel is obviously a huge element of Conor’s work. However, the current COVID-19 climate, which mean travel restrictions and having to return to Australia, have not limited his work. Recently Conor has been working with a couple of colleagues visiting people in areas of Australia that were hit hard by the 2019-20 bushfires. The focus of the trip was on developing relationships with people, and exploring how people are responding and how they are making decisions for rebuilding the future.

When considering the future, Conor sees himself continuing to work closely with communities, considering how social change can benefit collectives of people, and utilising creative means to achieve those goals.

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Conor Ashleigh

Conor took his understanding of environmental sustainability from the Bachelor of Development Studies and implemented this across his independent contractor visual work. Find out how he was able to use this to his advantage.

I regularly refer to my Development Studies degree when talking with people.

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