Summer Internship Feedback 2020

SUMMER INTERNSHIP FEEDBACK 2020 This document contains feedback from Oxford students who took part in internships in 2020 through the Summer Internship Programme. Internships are listed by the country in which the employer is based, and the title clarifies whether the internship was remote working, if it took place in person or a mixture of both.

Specific students have given their consent for their name and college to be included. Others remain anonymous and only their course and year of study has been shared.

Most of the amazing images shared here have been provided by Oxford students (past and present) who have undertaken an internship through the programme. Others have been supplied by our internship hosts; and some have been obtained from unsplash.com which offers royalty-free photographs.

Please note that not all students provided feedback for their internship. If you have any questions about any of the feedback, please email internships@careers.ox.ac.uk. Please click on the links below to browse the feedback entries.

BANGLADESH Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust ............................................................................. 4 BELGIUM Full Circle .......................................................................................................................................... 6 BRAZIL National Institute of Space Research ....................................................................................11 CHILE ICHEM, Instituto Chileno de Estudios Municipales ...........................................................14 CYPRUS Caritas Cyprus ...............................................................................................................................16 CZECH REPUBLIC Castle Blatna .................................................................................................................................22 HUNGARY CEEWeb for Biodiversity ............................................................................................................25 Cold War History Research Centre ........................................................................................30 Terre des Hommes .......................................................................................................................35 INDIA St Vivekanand School..................................................................................................................39

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ITALY UWC Adriatic .................................................................................................................................42 JORDAN Umniah Mobile ..............................................................................................................................44 UN Volunteers Regional Office for the Arab States ..........................................................47 KENYA Companionship of Works Organisation (COWA) ..............................................................49 PAKISTAN Rahgeer/Assembly F ...................................................................................................................51 PERU Universidad de Piura ..................................................................................................................54 SINGAPORE Tanglin Trust School...................................................................................................................57 THE NETHERLANDS Institute of Historical Justice and Reconciliation (IHJR), EuroClio, Hague ..............59 UNITED KINGDOM 2Degrees .........................................................................................................................................61 3Keel .................................................................................................................................................64 AAD Communications, University of Oxford .......................................................................66 Albus Health ..................................................................................................................................68 Arts & Business College London ..............................................................................................69 Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford ..........................................................................70 Bodleian Library, University of Oxford ................................................................................72 Bodleian Library, Rare Books Department, University of Oxford ...............................74 Brilliant Africa ..............................................................................................................................75 Careers Service, University of Oxford ...................................................................................77 Centre for Teaching and Learning, University of Oxford ...............................................78 Chatsworth & The Devonshire Group ...................................................................................81 Churches Conservation Trust ..................................................................................................84 Citizens Advice Oxford ................................................................................................................86 Compton Verney ...........................................................................................................................88 Deep Planet ....................................................................................................................................92 Ditchley Foundation....................................................................................................................95 Fraser Finance ........................................................................................................................... 101 Good Food Oxford...................................................................................................................... 104 Goodlord....................................................................................................................................... 106

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Heritage Alliance ...................................................................................................................... 108 Horatio’s Garden ....................................................................................................................... 111 IQVIA ............................................................................................................................................. 111 ICON NEWs .................................................................................................................................. 113 Marvellous Maps ....................................................................................................................... 114 MK Gallery ................................................................................................................................... 116 Muncaster Castle ....................................................................................................................... 118 Museum of Oxford and the Bodleian Libraries ............................................................... 124 Oriel Square ................................................................................................................................ 126 Oxbridge Formula..................................................................................................................... 127 Pamela Steele Associates ....................................................................................................... 130 Pinewood Group ........................................................................................................................ 133 Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford......................................................................... 134 Pragmatix Advisory ................................................................................................................. 135 Print Express .............................................................................................................................. 137 Safety Office, University of Oxford....................................................................................... 139 Storymix ....................................................................................................................................... 141 TheHill .......................................................................................................................................... 143 Vespula Ltd.................................................................................................................................. 145 Zenobe Energy ........................................................................................................................... 146 USA University Impact ..................................................................................................................... 151 ZAMBIA Copperbelt University .............................................................................................................. 156

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BANGLADESH BANGLADESH LEGAL AID AND SERVICES TRUST Dougal Burden, Christ Church, Second Year Undergraduate, BA Jurisprudence, Remote Working Work Projects I worked on several projects in the research team at BLAST as well as ad hoc tasks. My first assignment was to create a consultation note for a gender identity recognition advocacy programme. This involved researching several South East Asian jurisdictions engaging with case and secondary literature. I also attended a call with an external NGO about plans for this programme. Other work I was involved in included researching public interest litigation on police powers in Bangladesh, advocacy responses to Covid-19 and research into the implementation of virtual courts in India.

Daily Life Working from home involved spending most of the day doing independent work and then partaking in calls later at night as I was located in New Zealand during the internship working across time zones in the UK and Bangladesh. Most calls were just with the research team, but I also had the opportunity to listen into wider discussion groups with other NGOs across South East Asia.

Lasting Impressions I really enjoyed engaging in the important work that BLAST does. It was very rewarding to work on projects that will have a real impact on people’s lives by advocating for human rights. It was also a great opportunity to engage with the law and culture of a different jurisdiction. While it was a shame that, due to the pandemic, I was not able to travel to Bangladesh, it was still an enriching experience.

Final Year Undergraduate, BA English Language and Literature, Remote Working Work Projects I wrote articles about the impact of the lockdown on Hijra and transgender communities in Bangladesh and child marriage in Bangladesh and surrounding countries. I also conducted research into the impact of lockdown on UK courts and I took minutes for meetings with sister organisations in neighbouring countries about child marriage and rape law reform and different attitudes towards this.

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Daily Life I was working from home during UK lockdown so It was helpful to have some work to focus on.

Lasting Impressions I learned a lot about the law and the rights of women and minorities in Bangladesh which I found very interesting.

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BELGIUM FULL CIRCLE Yasmin Nguyen, Mansfield College, BA Human Sciences, Second Year Undergraduate, In-person internship Work Projects The internship was very much self-directed so my tasks were varied as I got to do what I was interested in. My main task was to design events for Full Circle’s annual debate series which was to be on ageing; I was given a lot of trust and freedom, and was able to redesign the event series to be on wellbeing, choose and contact speakers to invite, and identify possible partners and sponsors for the event series.

In addition to this, I worked on digital strategy, highlighting issues with their websites and points for improvement. I was told by my host organisation to create wireframes and do site architecture to aid me in redesigning their websites, and I had to teach myself how to do these things which was quite fun. I also did various small jobs such as create sketches for their website, evaluate member engagement with their lockdown newsletter, work the bar on their weekly bar night, and do transcripts of recorded talks.

Daily Life Full Circle found accommodation for me (I had to pay rent, but it was much cheaper than private accommodation) a short walk away from the office. I really enjoyed lodging in someone’s house as it gave me a local experience of Brussels, and it was nice to come back to a house (with a kitchen, garden, etc) as opposed to a rented single room. I would arrive at the office around 10am everyday and leave between 5 to 6pm each day, but our work hours were quite flexible (e.g. we could leave earlier if we had somewhere to be in the evening).

Our work day was also quite flexible and, besides scheduled meetings, we were given a lot of freedom with our time and able to organise it ourselves. The flat structure of the organisation meant that we all worked in one room, and this meant that our bosses were always close by and we could easily approach them to check on our work or for a casual chat. There were 8 of us interns in total (6 from Oxford, 2 from Brussels) and we quickly and easily bonded as a

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group. At lunch, we would either get takeaway from one of the many brilliant restaurants in the area or come back to the house I was staying at to cook ourselves a meal.

In the evenings, we would often cook dinner together at someone’s house, go out for drinks at one of Brussels many bars, or stay in and watch a movie together. On a few occasions, we had dinner with our bosses and the employees at Full Circle.

Outside of work, we made day-trips by train to nearby cities like Gent and Bruges, explored Brussels many offerings (parks, museums, breweries, restaurants, neighbourhoods, markets, shops), and even went on a long weekend trip to Amsterdam together.

Lasting Impressions I definitely did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did, especially as Brussels tends to be a city that is quite under-the-radar. But spending two months in Brussels where we lived and worked in the beautiful neighbourhood made it difficult not to fall in love with the city.

For me, the best part of the internship were my fellow interns; although we were all quite different, spending a lot of time working and living together meant that we became quite close. Through conversing and interacting with people I may not have otherwise come into contact with, I was able to learn a lot about different fields, about myself and my aspirations, and about the wider world.

Being thrown into a completely new environment helped me grow my independence, confidence, and self-sufficiency as I navigated a new city and created family out of new people; further, the relaxed nature of the workplace meant that I had to decide for myself what I wanted to achieve each day and how I would do that. I enjoyed the agency I had over my work, how each day was different, and appreciated how approachable my employers were; this showed me that I would like to work in an organisation with a flat structure and with a relaxed yet dynamic culture. Although I don’t plan to work in event organisation specifically, my research into topics and speakers for the wellbeing event series showed me that this is a field I may like to work in in the future. Beyond this, I truly enjoyed living and working in Brussels and hope to work there in the future.

What advice would you give to future interns?

As the culture of the organisation is quite relaxed, don’t expect a clearly structured internship programme or set of tasks. Instead, be ready to carve out or even create tasks for yourself and identify projects you would like to become engaged in otherwise you might get stuck

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doing administrative work like data inputting or list-building (which all interns had to do, but it does not have to form the bulk of your work if you don’t want it to!).

Also, take time to explore the many parks (Bois de la Cambre is beautiful!), neighbourhoods, markets (Chatelain market on Wednesdays, Flagey on the weekends...), and museums (Horta House, Parliamentarium, Magritte Museum... there are so many!) in Brussels – it’s actually quite a lovely city with lots of hidden, interesting places to discover.

Regarding museums, do take advantage of their monthly free days (usually the first Wednesday and Sunday). Regarding accommodation, if you don't mind lodging (I recommend it - you get a very local, authentic experience!), you can find the best options through Bridie and Louise (employers) as they will put you up with people they know.

Isobel Chappell, Worcester College, BA Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Second Year Undergraduate, In-person internship Work Projects I completed an internship at Full Circle in Brussels. Full Circle is an ideas club, they host discussions, debates and events that put forward new and exciting ideas. My internship was very varied, I helped in lots of different aspects of the business.

On the events side of the business, I researched speakers and ideas in order to help put together their events programme for the coming year. I was also heavily involved in the marketing of the business. I helped create content for social media and devised a new strategy for making their social media channels more effective.

Full Circle is also currently in the process of renovating a house in which they will host events and provide a space for members of the club to socialise and work. I was helping with some of the planning for this as well as building connections with businesses and groups in Brussels that may want to hire out the space in the future.

