Being a Cisco worker luckily includes many incredible perks for several staff to use over summer and winter. Specifically, a Cisco preferred is our ‘Provide Back Days’ – we receive 40 hrs each year where we are able to shut the personal computer lid, switch off emails, and come together as a team to work on tasks close to your hears, & most importantly; giving back again to our local communities. (Cisco also gave us yet another 10 hours this season!)

However, year 2020 is definitely a strange, and ‘every-time’ norms and circumstances are very different than what we have been usually familiar with. In the center of a worldwide pandemic, volunteering gets just a little trickier! No more is physically going outside as a team an option, nor shaking fingers, meeting new people, and smiling as a team with each other.

Within 2020, volunteering efforts you need to more creative and inspired, and that’s the mantra that the Cisco Product sales Associate Program (CSAP) APJC graduate course of FY20 stuck to! With physical, geographical borders imposed, we cast our seek out virtual volunteering opportunities all over, settling our sights ‘Lower Under’ inside Australia to the Australian Museum.

The Australian Museum, together with DigoVol, offers a system where volunteers can decipher museum selections, discover hidden archives, and donate to knowledge and science in a worldwide or domestic level, simply by completing and transcribing basic tasks.

Thus, with distance longer the barrier no, all 9 CSAP volunteers across Asia came together and logged online, tilted back their chair, got some snacks set, and began our virtual Give Back again Day!

Traversing virtually through the labyrinth of the Australian museum archives, we found ourselves on expeditions for 3 tasks:

1. Assisting celebrated Sydney institution Taronga Zoo identify pets caught by camera speed traps to make sure a secure habitat for the higher Bilby, an endangered Australian Marsupial.

2. Transcribing field notes compiled by University of Utah pupil Nowlan Kelly Dean from 1959. The transcription of the collection of field information is usually invaluable for the biological community, and will be associated with real specimens in the Organic History Museum of Utah, and online over the world.

3. Back to Australia, we banded jointly to count wildlife crossing by way of a Malleefowl mound for the NSW Government conservation efforts! This helps scientists understand how indigenous and pest animals connect to malleefowl, and their nests.

By the finish of the day, after resting our safari hats and viewing our fair talk about of 100s of kangaroo species, we could actually complete an astounding 4,131 tasks/transcriptions, and completely finish the Taronga Zoo, and University of Utah expeditions for the museum. That’s quite a direct effect!

Virtually volunteering for the Australian Museum was an incredible opportunity which allowed Cisconians to do what Cisconians do best – get together from different continents to collaborate and creatively contribute for the worthy cause whilst having fun!

Ready to become listed on our global teams (that love to surrender)? Apply now.

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