Ashanti Berry is an exceptional Menzies trainee on track to complete her traineeship by October this year.
Born and raised in Darwin, Ashanti is a Marramaninjsji woman from the Daly River Region who loves spending time with her family and friends whether it be camping, BBQs or just hanging out.
She began her Biyamarr ma traineeship at Menzies in February 2020 after finishing high school, completing a Certificate III Community Services and working in the Child Health division on the Vitamin D supplementation in pregnancy trial.
This gave her the opportunity to work with mothers and their babies, to work in an office and lab environment. Ashanti says working with the team allowed her to fulfill her desire to help and to learn.
“I’ve always wanted to pursue a career in health because I like to help people and when I was working in child health, I was learning new things every day,” she said.
Ashanti is now undertaking a Certificate III in Business and working with the Biyamarr ma team where her days normally consist of doing administration work and studying.
Ashanti says the traineeship program has assisted her greatly in deciding what she wants to do with her career in the future and that it's the people she’s worked with and the opportunities she’s been given that she values the most from her time at Menzies.
“I really enjoy working with the people here and I’m always getting opportunities I never would’ve thought of pursuing,” Ashanti said.
“I also feel like I’ve gained a lot of confidence during my time here because we’re always working with people.”
On completion of her traineeship Ashanti plans to hopefully move away from Darwin to study a Bachelor's degree in either nursing or occupational therapy in Brisbane.