Daily Life Living in Brussels was a really fun experience. I was renting a beautiful place with two of the other interns that was about a ten-minute walk into work each morning (just off Place Flagey). Outside of work I spent a lot of time with the other interns (there were seven of us), we explored Brussels together- going to museums, bars and for dinner. We all did a trip to Amsterdam together which was great fun and I also went to Vienna with one of the other interns. Our bosses also hosted us for dinner a few times which was really kind of them.

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Lasting Impressions I had a really amazing summer living and working in Brussels. It was so great to have such an interesting experience, especially in the current pandemic situation. I feel I learnt a lot about myself through living away and made some great friendships with the people I was working with. The experience has made me consider that I would like to work in a policy related field as a lot of the people I interacted with over my time in Brussels were somehow connected to the politics scene there and I found their roles very interesting. It has also confirmed for me that I would like to work abroad in the future.

Imogen Stead, New College, Second Year DPhil, DPhil Classical Languages and Literature, In-person Work Projects Full Circle is an events organisation and members club which recruits members who are interested in using its House facilities for work or socialising as well as those interested primarily in speaker events and discussions as part of their 'ideas exchange' programme. I worked at Full Circle for 6 weeks, shortened due to quarantine restrictions imposed on Belgium from the UK, on a variety of different tasks.

My specific work was in speaker research & engagement which included reaching out to interesting speakers such as academics, authors or businesspeople and pitching the aims and ethos of Full Circle to them. This also required liaising with the speaker agencies and negotiating a suitable contract. Once speakers had been confirmed, I was tasked with writing the publicity copy for each event in advance so that it was ready to be used in all forms of marketing including a physical brochure, email invitations, website event listing and booking platform.

By the end of my time at the internship, the speaker events calendar for the 2020/21 season was mostly full and the marketing copy was complete for all confirmed events. With another intern, I also looked at how to improve Full Circle's website, specifically in the area of UX. We tested and mapped the current websites and together designed a new, streamlined layout taking into account all areas of the business which is ready to be implemented.

I also helped to compile and edit a new publication called the Compendium which is a collection of essays on past speaker events. This required me to create a consistent 'house style' in order to edit pieces accordingly and to develop a coherent visual design for the collection which is now being put together for publication. Alongside these specific tasks there were more general areas of work which everyone was expected to chip into such as

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'list-building' of potential audiences in the Brussels area, data cleaning of existing customer data and helping to organise, prepare and execute events when they were hosted.

Daily Life I stayed with Full Circle members in a spare room in their house and I settled in very quickly as they were accommodating, friendly and helpful. The house was centrally located, it was only a 15minute walk to the Full Circle office from where I was staying and a 30-minute walk into the centre of Brussels. I found I rarely needed to use public transport as a result, and I was glad to have a quick and simple commute.

I arrived at the office around 9.30am each morning, took a lunch break with the other interns around 12.30pm, and left around 5pm each day. Outside of work, I socialised either with my host family or with the interns and I used my time to explore Brussels and beyond. This included walks before and after work, visiting museums, going out for drinks and dinner and cooking with the other interns.

At the weekend, the interns often took day or weekend trips together to places like Bruges, Ghent and Amsterdam and I also visited Leuven and Namur by myself. Flexible office hours meant that we were able to take days off if our family or friends were visiting, or for longer trips such as to Amsterdam, and also on the first Wednesday afternoon of August when the museums in the city offer free entrance.

Lasting Impressions I loved the experience of living and working in Brussels, especially as I was fortunate to have an excellent group of fellow interns around me as well as a kind and welcoming host family. I particularly enjoyed the group working environment. In previous years, it seems that interns have had staggered starting and finishing dates across June-September, but for me working for the same time period was the most important and enjoyable aspect of the internship. I would not have enjoyed the work or my free time as much without the other interns around me.

I gained some useful ideas about my future plans, specifically that I would like to work outside the UK on a long-term basis and that I'm interested particularly in the EU whether that is working in it or working alongside it, this is something I plan to explore further. The work itself was largely an extension of previous marketing roles I've held and therefore did not challenge me as much as I thought it would, but the overall experience of getting to know new places and making new friends made the whole internship worthwhile.

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BRAZIL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF SPACE RESEARCH Second Year Undergraduate, MMath Mathematics, Remote Working Work Projects My work largely consisted of going through past research papers that focused on North-east Brazil and the climatic extremes that it often faces. For context, this is an area that is known to suffer from occasional extreme droughts and other natural phenomena such as landslides and sporadic moments of torrential rain. These events are thought to be amplified by the changing climate. The main question to investigate was, under the varying RCP X conditions given by the UNPCC, how will the frequency and intensity of these climate extremes vary. An even more important question that had to be asked was, what will the socioeconomic impacts of these events be.

For example, during my research I came across past droughts in the areas and the economic damage that happens to local farming communities when their source of water for agriculture disappears. The place that I was working for had created their own model on how different municipalities were affected and so they could see which areas were most at risk. My main accomplishment was understanding the underlying conditions in the region and being able to evaluate the consequences on the region. My mentor provided me with a wealth of papers to read through to help me understand the content.

Daily Life I did my internship from my home in London. At times it was difficult to adopt the necessary mentality for work, especially since I was in my room and my bed was two feet away from me. However, I strived to mimic the conditions of a work environment as best as I could. My day would start early at 7 when I would go out for my daily exercise and then I would have a shower and get dressed in some smart casual clothes. I would then have breakfast and read for half an hour or so before setting to work at 9 with a lunch break at 12 for an hour and then continue working until 4 normally. My work largely consisted of reading and summarising notes.

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Outside of work, in the evenings I would normally watch a movie or spend some time on YouTube listening to a podcast. Though there were weekly emails sent out between myself and my mentor, we also had a lengthy call on Friday afternoons so that I could ask some questions on some of the more difficult concepts in my reading and so that he could stay updated on my progress.

Lasting Impressions I think the internship taught me some good skills about research and how to analyse a paper methodically to get the useful information out of it. I enjoyed a large part of my experience, though of course the situation in the outside world did make things gloomy at times.

However, a combination of focus and calls with friends made the whole experience pretty manageable. I think before I was considering a career in academia,however, I think after this stint, it’s unlikely that it is a career path I will follow. While the work was interesting, I don't think that this is something that I want to do when I graduate and the fact that I know that now, is why internships are such a useful and enlightening experience.

Ashleigh Parsons, Final Year Undergraduate, BA Biological Sciences, Remote Working Work Projects I spent two months modelling the species distribution of various endemic animals in the Cerrado in Brazil. This involved largescale data analyses, where I used Excel to compile large datasets of species occurrence data, submitting data requests to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and other organisations.

I analysed these large data sets with R, using Maximum Entropy Species Distribution Modelling (MaxEnt) to produce species distributions covering extensive geographic ranges. I then used QGIS to visualise and analyse the maps I produced. This allowed me to assess the effectiveness of the protected areas in the Brazilian Cerrado and recommend priority areas for conservation. I was given quite a lot of freedom when deciding a research question, although my supervisor guided me to the Cerrado as a geographic region to focus on.

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Daily Life As this was a remote internship, I was mostly left to my own devices in terms of structuring my workload. I set myself deadlines to manage this and exchanged emails with my supervisor keeping them up to date with my progress. Occasional check-ins via video call were also very helpful in making sure I was on the right track.

Lasting Impressions The internship helped me develop my skills with QGIS. I had no prior experience with this software, but for many conservation organisations the ability to use QGIS is a highly desired skill. This has therefore definitely increased my employability within the conservation sector. This internship has also confirmed my desire to work in conservation, specifically within data analysis. I was also able to increase my written communication skills in report writing, another highly desirable skill. I would definitely recommend this internship if you are unsure if you wish to pursue a career in research and analysis.

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CHILE ICHEM, INSTITUTE CHILENO DE ESTUDIOS MUNICIPALES Anna Clemente, Green Templeton College, Second Year MPhil, MPhil in European Politics and Society, Remote Working Work Projects I was involved in a literature review project on the far-right in Latin America. The aim of the project was to understand when and what factors affect mobilisation from the far-right.

This research question represents a niche study as most of the literature on the topic is concerned with Europe and the US. Therefore, I conducted a literature review in order to understand what factors could have explanatory power and should be tested in the Latin American context. For each academic article I had to compile an excel sheet review and I had weekly calls with my supervisor, who was in charge of the project, to discuss my progress.

Daily Life The internship was remote and part-time, so it was perfect in terms of daily work-life balance. The fact I could work from anywhere was also a positive addition and because I was living at home, I did not feel particularly lonely during the internship. Moreover, ICHEM organises weekly zoom calls so I got to know the other people working in the organisation, despite not being able to meet them in person.

Lasting Impressions I really enjoyed my internship; the research topic was fascinating, and it gave me a number of ideas to pursue during my PhD. My supervisor has proposed that I continue working on the project in order to publish an article on the topic, which is a fantastic opportunity for my future academic ambitions. Unfortunately, I was not able to conduct the internship in person, but I still learned a lot about Chile and Latin America by reading widely on the region. This was also helpful to allow me to reconsider my opinion on a number of issues and helped me to be conscious of my European bias. In short, it was a fantastic experience and I feel really lucky to have had the occasion to work on this theme as it was closely aligned with my own research interests.

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What advice would you give to future interns?

I think interning for ICHEM is a great opportunity for those interested in research and in the Latin American region. It was evident from the zoom calls that it is a really nice environment to work in where everyone is friendly. It is also a good occasion to brush up one's Spanish. I definitely recommend applying if your interests align.

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CYPRUS CARITAS CYPRUS Catriona Niven, St Anne’s College, Second Year Undergraduate, BA European and Middle Eastern Languages, In-person Working Work Projects I really appreciated Caritas’ grassroots and holistic approach as an NGO. The work that I was doing felt valuable and important. I was given a lot of responsibility, which at first was intimidating, but I always felt supported by the rest of the team. As an intern, I feel I benefited from the horizontal workplace structure. The staff at Caritas were willing to answer my questions and give me a window into their working lives. Elizabeth, the executive manager, regularly checked in with me and the other interns (with iced coffee!) and was approachable and friendly.

The work was sometimes emotionally challenging, and certainly required a degree of resilience. I felt very supported by the staff camaraderie and the rich social life that came with it. The Caritas staff were all extremely welcoming and generous and often socialised together at the weekends. Caritas provided a lot of opportunity to be independent and proactive and to contribute projects beyond daily tasks. When I had ideas for improvement, I was encouraged to create original resources and their translations to fill the gaps. Given the pandemic restrictions, I feel very lucky to have been able to go abroad and complete this internship in person. The Careers Service and Caritas Cyprus were both so supportive and helpful in response to the logistical difficulties owing to COVID. Daily Life One of the things that made my time at Caritas so rich and rewarding was the unpredictability of each day. I could never anticipate the nature or the severity of the problems that I would be solving. The issues were broad and often required a high level of responsibility. Sometimes I was the first point of contact for an unaccompanied minor, other times I was helping an asylum seeker with the routine application for a medical card. I didn’t

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just stay at the migrant centre either, as the frequent need for a translator sometimes took me to the local court or local hospital.

My day was split broadly between supporting the operations of Caritas Migrant Centre in the mornings and following up and doing data entry in the afternoons. One of the best things about my experience was being able to experience these two sides of an NGO. The mornings gave me an opportunity to engage directly with beneficiaries and participate in the grassroots function of Caritas, and in the afternoons, I was able to learn about the administrative side.

In my penultimate week I was able to take part in running testing for MiiCT, a Horizon 2020 project. Seeing how Caritas engages and collaborates with other organisations was really valuable. It was interesting to see how large international projects translate into contact with asylum seekers and international protection holders themselves. Language support was a significant part of my role. French speakers were in high demand and my Arabic was also very useful. I really enjoyed being able to use my language skills to practically benefit people.

Lasting Impressions Overall, my experience as an intern with Caritas Cyprus was wonderful. I enjoyed the challenge and responsibility it provided. I was never bored and there was always something new to do or learn. It developed my interpersonal skills, cultural mediation ability and selfconfidence. I am (still!) interested in working for an NGO in the future, particularly with migrants and displaced people, so I feel like this internship provided a lot of opportunity to learn about the available roles.

Hildelith Leyser, Hertford College, Second Year Undergraduate, BA History, In-person Working Work Projects There were three projects that I was working on that were very different in nature. The first was a more classically defined project. It was about developing online resources for the beneficiaries in the form of online information sheets, PowerPoints, and videos in order to easily

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gain access to information and advice and answer FAQs from anywhere on the Island without having to come and directly ask for our help. These resources could be widely shared across communities so that the knowledge became theirs and there was a more ecological model of aid rather than the charity humanitarian model which has recently proven to be so problematic.

The second project that I was involved in was similar in intention, it was an EU project to develop an online platform where migrants could find access to information but also directly apply for jobs, look for accommodation, language classes and so on. This platform was more ambitious in its aim and much more complex in its execution. I was involved in conducting surveys and live prototyping of the platform with migrants to see whether the platform was user-friendly and or catered to their specific needs.

The third specific part of the internship where I was able to take the most autonomy was in dealing with two specific psychiatric cases where I was working as an interpreter with psychologists and psychiatrists. I found this role particularly rewarding as I was able to take initiative and work on solutions myself. There was also an important element in terms of navigating between the psychologists and psychiatrists which was delicate and required analysis and judgement, I found this responsibility very engaging and gratifying.

Daily Life I would arrive at the migrant centre at about 8:45 in the morning. We would set up the room making sure all the documents we needed were at hand and the laptops and printers were switched on. From 9:00-13:00 we had direct contact with beneficiaries looking for solutions and advice to give on whatever problems they were experiencing. This often entailed navigating the bureaucracy of their social welfare benefits and filling out government application forms.

The centre was also the first port of call for many asylum seekers that had just arrived in Cyprus, so we were there to explain the asylum-seeking procedure and help them understand how to proceed. Sometimes urgent problems arose which required providing immediate shelter accommodation to combat domestic violence or destitute homelessness, or there were frequent medical emergencies which required interpreters at ER to translate French to English and mediate and advocate for the beneficiaries who were often overlooked by the doctors.

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In the afternoons, we logged all of these activities into spreadsheets allowing us to advocate for their issues further at the social welfare office or follow up on any issues or support that was needed. The afternoon was also the time to work on our projects. Outside of work we socialised a lot with the colleagues as it was a really close knit and amazing group of people who shared similar values and had a really nice atmosphere among them. We often took trips to the beautiful rural parts of Cyprus in the mountains and the forest, and also the coastline. We spent as much time as possible in nature, as the colleagues very generously showed us new and beautiful landscapes giving us a wonderful introduction into the island.

We also socialised with a group of international students and travellers a lot of whom were enrolled in Erasmus programmes. This was a really interesting cross section of people from Europe and beyond who had been brought to Cyprus for all different reasons, amongst this group of people were also some asylum seekers and it was really special to see how integrated and assimilated these asylum seekers were and how crucial they were to the community.

Lasting Impressions I am so grateful for the opportunity to have been able to do this internship. There was something really special about the organisation and the people working for it and it was so inspiring and interesting to be around them. My lasting impressions are of awe and hope that there are these sorts of people in the world. Although I often found it very challenging both emotionally and physically, I enjoyed it a lot. I think it has changed my career goals a lot because I got a clear insight into my individual skill set and the areas in which I can be more or less useful.

There was an opportunity to engage and practice in many different types of skills, as no day was the same and everyday was operated in a crisis management mode. It also helped me to understand how I respond in different situations and levels of stress. This was helpful to understand what kind of working environment I find most conducive to personal productivity and what stage of aid I would be most effective in. It was also interesting to be able to compare whether working in response to direct issues or working more proactively addressing issues was more suited to my skill set. I’m not sure on all of the answers yet but it was so helpful to draw out some of these more nuanced issues involved in careers that are more complex but just as crucial as the obvious questions like what sector you would like to work in.

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What advice would you give to future interns?

My advice to future interns would be to be as proactive and vocal about what the areas of your internship are that you are most interested in and feel you could get the most out of.

In this sense ask for extra opportunities and extra advice. Often the way these internships are structured is that there are many people in the organisation who could potentially act as mentors and help find you more insights into different areas or give you unexpected chances to see different parts of the profession and hone certain skills. These mentors want to help but it involves engaging them in your story so that you capture their imagination and they think of ways to help you naturally and organically. Whilst this might sound daunting all it really involves is not being shy with those who you might perceive to be higher ups in the organisation and being as open and detailed about your own interests as you can.

Final Year Undergraduate, BA Jurisprudence Law with Law Studies in Europe, In-person Working Work Projects The internship centred around work at a migrant centre open from 9h-13h. Interns worked alongside full time staff to respond to requests for information on asylum procedures, assistance with social welfare applications, humanitarian support (food, clothing etc) and advice on other services available for asylum seekers in Cyprus. In the afternoon we entered updates into the centralised database and flagged issues for advocacy or follow up.

During the time in the office I worked on preparing informative materials for asylum seekers such as where to find online language resources and how to appeal a rejection from asylum service. All the interns completed ad hoc written translations from English to French. I also provided informal oral translation between English and French at hospital appointments and at various courts. Finally, I managed a CV clinic providing one on one sessions to create a CV and discuss the labour market in Cyprus.

Daily Life The team at Caritas were incredibly welcoming so I settled in very quickly. In my first week our boss generously took the interns on an excursion to a 13th century UNESCO world heritage site outside of Nicosia. Over coffee she took the time to discuss the history of Cyprus up to the entry into the European Union in 2004 and how the restriction of access

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between the North and the Republic since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic might affect relations.

Outside of work I was lucky to explore all parts of the island including the beaches, mountains, villages and cliffs at Capo Greco, Ayia Napa. I rented a room in the Old Town which meant I could walk to work in the mornings and easily go out in the evenings. With friends, housemates and colleagues I tried hot yoga, bouldering, African dance and visited many second-hand clothes shops.

Lasting Impressions Working at Caritas Cyprus has been an incredible opportunity due to the generosity of the staff. I hope to carry the warmth I received as an intern to all my future work experiences. The generosity is reflected in the organisation's ambition to constantly improve and provide the best quality services.

Cyprus is a challenging environment to navigate as an asylum seeker, particularly when language creates a barrier. I feel privileged to have been given an insight into these challenges and the opportunity to assist in some small ways.

The nature of the internship at Caritas means interns can contribute directly to assisting beneficiaries and collaborate on the bigger projects of the organisation. Working in a team of diverse professional backgrounds has broadened my mindset when approaching challenges whether logistical, personal or structural. My career aspirations remain in the legal sector, but I would definitely like to work directly with NGOs in the future.

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CZECH REPUBLIC CASTLE BLATNA Lara Garrett, Mansfield College, Final Year Undergraduate, BA History, InPerson Working Work Projects Castle Blatna has a relatively small team of staff, which meant that during my internship I undertook a diverse range of projects. This enabled me to gain insight into the full scope of Castle Blatna’s operations as well as to develop lots of different skills, including in graphic design and marketing which I had never done before. The opportunity to take on diverse tasks and discover new skills was a real highlight of the internship.

My main task was assisting with events hosted by the castle, which included outdoor theatre, opera and concerts. My responsibilities included writing social media posts, invitations to VIPs and influencers, and programmes, as well as designing signs and posters, setting up events and taking photos. I worked towards two outdoor orchestral concerts in particular.

Unfortunately, one of these had to be cancelled due to rain. However, we worked together to hold a mini indoor concert and drinks reception for the VIP guests instead, which gave me valuable insight into how organisations respond to complications.

As well as event organisation, I completed various other projects, some of which were research-based. For example, I was asked to research the connection between General Patton and Castle Blatna. It was known by oral testimony that Patton had stayed at the castle in 1945, however the castles written documentation confirming his stay had been destroyed. I used online books and archives, and reached out to relevant organisations, in order to write a text on Patton’s stay which could be used for guided tours and the castle website. Another task I worked on entailed researching and designing information signs for the deer park. I was granted lots of freedom in this project, selecting both the themes and content of the signs.

In general, I was allowed lots of independence to complete tasks as I saw fit, and to pursue my own ideas. My colleagues let me develop my own projects, and while some of my ideas

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could not be implemented for various reasons, others were taken up. For instance, I designed a brochure about the castle on my own initiative, which was subsequently printed for events. The castle team was incredibly supportive and always ready to answer any questions I had, and the responsibility and ownership I was granted over my work really set this internship apart from my previous experiences.

Daily Life My colleagues at Castle Blatna were very flexible about working hours, so I worked approximately 9:30am to 5:30pm most days. I sometimes worked in the office but generally worked in the cafe, since it had a very friendly and lively atmosphere as well as great coffee! I lived in an apartment in the castle park which was only a couple of minutes away from work. The park is home to lots of fallow deer and peacocks which made the walk to work really picturesque. Sometimes I was alone in the apartment, however there were generally other people staying there too, either people working at the castle or friends of the owners.

My colleagues at Castle Blatna were incredibly warm and friendly. Due to the pandemic, I was the only intern this year, however everyone ensured I felt welcome. Some of my colleagues even took me on trips to places like Cesky Krumlov, Pilsen, Pisek and Tabor, which meant I got to explore lots of South Bohemia. I also did quite a lot of solo travel, to Prague but also places further afield, including Dresden, Vienna and Salzburg. The owner of the castle was incredibly generous in giving me days off to travel, which enabled me to have a very well-rounded internship experience. I really enjoyed visiting so many new places particularly Prague, to which I would love to return.

Lasting Impressions I loved my time at Castle Blatna and shall always remember it. As someone who enjoys visiting historic properties, it was amazing to get to live and work at a castle. I liked the opportunity to take on so many different projects, since this enabled me to experience the full scope of the castles activities as well as to develop lots of different skills which will be useful for various careers. In particular, I enjoyed taking on some graphic design tasks, since I had never done this before, making it very rewarding when my designs were implemented.

Moreover, the independent nature of the internship and opportunity to pitch my own ideas developed my ability to take initiative, which will serve me well for any future workplace.

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The people who worked at the castle were always friendly and welcoming, and I really enjoyed the time we spent together. We were all kept busy due to it being high season at the castle, which at times was overwhelming but also meant there was lots to do and also many great events on. Particularly at a time when such events were cancelled back home, I loved the opportunity to regularly see theatre, opera and orchestra concerts.

A career in museums and heritage has long been of interest to me, and while I am still considering options, the internship has definitely confirmed my interest in this sector. I would prefer a research-based, curatorial role than something in marketing, communications, design and suchlike, however I think the insight I gained into all these different areas during the internship has been invaluable in helping me understand how historic houses operate on the ground.

What advice would you give to future interns?

Don’t be afraid to come up with your own ideas. The owners of the castle want fresh insight and give you lots of responsibility to work on your suggestions if you take the initiative. Also, try out some new skills and activities, whether that be in design, marketing, events and so on. I ended up doing lots of things I had never done before, which was initially intimidating but ended up being the most rewarding part of my internship experience.

Furthermore, make sure you travel. The owner of the castle is very generous in giving you some days off for travelling so long as there are no major events on at the castle. Definitely visit Prague and explore the areas closer to Blatna (like Cesky Krumlov and Ceske Budejovice), but also consider visiting bordering countries like Germany and Austria. While it is quite difficult to get to, Salzburg is a gorgeous city that I would recommend visiting.

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HUNGARY CEEWEB FOR BIODIVERSITY Maddy Czura, Hertford College, Final Year Undergraduate, BA Biological Sciences, Remote Working Work Projects My internship was completed with CEEweb for Biodiversity, based in Budapest Hungary, however I was working remotely from the UK. My tasks focused around the project ConnectGreen which worked to promote and preserve ecological corridors and connectivity in the Carpathian region. My tasks involved collecting communication materials on the EU Green Deal, reading through these documents to fully understand their importance and then discussing in detail the relations to ConnectGreen. From this I prepared and gave a short presentation at the weekly staff meeting which was recorded to be used for future introductions to the main areas of the EU Green Deal. I also supported the media communication through constructing short summaries of best and worst practices within environmental policy which could then be used for social media posts.

As well as these tasks, I was able to participate in online conferences and training events, meeting academics and policy makers from around Europe. This was a great experience as it allowed me to see the process of project development and the various considerations involved when constructing environmental projects. Adapting to the remote working side of this internship meant communication was through zoom meetings, skype messages and email correspondence. This communication method was effective, and I received great support from CEEweb for Biodiversity through weekly staff meetings and regular video calls.

Daily Life Adapting to the remote working side of this internship was essential as I was working from the UK with a time difference. Living in a busy household with many siblings, for me the challenge was trying to find a quiet office space and keeping a good internet connection. I was fortunate to set up a space where I was undisturbed, and I used door signs to indicate I

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was in a meeting to prevent distractions. Sitting at a desk all day can be tiring and many times I was able to take my work outside with me and enjoy the warm weather.

The flexibility of online working was a great benefit as it allowed me to participate in activities during the day whilst still getting the work done. The other side of remote working was the exciting prospect of utilising the benefits of being online and using new technologies. For example, when having a discussion about potential board game ideas for ConnectGreen communication with the general public, we were able to use a collaborative whiteboard to share ideas.

As well as this, the online conferences could be easily translated from Hungarian to English allowing me to follow the presentations, and they could be recorded. Despite not being able to travel out and experience the full beauty of nature in Budapest, I believe the remote internship was a valuable and fun experience. With the uncertain future of the aftermath of this pandemic, I think remote working is a valuable skill to have and being able to utilise the benefits of this is important.

Lasting Impressions My internship with CEEweb was a great experience and although it was shortened to just four weeks, I was able to gain an insight into environmental projects and connect with great people working within this sector. Coming from a biology background studying BA Biological Sciences, I had a wealth of knowledge concerning ecological connectivity and environmental policy however, I had not experienced the realistic side of project implementation.

This internship allowed me to experience the behind the scenes of environmental projects including the challenges and considerations that must be taken. Connecting and enhancing the theoretical knowledge I had gained through my degree was enjoyable. I was also able to meet new people, although remotely, and holding academic conversations with them regarding the subject I am passionate about and also learning from their experience working in the environmental sector was a great experience. A highlight for me was being part of the process and attending conferences.

Overall, this internship confirmed my desire to pursue a career in the environmental sector in the future. It highlighted to me the importance of communication, particularly when adapting to the remote working setting and utilising online technology. This not only provided me with valuable skills for my CV, but also connections for future career opportunities within this sector.

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Christopher Lunnon, Christ Church, Final Year Undergraduate, BA Biological Sciences, Remote Working Work Projects My first task was a Pandemics and Biodiversity Position Paper which consisted of researching work done by the US CDC and USAID in developing healthcare capacity across West and Central Africa in response to the 2014-2016 Ebola Outbreak and how a 'One Health approach' can be used to help prevent pandemics. The key focuses of the position paper were highlighting the shortfalls of EU actions when it comes to fighting diseases and the importance of a One Health approach that focused on preventing zoonotic disease outbreaks as well as detecting and responding to them.

My second task was a position paper on the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy and the projected impact of the different policy mechanisms under CAP on biodiversity and climate mitigation. The paper also included detailing why most of the policy mechanisms under the 2010-2020 CAP failed to have meaningful outcomes for biodiversity. This work involved extensive literature review of EU strategy documents followed by synthesis into a position paper that could be easily digested by EU and Central/Eastern European policymakers.

Following the position paper, I wrote a short article summarising the position paper's key points about the direction of CAP post-2020 for the CEEWeb website.

My third task was a position paper on urban biodiversity and climate mitigation with a focus on the Central/Eastern European region. This involved researching and reviewing naturebased solutions with a focus on IUCN and EU definitions. Following that I wrote about five different examples from across the region of nature-based solution or green infrastructure schemes. These schemes included phytoremediation of industrial land in Baia Mare to the accidental development of a wetland in Bucharest to developing the medieval green infrastructure of Poznan and a private green infrastructure initiative in the world's largest engine factory.

The support was brilliant, my supervisor was always available to email and would always reply with concise easy to follow feedback. Even if I hadn’t had that supervisor, I didn't really require much support because the tasks were so well explained to begin with it was clear what was needed to be undertaken most of the time without asking for further assistance.

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Daily Life Generally, I found that whilst I felt I wasn't working hard enough or felt like I could do more, I was generally far ahead of schedule and did everything way ahead of time. I think I could have handled more work in the 3-month period because, being at home, I did not have much else to do and so had plentiful time. Definitely had no issue relaxing because the workload was very manageable and only required quiet space and good internet connection to be able to make most of it.

Lasting Impressions For sure this is a fantastic internship because I think it is quite rare that a small non-British environmental charity offers internships to British students. I learned a lot about how NGOs/charities work in the EU framework and also about how a small organisation like this works. I also learned a lot about how EU policies are actually actioned and the process of lobbying in an EU context.

The experience has confirmed my career ambition to work in a policy-oriented environmental organisation, although I would aspire to work in a larger more international one than this. I gained a lot of knowledge and research skills but mostly my synthesis skills and the ability to write reports.

Second Year Undergraduate, BA Biological Sciences, Remote Working Work Projects I interned remotely for 4 weeks with CEEweb for Biodiversity, a network of multiple environmental conservation NGOs based in Central and Eastern Europe. Of course, it was very disappointing to not be able to spend the summer in Budapest, but the team were very welcoming and zoomed me into regular meetings which helped me feel like part of office life. Me and the other Oxford intern also had weekly meetings with my supervisor Gabriella, who was very helpful and friendly.

I was the conservation policy intern for CEEweb, and was working on the SaveGREEN project, an EU funded project working to identify ways to mitigate the impact of transport infrastructure projects on ecological corridors in the Danube region. I was working on creating a library of publications related to cost-benefit analyses for the environmental

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impacts of transport projects-especially relating to methods for valuing ecosystem services and biodiversity- for use by the CEEweb team and by other stakeholders.

Daily Life My internship was remote, and I found getting up and starting work at a consistent time (despite not having any set working hours) to be very important, as well as taking regular breaks and going for a run or doing yoga daily. After work in the evenings I would relax by hanging out with my housemates or watching Netflix.

Lasting Impressions I enjoyed the internship. The work I was doing was interesting, and directly related to aspects of my degree which was a bonus, and I feel like I've learned a lot about policy work in particular which I didn't have much knowledge about previously. Working remotely didn't give me enough insight into what it's like to work for a conservation organisation to change or confirm my career plans, but I would perhaps like further experience in a similar organisation once in person-working resumes.

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COLD WAR HISTORY RESEARCH CENTRE BA History and Politics, First Year Undergraduate, Remote working Work Projects I took a summer internship at the Cold War History Research Centre (CWHRC) in Budapest. This focused mainly on archival work and research, which was particularly rewarding, giving me ample experience in the nature of and techniques required for this work.

Given that it was completed remotely due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I worked with online/digital resources in order to compile a chronology for the CWHRC website. This exposed me to the interpretation and exploration involved in archival work, which was especially interesting. The chronology is a very well respected and widely used educational resource, and as such it was a pleasure to be involved in making this information freely available online to a broad public!

Another work project that the internship entailed included creating a 40-minute presentation about a period of interest during the Cold War; this allowed me to practice my public speaking skills as well as my research abilities, by compiling information into an insightful summary for others. Lastly, I also worked on a blog-style Facebook post for the CWHRC's page, under the subtitle "On this day", which took the format of a summary of a historical event. This was one of my favourite projects, as there was a lot of freedom in what to write about and how to go about it.

We were very well supported in all the projects, being given the resources for all projects and study, including primary and secondary sources. It was at the same time a growth experience, allowing a lot of choice and flexibility in how to use these resources, making the experiences afforded by the work projects into something personal, by exploring one's own interests!

Daily Life Working from home afforded me a lot of flexibility in chosen working hours, allowing me to fit the internship around other essential tasks in my schedule. I was able to establish a routine to give structure to my work, working for a few hours in the morning and more in the afternoon, usually with two breaks in between. This usually amounted to about 7-7h30

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hours per day on weekdays. This was very helpful to managing the workload of my internship and getting the most out of it.

Lasting Impressions I thoroughly enjoyed taking part in this internship. It afforded me a lot of confidence in myself and the quality of historical work I can do, and I am very happy and proud to have been able to take part in a large project involving undergraduate and graduate students from across the world (the CWHRC chronology) to create a quality educational resource!

The summer internship also gave me significant experience in analysing, interpreting, and understanding sources as well as developing my own academic writing style. It was also a fantastic exposure to academic work in a university setting. We were able to talk to previous interns and career academics about their fields of study, their interests, and their career paths. This offered invaluable advice and perspective about what a future in the sector (or using the experience developed over the course of this internship!) can look like! I am sure the skills I have gained will help me a lot going forward.

Julia Pieza, Trinity College, BA History and Politics, Final year undergraduate, Remote working Work Projects The online internship at Corvinus Cold War Research Centre would have originally taken place in Budapest, but luckily the Centre managed to find a way for the interns to complete a significant amount of archival work from home. My internship lasted 3 weeks and consisted of three main tasks.

Firstly, alongside the other online interns I was taught how to use the Open Society Archives from which I would conduct research to update the Centre’s cold war chronology. The chronology created by the Cold War Research Centre is one of the most detailed in the

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world and given my background with Polish language I was assigned to update the chronology between 1953-1968.

Having the initial introduction to how the online archives are structured and how to search for relevant material was useful and I soon got the hang of skimming through Radio Free Europe documents for relevant events for the chronology of the cold war. I would spend most of my day-to-day work conducting this research online and found a lot of the reading quite interesting as I completed my history undergraduate thesis on the Solidarity movement in Poland.

Secondly, each of the interns was assigned a 40-minute presentation on an aspect of the Cold War which we could choose from a selection of chapters in the Cambridge History of the Cold War. Conducting research for my presentation from academic material as well as some of the interesting sources I came across in the online archives was a useful experience for using the skills I learned throughout the university. The online presentation was also a valuable experience in public speaking. Lastly, all of the interns were asked to research and write a Facebook post for the Centre's page for their on this day series.

Daily Life I settled into a good routine working from home I found that changing my scenery during days working on research helped me stay focused. Though the internship was not filled with meetings, I appreciated having the time to do my work independently. We also had a whatsapp chat for all the interns for any general questions about the work which helped whenever someone had any questions.

We all met online every Thursday and Friday to listen to everyone's presentations and summarise the work we had been able to complete and reflect on any challenges. These meetings helped create a more social atmosphere to the internship despite it being generally filled with independent work.

Outside of work, I generally enjoyed taking the time to visit museums as the re-opened and made an effort to spend more time outdoors. During the internship, the research centre also provided us with two meetings with the leading professor of Hungarian cold war history who delivered a lecture to us and was very welcoming to all our questions. On one occasion, we met online with a previous intern of the centre who was now working in the diplomatic

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sector. The opportunity to ask questions and learn more about how the internship generally looked like in past years was interesting to hear about. Moreover, the staff at the centre emphasised the idea that an opportunity to visit the centre in Budapest in the future and help out with more research is available to us should we choose to once the pandemic is over.

Lasting Impressions Overall, I really enjoyed the experience as a research intern at the Cold War Centre. I have had a long-standing interest in this area of history and the internship certainly introduced me to new ideas. I also appreciated having the chance to engage with primary sources even via an online format which made each day different from the information I found.

I really enjoyed listening to the presentations delivered by the other interns which showcased the variety of interests across our group. Though I don't intend to follow into an academic career, the internship was useful at presenting the various areas of research I could be interested in undertaking for a future masters course. I think the skills I developed throughout, in being able to organise my workload, strengthen my research and analysis skills will be transferable to many other opportunities.

What advice would you give to future interns?

For future online interns, I would recommend having a good routine. I think the fact that the internship was carried out online and consisted of largely independent work made setting a number of hours to work for in the day helpful for organising breaks and other plans outside work. I would also recommend noting down any interesting primary sources and thinking about how they might fit into relevant thesis/dissertation research as I came across many unique perspectives that might come useful in the future.

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MSt History student, Modern British History 1850-Present, Remote working Work Projects I worked with online archives to research and write up a timeline of events in Czechoslovakia 1953-1960 as well as researching and delivering a presentation about the Cold War and the MENA region and writing a Facebook post about my research. I was provided with digitised primary and secondary sources as well as a talk by the head of the Research Centre on the new historiography of the Cold War. I also received guidance from the supervisor in weekly group meetings, a WhatsApp chat for interns and individual emails.

Daily Life I worked remotely on my laptop, and thankfully my partner's retired father let me use his home office - it was life-changing! This meant I had the space to spread out my research notes and join in our weekly Teams meetings without distraction. I tried to maintain roughly a 9-5 schedule as if I were working with others and then unwind in the evenings - but I also took short breaks to go on little walks, which really helped with motivation despite working from home.

Lasting Impressions The experience confirmed my commitment to archival research, allowed me to familiarise myself with sources I had not had access to in the past and overall left me with a sense that I had been able to learn about my area of relative expertise (the Cold War) from a new angle.

It was exciting and refreshing.

What advice would you give to future interns?

Try to make friends with the other interns and see if you can network with the people you're working for. For instance, at the end of this internship, we were all offered to come back as volunteers on a flexible part-time basis if we wanted.

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TERRE DES HOMMES Third Year DPhil, DPhil Education, Remote working Work Projects For this internship, I was assisting with research activities for Terre des hommes Children and Youth in Migration programme. This involved a desk review exploring the concept of youth empowerment, both in the literature and internal documentation, and then developing a background paper, indicators and operational guidance for future projects with migrant youth.

I worked mostly with one supervisor, who is the Regional Manager of the programme for Europe, via Skype calls during the summer and email contact. I was also in touch with other relevant staff who were very helpful in providing documents, contacts and further information.

My supervisor and I agreed on the terms of the internship when I started, refined my research plan and then discussed my draft reports and key tasks to prioritise and maximise the usefulness of any work I produced. I did all this remotely, due to COVID restrictions on travel, and had a lot of scope to shape the nature of the internship as I worked independently.

Daily Life I completed this internship remotely, which had its pros and cons. I was looking forward to getting involved in Terre des hommes office life in Budapest and getting to know the staff and other interns there. I feel that this is a key way to form relationships with peers and colleagues in a sector I would like to work in in the future.

However, being remote meant that I had the freedom to move around and could determine my own working hours to better fit with family life and other tasks related to COVID-related upheavals. In general, I stuck to regular working hours to keep a routine and avoid the issue of erratic schedules which can happen when working from home. In the evenings and at the weekends I tried to get outside as much as possible, seeing friends and family (albeit from a distance) and doing something active to balance out all of the screen time.

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Lasting Impressions The internship has confirmed my career ambition to work in or with this sector, either via academic relationships or a non-governmental organisation. I learnt more about the process of developing projects and translating academic research principles into practical tools, as well as how certain concepts and principles are put into practice. It has also confirmed my passion to work with youth affected by migration, which is the focus of my DPhil, and to find ways to enable them to participate more fully in the life of their new host communities.

MSc Criminology and Criminal Justice student, Remote Working Work Projects Terre des hommes is a children’s rights NGO with the European office based in Hungary.

The internship was remote working and lasted three weeks in total. I conducted an open-source research project mapping technological innovations within European criminal justice systems.

More specifically, I identified applications, digital tools and chatbots which aimed to support children in gaining access to justice. I wrote up a 7,000-word research report showing my findings and providing clear conclusions about the spread of relevant technological innovations. The other document was an Excel spreadsheet containing raw information about the projects individually, essentially a database listing digital tools.

I had daily contact with my supervisor by Skype and I had weekly video chats discussing my findings and offering guidance on my work. My supervisor sent helpful information sources and examples of projects as well as strategy docs from the organisation. It was a very useful experience which produced clear results and helped add something to my CV. Daily Life This was eventually a remote working internship conducted from the UK while my supervisor worked from mainland Europe. I worked very flexibly, my supervisor allowed me to work irregular hours as necessary, and work slightly different days than the usual Monday to Friday. This was helpful and allowed me to complete other job interviews.

I kept busy outside of work, pretty basic things like walks during lunch or running were really helpful. The downside of working remotely is that you can easily get into a very

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narrow routine and getting out of the house is vital. I had fairly limited contact with my supervisor, usually I would send one message per day to my supervisor and get one reply.

Throughout the project this was good, as my terms of reference were pretty clear. The only caveat is that my internship was only three weeks, if I had worked longer, then I might have found a slightly different routine was best.

Lasting Impressions Generally, the internship was enjoyable. I had the independence to conduct my own research and the autonomy to manage the project largely by myself as it was remote. The downside to this was that you lost some of the benefits of an internship such as the networking and the time meeting colleagues. That being said, this internship gave me useful and relevant experience for my CV, a valuable addition to my work history following Oxford.

Elisa Sisto, Green Templeton College, MSc Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, Mixed In-person/Remote Working Work Projects I conducted research and fundraising activities pertaining to the target group children left behind, understood as children having at least one parent/caregiver who left in migration. I first led desk-based research on the legal and policy frameworks regulating labour migration between the European Union, Moldova and Ukraine and on the challenges faced by children left behind. Building on this research and on a previously written Concept Note, I drafted a project proposal aiming to support transnational families from Moldova and Ukraine.

I wrote the narrative as well as the logical framework sections of the proposal, which were then reviewed and edited by the consortium of project partners. In addition, I conducted interviews with representatives from Terre des hommes delegations in Eastern European and South Asian countries featuring a large prevalence of transnational families in order to assess whether a mechanism for internal cooperation could be beneficial to each delegations work pertaining to children left behind.

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My internship supervisor, Pierre Cazenave, offered his generous availability and support throughout the internship to ensure that I not only understood but also enjoyed the tasks at hand. It was a real pleasure and honour to be supervised by Pierre, who always greeted us in the office with kindness and made sure that we felt integrated and valued within the team.

Daily Life Walking to the office in the morning was a highlight of daily life in Budapest. Terre des hommes offices are located at the top of a building in Buda with a breath-taking view of the Hungarian Parliament. Living in a lively district of Pest and crossing the Danube in the morning and evening to get to and from work was a pleasurable routine. Life inside and outside of work was enjoyable and enriching, and we were very much encouraged to take time to discover the city. On the weekends and in the evenings, together with a fellow classmate and intern, we discovered the different districts and atmospheres that Budapest has to offer. In addition, we were kindly invited to office social events through which we had the opportunity to meet colleagues from other Terre des hommes programmes.

Lasting Impressions I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with Terre des hommes Children and Youth in Migration Programme in Budapest. I am extremely grateful to my supervisor Pierre Cazenave, to Terre des hommes, to the Oxford Internship Office and to Santander for making this opportunity possible. Pierre’s style of leadership offered interns independence and responsibility, and I felt that the work I was invited to produce was important for the organisation and could make a difference.

I also gained new skills pertaining to project proposal writing that will without doubt prove useful for a career in the fields of migration and child protection. Moreover, conducting the interviews regarding a mechanism for internal cooperation exposed me to the work and visions of a diversity of Terre des hommes staff operating in different countries and contexts. This internship confirmed my career ambitions and offered me invaluable insight into how an organisation of the size and international outlook of Terre des hommes functions.

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INDIA ST VIVEKANAND SCHOOL MChem Chemistry, Third Year Undergraduate, Remote working Work Projects I set up a social media page and raised its profile to over 650 followers. I designed the theme of the account and made many posts to raise awareness of a wide variety of social issues in India and globally. I created 2 YouTube video series on debate and chemistry for school children in India and ran a zoom class that taught children how to debate. The supervisor met with us once a week to guide our work.

Daily Life The internship was 5 hours per week, so I did around an hour per day consisting of a wide range of tasks like designing the website, creating content, responding to messages on social media, recording or editing a video, market research, preparing a lesson and teaching the lesson.

Lasting Impressions I found it very interesting working for a start-up where we had so much say in what the company was going to look like. This was an interesting experience that I would not have had otherwise in a bigger, more developed company.

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Augustus Brown, Keble College, Third Year Undergraduate, MMathPhys Mathematical and Theoretical Physics, Remote Working Work Projects The internship was originally meant to be teaching schoolchildren in India a variety of extracurricular subjects. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the internship had to move online, which meant the internship had to change significantly. The main task we were given was to create an Instagram account and to post every day. We had several different themes, all trying to raise awareness of societal problems to Indian Gen-z children. Our themes included climate change, feminism, racism, toxic masculinity, LGBTQ rights and mental health. Our posts addressed these issues both globally and how they specifically apply in India. For example, I created some posts on why plastic is bad for the environment and how toxic masculinity is present in Bollywood. We were very successful with the social media, gaining over 600 followers in a couple weeks.

The other task I was given was to create a video series, which I did on Inspirational Women in History. For this I made videos on Boudicca, the Iceni queen in Roman Britain, and Catherine de Pizan, who was the first ever feminist. We had a meeting every week to make sure everyone was clear with what our tasks were.

Daily Life As our internship was only 5 hours a week, it was not too much of a commitment. Our main task was to control the social media, which required a post at least every day. The work was quite full on for the first week, as we were making three posts a day to jumpstart our Instagram account, but once that settled down, we were able to spend more time making the videos. So that the internship wouldn't take up too much of my time, I would try and make several posts in one afternoon, to have them ready but not post them, so that throughout the week posting on Instagram wouldn't take too much time.

I was worried that the time difference between India, where our boss was, and England would make it tricky to find times for meetings, however I found this was not a problem, as it was quite easy to find times that were good for everyone.

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Lasting Impressions I would never have considered a career in social media, and so when we found out that our internship that was meant to be teaching children in India had now changed into maintaining an Instagram account, I was a bit nervous as social media is not my area of expertise, however, I am glad that I tried it.

Our posts were on topics such as race, women's rights, LGBTQ rights, and climate change, and I really enjoyed researching these issues, specifically how they apply in India.

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ITALY UWC ADRIATIC Second Year Postgraduate Student, MPhil Politics: Political Theory, Remote working Work Projects Due to the pandemic, instead of going to Italy, I was based at home for a remote internship in Communications, Events and Fundraising at UWC Adriatic. This experience was unique and valuable.

During my internship I completed a variety of tasks relating primarily to Communications and helping the college maintain good communication channels with alumni.

I was responsible for conducting research on college alumni, updating contact details, updating occupations, writing alumni profiles for the college website, writing a news piece for the college website, drafting social media posts and drafting some of the college’s communications to alumni regarding current affairs. This involved research skills, working with spreadsheets, having good written communication skills and communicating information in an engaging way.

It was especially rewarding to see some of my pieces up on the website by the time I finished my internship. All of the tasks were very well explained to me by members of the college staff and I was provided with all of the context and resources I needed to complete them to a high standard. I felt very well supported by the team in Italy, we had regular contact via email, messaging, and video calls. Given the time difference, the team were good at giving me some flexibility to choose my working hours. Despite not being there in person, I still felt that I got to learn a lot about the organisation, its mission and its culture through everyone I worked with - thank you!

Daily Life During the internship I was working from home, but I had regular contact with my host organisation via video calls, emails, and messages. My working days usually started between 8 and 9 (UK time) I would check my emails, write my to do list for the day and take care of

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any shorter tasks. We would then usually have a team video call around 9.30 AM to update on any progress made the previous day and set tasks for me to work on over the day ahead.

The team in Italy were very good at striking a balance between giving me clear tasks to do and allowing me the freedom to approach them however I thought was best. I felt encouraged to take initiative, to think of new and interesting ways to do things and to bring this into my work. The team provided regular feedback on my work so I was able to constantly improve.

Some days I would have a short call with the team in the afternoon, and sometimes I would have virtual coffee break with a former Oxford intern who was still working with the college in Italy. These coffees were among the best parts of my internship experience because it made the experience feel less remote and more like an in-person internship. I usually ended my day at around 5.30 PM when I would update the team on my progress for the day via message or email. I had plenty of time to go for jogs or bike rides in my evenings to wind down.

Lasting Impressions I really enjoyed my online internship with UWC Adriatic and I really enjoyed learning more about the UWC mission. It was clear to me that everyone working at UWC Adriatic is passionate about the work they do and that has left a real lasting impression on me. I had hoped to be able to work abroad when I applied for this internship and this experience has confirmed my desire to do this: I am hopeful that another opportunity will arise for me to work abroad in the future.

I feel that this experience has helped me work on my written communication skills which I hope will be useful going forward. I also feel that this experience helped me get more comfortable with working remotely and using the technologies that are available to make remote working easier. I expect this will be very useful experience as we continue to deal with the pandemic and how it is affecting the world of work. I am still hoping to be able to plan a short visit Duino at some point to see the college and meet the team in person, perhaps I will be able to do this when the situation has settled a bit more!

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JORDAN UMNIAH MOBILE BA Human Sciences, Second Year Undergraduate, Remote working Work Projects I was working with the Tank, a non-profit business incubator focusing on the tech industry. The project was rather wild now that I am thinking about it. The Tank was looking to give a big transformation on its operation processes, i.e. how it "incubates" start-ups during its fixed one-year incubation period. My main task was to conduct research and advise on how we should design this process. The good thing was I could be creative and make an impact in my own way. After thorough desk research and rounds of interviews, I gave in a proposal consisting of a general operation process map and reasons why we should operate like so.

What was encouraging was that Umniah accepted my model, not completely, but almost.

After we finalised the operation model, we further researched how what KPIs we should use for both start-ups and the incubator. In the end, we finalised a good plan for the future operation. During the process, I was able to ask questions and communicate with Umniah staff about almost everything I needed to know, this made my job much easier even though I had to work remotely due to COVID-19.

Daily Life Jordan has closed its border, so I had to change to a remote internship. This was a disappointment because I could not experience Jordan in person, but the benefits of a remote internship are flexibility and the fact that I could carry out work in an environment I am most familiar with. I planned my work and meetings ahead, and I sent questions via emails or video chats. In my spare time I just relaxed and met friends like during term times in Oxford.

Lasting Impressions I think I pretty much enjoyed the experience because I was given a challenge.

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William Gasson, St Edmund Hall, Final Year Undergraduate, Remote Working Work Projects I applied to work for Ummiah, a Jordanian communications company expecting to learn about the communications industry and get an idea of what it would be like to work for a technology company; as well as the opportunity to go to Jordan to experience life and work in another country, however, due to the global health crisis this was no longer an option so Umniah kindly offered to make the internship remote. The internship took a few days to get going properly due to having to deal with the realities of working from home, however, once it was started I was given projects to do which meant I could get on with work and there was a wide enough scope that I could always find a bit to work on.

My internship was split into 2 parts, the first was based around Umniah’s IT and Development operations group which focused on full stack web development so looking at front end, back end and testing. My main task was to look at how caching can be used to speed up request time, which was interesting and allowed me to learn a lot about web development.

The second part of the internship was with the digital transformation and data analytics group which focused how google analytics is used in business to monitor how new customers find your website, how they behave on the website, and what things they buy.

This allows you to see which parts of your website are working effectively, working in this area gave me a much clearer idea of how analytics are used online.

Daily Life Working from home the hours I was required to do were reduced when it was moved to a remote internship. This meant I had to do 20 hours of work over the week, I could therefore spread these hours out across the week to work when it fitted my schedule best. I found because I was working from home there was no commuting and so there were plenty of hours in the day to complete the work set and do other bit and bobs such as reading around my project for next year. As there was not much to do during lockdown it was good to have projects to work on and feel I was actually making some productive use of the time.

Outside work I have always found exercising a good way to relax and take my mind off whatever is going on. This was particularly relevant in lock down as a good way to not feel

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as cooped up was to go for a run or cycle in order to get out of the house and get some fresh air. This also allowed me to break up the day and spread my working hours out.

Lasting Impressions I will clearly remember 2020 for a number of reasons, but I will have a good impression of my internship and the skills it helped me gain. I really enjoyed the experience of working for Umniah as I learnt a lot of principles which should be applicable to my career. It also allowed me to feel productive during a period of time in which I feel I would have done very little with otherwise.

I learnt a lot from my time at Umniah and feel like a much more confident coder and would know have to knowledge to create a website, track how it is used and from that optimise aspects of it to give the user the best experience. There are many skills I learnt from this internship and it gave me an opportunity to see the tools that are used in industry and talk to people who work in communications.

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UN VOLUNTEERS REGIONAL OFFICE FOR THE ARAB STATES BA PPE, Third Year Undergraduate, Remote working Work Projects I worked with the Communications and Outreach Team of the Regional Office. It was a very unique experience, as the internship overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic and the humanitarian experience in Beirut. My primary responsibilities were drafting web stories highlighting UN volunteers' work across the MENA region, as well as providing communications support for the 2020 Global Technical Meeting.

Daily Life The internship was fully remote this year because of COVID. Because I returned to the US, there was a 7-hour time difference between myself and the Regional Office. Despite that, the internship was very flexible-aside from weekly 5 AM team meetings.

Lasting Impressions I very much enjoyed the experience. It was a great learning opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the UN system and to explore various aspects of UN Volunteers' work. The experience reaffirmed my desire to go into humanitarian work and international development. I would absolutely recommend this internship to anyone who is interested.

BA PPE, Final Year Undergraduate, Remote working Work Projects I worked for six weeks with team members from the Regional Office, remotely, to support them in their efforts to promote volunteerism as a means of achieving sustainable development.

My key achievements included supporting the team with the administration of a conference breakout session focused on volunteerism in the Arab States region and compiling a report on this session for distribution to key volunteer stakeholders in the region. Throughout the

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internship, I was supported in regular Zoom meetings with both my supervisor, the head of the Regional Office, and other members of the team.

Daily Life Given that the internship was based around Jordan time (UK+2 hours), my daily schedule allowed me to vary my routine, with a finish earlier in the afternoon than if I had been working in person. This allowed me to go out and enjoy the UK summer in a greater variety of ways!

Lasting Impressions It was fascinating to gain an insight on working within the UN system, especially from the perspective of a cross-cutting agency like UNV. Given that they work with so many different parts of the UN system, I was able to gain an appreciation of a variety of aspects of the work of UN agencies. It was also very interesting to be involved with the 2020 Global Technical Meeting on Reimagining Volunteering, to see the interaction of many international volunteer stakeholders.

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KENYA COMPANIONSHIP OF WORKS ORGANISATION (COWA) Pauline Marie Charlotte Lemaire, BA French and Philosophy, Third Year Undergraduate, Remote working Work Projects The internship projects involved revamping their social media, communications and marketing strategies. I implemented many weekly routines for social media content, in order to make my time at CoWA sustainable. I really wanted to make their social media active, and within 4 weeks of working there, our Facebook audiences engagement had increased by 48%. I also developed a whole social media strategy for them to have guidelines once I’m gone. I also redid their whole profile (which they present to sponsors) to make it look clearer and more professional.

Lasting Impressions I think there are no bad experiences or internships, there is always something to learn. I learnt a lot about the work culture in Kenya, how an NGO works.

Final Year Undergraduate, BA Literae Humaniores, Remote Working Work Projects The main task was creating a communications strategy for the organisation. The organisation did not have an external communications strategy in place and so I had to research what makes for a good communications strategy and then write it over the course of the internship. I also had an impact on the work from home strategy of the company, improving the efficiency of meetings and other internal communications. The organisation also asked me to complete other tasks as they came up, such as improving their master slides and automating a database they used for collection of data for one of their projects.

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Daily Life As the opportunity was remote, the main form of communication with the organisation was through weekly video calls in which the entire team talked through their progress over the previous week and their plans for the next week. Apart from this, the majority of the internship involved me managing my own time. I structured my day around an average working day, which was made easier by my housemate working at the same time as me.

This meant outside of working we were able to socialise in a normal way.

Lasting Impressions The experience was challenging because of the nature of the remote working environment. Once I decided to try and improve the company's work from home strategy, I was able to draw on this experience to figure out what needed to change in order to the work from home strategy to succeed.

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PAKISTAN RAHGEER/ASSEMBLY F Ambre Bertrand, St Edmund Hall, MEng Engineering Science, Third Year Undergraduate, Remote working Work Projects The internship was completed at a start-up company called Assembly F. Their team is based in Pakistan, therefore due to travel restrictions at the time, I had to complete the internship from home. They provide a platform that delivers live workshops and talks online to their growing community of entrepreneurs, start-up founders and investors. Given that the company was still at very early stages, my role started off quite general and ended up spanning a range of different areas.

I began by researching current competitors and existing platforms that we could inspire ourselves from, which then led me to focus on the User Journey & User Experience and how the process of becoming a member and navigating the platform could be optimised. This included ideas on how to format the website, how we interact with our new users, how to improve email communications etc.

As I carried on down this route, I realised that actively involving our members and making them feel valued would be crucial to our success. Therefore, I set up a mailing pipeline, which did not exist before. The email campaigns would alert them of new events being posted on the platform, prompts to update their profile, reminders to join events, collect feedback on events they attended, etc. The campaigns and templates were created on Mailchimp, with the added help of Typeform to collect feedback information.

I also coded a tool in Python which enabled us to download and effectively explore our database, helping us better understand user and event stats. My work itself was fairly individual, but I did liaise quite a bit throughout the project with the other members of the team especially Naseh and Waleed (the technical team), Narmeen (another intern working on host acquisition) and Shah (the founder and CEO), to make sure that our goals and ideas aligned well.

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I really feel like I did contribute something meaningful to the company whilst building strong collaborative relationships with my colleagues which is everything I could have hoped for.

Daily Life This was my very first remote internship!

Thankfully, given that I'd spent the past term working through the end of my university year remotely, I'd already gotten to grips with the odd and new routines that come with working from home.

The main challenge was finding that routine that worked well and doing my best to stick to it from Monday to Friday, trying as much as possible to not deviate from what a "normal" day at work would be like. My morning shower and breakfast were certainly not excluded from that, after which I booted up my laptop and started my day around 09:00. I tried to break up the day as much as possible, with a regular 10-15 minute coffee break around 11:00 then an hour off for lunch around 13:00. I'd usually then make myself some tea around 16:00 and sip it at my desk as I finished off my day, usually closing my emails for the day anytime between 17:00 and 18:00.

Lasting Impressions Working at Assembly F was an incredibly interesting and educational experience, on many levels. As an engineer by background, it was both challenging and mind-opening to gain some exposure on aspects of work I have never really been involved in before such as User Experience, Product Development, Marketing etc. It was rewarding to see the product come together as a whole rather than be focused on a specific, more technical task and in that sense provided me with a much broader and better understanding of working in a small start-up and making sure that the customer needs are well understood and catered for after all, that's why the business exists in the first place.

Aside from the insight and skills gained into these new areas, it was also a very new and fresh experience to be working not only with a team from a different culture but also doing so remotely. I feel like those barriers were very quickly breached and it really did feel like we were all on the same page, with the same values and working towards a common goal together which was a very rewarding feeling. Overall, I believe that I have gained invaluable insight into the world of start-ups and entrepreneurship, working on a product from its very early beginnings, and I am very much hoping to take these skills and awareness on board

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with me wherever my career leads me next - I am now certainly considering working in a start-up firm more than I was before my internship!

What advice would you give to future interns?

I would absolutely recommend this internship to anyone interested in working on a handson, rewarding project and gain insight into the world of tech, start-ups and entrepreneurship. It was a real pleasure to work with such a receptive and constructive team (albeit remotely) and being able to delve into multiple aspects of the company over such a short period of time was a unique and very valuable opportunity. If you are unsure of which sector to go into but like the idea of gaining exposure to multiple aspects of a start-up whilst contributing meaningfully to the company and team, then this internship could really be for you!

MSc Biochemistry (Molecular and Cellular), Third Year Undergraduate Student, Remote working Work Projects I worked on grant development, securing funding for projects, and technical and vocational education and training (TVET), developing policies and structuring projects. I had a supervisor who would review my work and provide feedback.

Daily Life I would be very flexible with working hours depending on the work streams I was engaged in, to ensure that I could balance my work with relaxing, preparing for finals, and job hunting.

Lasting Impressions I did enjoy the experience because I gained insight into the world of Development Consulting as well as social venture projects.

What advice would you give to future interns?

Always remember the audience that you are targeting for any piece of work. Additionally, make sure to structure your work so that you can support your arguments.

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PERU UNIVERSIDAD DE PIURA Klaudia Chmielowska, Christ Church, BA Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Final year undergraduate, Remote Working Work Projects During the internship, I have been working on a number of projects, including the case for narcopardons in Peru, the opioid epidemic, and the effect of the Pope's speech on the level of violence in Peru. I have been trained to do some basic analysis in Stata and my responsibilities focused mostly on research. For instance, I was asked to prepare a document that would look at other cases of narcopardons around the world and analyse their causes. I have been working around 20 hours a week and I have been in a constant contact with my supervisor Lima Fernando. We had weekly calls, sometimes just as two, sometimes with the rest of the team (his co-author and another intern located in Lima).

I have received all the support I needed and there has not been a point when I was left with a task that felt overwhelming. Sometimes I felt that my workload was not enough but after raising those concerns with Fernando, that was quickly fixed.

One of my main achievements during the internship was producing a report on policies promoting research and collaboration at universities that is going to be used for internal purposes in the university. I have been also heavily involved in the organisation of an international conference for young economists, which was very inspiring and insightful.

Daily Life I was very sad to hear that I could not do my internship in Peru since it was one of my strongest motivations to apply for this internship in the first place. However, I was very lucky to do most of my internship from Greece, so I had a chance to enjoy nice weather and get some rest from Oxford following my finals. Given that this internship was only part-time, I had a lot of time to enjoy my new holiday location, including trying out swimming, scuba diving, and paddleboarding. I was only available between 9 am and 6 pm (Monday-Friday), which helped me keep my work-life balance intact.

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I especially enjoyed having spare weekends because I could come back to work full of energy and new ideas. I would say that the biggest challenge was the time zone difference between Greece and Peru, however, my whole team was very accommodating about it and we scheduled all the calls in my afternoon, which was morning in Peru. Having weekly calls with my supervisor at the same time every week also helped manage my schedule better because I could organise my workload ahead of the time.

Lasting Impressions I highly enjoyed my internship because I had an opportunity to learn more about economic research at universities. Having the 'behind-the-scenes' perspective was really important to me because I was thinking about continuing my education at a higher level (masters and possibly PhD). I had many talks with my supervisor about the challenges as well as rewards he encounters during his projects. Although I still have not made my decision about future plans, I am definitely more informed now after having finished the internship. I now want to spend some time in business to see how it feels to work in the private sector so that my final decision can fully reflect my interests and career goals. Moreover, the projects were challenging and I could always count on the support of my whole team.

I had a chance to learn more about Latin America and about Peru in particular, which I found especially valuable given that was my initial motivation to apply for this internship. I am sad that I could not go to Peru and do my internship in person but given how difficult the situation was this summer, I am very pleased that I could spend my summer learning something new, both in terms of knowledge and skills. I truly enjoyed my time and would recommend this opportunity to anyone!

Vivien Mei-Chen Cai, St. Hugh’s College, MSc Economics for Development, Remote Working Work Projects During this internship I was a research assistant for an economics research project at Universidad de Piura, Peru. The project investigated the impact of having family connections in a bank or microfinance institution on the probability of accessing credit. My main task on this internship was to construct a literature review for the working paper. This consisted of three final products: (1) a chart listing the relevant literature on the economic effects of networks, on the family,

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and on credit access and micro-loans, (2) a more detailed chart discussing the methodology, identification challenges, database and results of each article reviewed, and (3) a written report, forming the literature review section of my supervisors' working paper.

In the final week, I also used what I observed from the literature review to help my supervisor in interpreting their results and comparing the effects they found to those of comparable papers in development economics.

My supervisors were courteous, clear and responsive in their email communications with me. Given the nature of this project, it was easy to adapt to remote working. The staff from the host organisation were very friendly and helpful in all their communications although I am sorry to have missed the opportunity to travel to Peru.

Daily Life The research project consisted mostly of searching for and reading academic journal articles online, as such it was easy to adapt to working at home. I followed my familiar routine from studying and writing my dissertation, albeit with more communication with my supervisors to check that my work was aligned with their expectations. Just like with studying, personally, I found it easier not to set aside fixed time intervals for work, but rather to set daily goals. For example, I might aim to read four articles a day, or write up a sub-section of the literature review.

Outside of my time for work, I spent time in daily devotionals, read books on a variety of subjects, spent time with family and went for daily walks in the evening to wind down. My internship coincided with moving back home to Hong Kong after four years in the UK, so it was also a transitional phase of life for me. Having something to concentrate on was helpful as I considered next steps after graduation.

Lasting Impressions The research project was related to my dissertation topic however, where I studied the economic impact of political connections in my own research, this project considered family connections. It was interesting to learn more about the growing literature regarding networks and also to learn about the technique that my supervisors employed in their research, eigenvector centrality of the individuals in their family networks, constructed from their family names.

The work gave me some insight into what it's like to work for an academic institution. I have been considering future research work and particularly pursuing a DPhil, so this internship has definitely been helpful as an experience.

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SINGAPORE TANGLIN TRUST SCHOOL Jesse Wang, University College, First Year Undergraduate, MPhys Physics, Remote Working Work Projects Most of my internship was spent supporting students with their applications to UK universities, with an emphasis on Oxford and Cambridge. This involved reading and providing feedback on students' personal statements, and meeting with students over video calls to offer applications-related advice. I also created an interview support resource for students applying to STEM subjects. Tanglin Trust School set me up with a school email address and helped to organise a safeguarding induction session, but otherwise I was asked to work fairly independently.

Overall, I'd say that I worked with around 30 Oxbridge-aiming students over the course of the internship, and a further 30 non-Oxbridge applicants. In addition, the guidance team asked me to deliver two virtual presentations near the end of the internship over Teams: a brief talk about applying to Oxbridge to prospective applicants in year 12 and their parents, followed by a physics enrichment lecture in which I introduced the basic ideas of special relativity to a general high school audience.

Daily Life As the internship was remote, my working hours varied. Some weeks were naturally busier than others, depending upon when students sent me their drafts. In a busy week, I'd wake up at around 8-9 in the morning and review statements until noon. I'd fix myself lunch and start work again at 1pm, often working until 4 or 5 in the afternoon. In a quieter week, I had a lot more free time given the lack of a teaching role, and used this to take a break from reading statements all day; I made time for plenty of piano practise and met up with a few friends from school.

Barring the occasional early morning meeting and a couple of scheduled presentations in the evenings (outside of regular school hours), I really appreciated the flexibility that came

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with remote work. In addition, the guidance counsellors were all kind and supportive, so at no point did I feel stressed or overwhelmed about the work.

Lasting Impressions Overall, I was satisfied with the experience. A few students wrote to me saying they really appreciated the support I gave, which was gratifying to hear! I was surprised by how efficient I had become by the end.

I'm keeping my career options open at the moment and am unsure whether I will choose to work in education in the future. That being said, this experience has taught me a lot about working in a school environment with students of this age group and has offered me insight into the education sector, particularly in the university guidance counselling area. Preparing the physics enrichment lecture and writing an interview guide for STEM applicants have also given me an opportunity to develop my science communication skills, both verbal and written. Science communication wasn't something that I had seriously considered before, but after the internship I feel like it is an area that I am willing to explore further.

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THE NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE OF HISTORICAL JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION (IHJR), EUROCLIO, HAGUE Kushal Singh Sohal, St. Antony’s College, MSc Modern South Asian Studies, Remote Working Work Projects I interned on the IHJR's 'Contested Histories’ project from 1 September to 21 September 2020. My main task was to assist with the formation of a qualitative database that derived data from an array of case studies and assess how this should translate onto a mapping platform. The case studies concerned contested histories in different parts of the world, ranging from statues of American Confederacy generals in the United States to memorials to the likes of Vladimir Lenin across former Soviet Union states in modern Eastern Europe.

Working alongside my supervisor Katria Tomko, I sought to recategorize the key components of the case studies; the aim was to make the information easier to navigate internally and, thereby, more accessible for the wider public and policy makers once translated onto a mapping platform. We filtered through the case studies in order to ascertain key qualitative data, ranging from the co-ordinates of the site of contestation to determining its core legacies.

We used a combination of Excel and Google Sheets to produce such databases. The process of revising the pre-existing databases was structured around daily conversations on the nuances of categories (i.e. legacies and defining geopolitical regions). We also worked to standardise case names and continually revised the categories that identify the representation that a contestation takes on, i.e. monument and memorial. I also conducted research on the place of emotions in linked protest movements (i.e. works by scholar Jasper James), I think being able to break the toxicity around such a matter is vital in modern day discourses.

With the database taking more coherent shape, we began experimenting with ARCGIS Online our software preference after initial research where we compared its features with

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those on other, more simplified mapping platforms. After watching multiple tutorial videos, I experimented with translating the data onto a multi-layered map. We found it a challenge to enable coherent filtering, so we changed the database into a binary format. But we found that more expert skills are required to produce the layering desired.

My final thoughts on the mapping platform related to the kinds of statistics we should capture and by which visual representations. I noted how hot spot, cluster, standard deviation and other statistical features could be used to show correlations in the qualitative data i.e. links between intensity of contestation and type of legacy or initial actor and type of remedy. During my internship, I also drew attention to triggering terminology (i.e. explorer) in IHJR case studies. I called on the need to build more rigorous language guidelines and revisit the mission statement to ensure the positionality of the organisation is reckoned with and such paradoxes are addressed.

Daily Life I began the internship the day following my Masters thesis submission. My daily life during the remote internship was quite flexible, I created a healthy work-life balance. Working hours were structed around a daily call of between one and two hours in length with my supervisor.

On Tuesdays, I also attended the wider virtual team meetings. I worked both from my accommodation as well as different cafes around Oxford, often scheduling such stints around these work calls. I found such frequent changes in work environment to enable concentrated periods of productivity as well as air of newness to the internship experience. I often met friends for walks in the late afternoon or dinner in the evening, such social interactions allowed me to re-energize following working stints and to bring my final days in Oxford to a close in an enjoyable way.

Lasting Impressions In terms of skill sets, I feel I further developed my ability to interpret qualitative data and use software such as Excel as well as mapping platforms. This experience was an eye opener into the real challenges that we face to belonging in spaces that appear closer to home.

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UNITED KINGDOM 2DEGREES Vinaya Roehrl, St Peter’s College, First Year Undergraduate, MBiol Biology, Remote Working Work Projects My part-time internship at 2degrees was focused mainly on promoting sustainability and lowering the carbon footprint in supply chains. I worked on several projects with the Customer Service and Development Team and my tasks were very diverse; from website translating and doing an instructions video voice-over in Thai, to phoning and emailing suppliers, checking data, and writing short articles on environmental topics.

The main project during my internship was to help convince suppliers of Asda and the Co-op to submit environmental data to the company's platform. This meant taking on an administrative role to set up accounts and contacting representatives at companies by sending reminder emails. I would plough through a long list of contacts and record the progress of their data submissions. I was also there to answer questions customers had and helped explain the submission process. Even though it was a remote internship, it was always possible to reach someone via Slack or quickly hop on a video call to clarify any questions I had.

Daily Life We had our daily team meeting in the morning where we would discuss the main tasks for the day. I would usually be working on two projects, but for the majority of my time I was contacting suppliers to ask them to join the company's programme. Sometimes, co-workers would contact me on Slack and ask me to help with other projects. My workday ended at 1pm as I only worked part-time and afterwards, I would cook or do some reading and go outside. Working from home was a bit stressful at times as I had frequent internet and audio problems, but my supervisor was very understanding, and I was always able to work something out.

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Lasting Impressions Overall, I am very happy to have had the opportunity to work with 2degrees and their team, they were very supportive and welcoming. Even though I really wished that the internship would have been in person, I learned that working remotely is also doable. Most of all, I was very happy to be able to put my language skills (German and Thai) to use. I definitely improved my communication skills, not only by contacting representatives at many companies but also staying in touch with co-workers, so that our work did not overlap, and we formed an efficient unity. This was not an easy task due to the remote working, but it was beneficial in improving my team-work skills.

I was also introduced to many new platforms and technologies which I had never heard of before. The experience has definitely helped develop my work ethic. In terms of career ambitions, I am now confident that going into academia is not the only viable path for me. I would also be happy working in a company like 2degrees as this experience showed me that contributing to sustainability and the environment in any way is a very rewarding thing in general.

Lena Depner, Pembroke College, Final Year Undergraduate, BA Experimental Psychology, Remote Working Work Projects I worked at Manufacture 2030 which evolved out of 2Degrees. Their product is a software that manufacturing sites can use to reduce their environmental footprint. I was part of the customer success team together with three other interns.

The main tasks revolved around two client campaigns, one with Asda and one with Honda.

We were involved in communicating with their suppliers and support them in using our product. This included calling suppliers, writing many emails, as well as keeping track of our communication in Excel and Customer Relations Management software. Additionally, we got an insight into technical aspects behind the software and were tasked with researching about carbon factors. We also produced content around sustainability and food related issues for a client website, where we had much freedom to choose topics that we were interested in.

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We received great support from the team. Everyone was very friendly and helpful, and through many video training calls they made sure that we had all the knowledge and training to get going within the first week. We had daily video calls with the whole customer success team, where everyone would summarize their tasks from the last day and the To-Do items on the list for the new day. Within these calls, we always had the opportunity to clarify things and ask for explanations. They were also great to get an idea what was happening around the company. Most of our communication happened via Slack which made it very easy to ask for help, despite the remote working situation.

Daily Life On a good day, I got up early and went for a run with a friend before getting ready for work.

I had a shower, breakfast and usually tidied up my workspace before starting at 9am. Due to the time difference from Germany, where I lived, and the UK, where the company is based, I always had an hour before our team call at 9am UK time, i.e. 10am German time. I made a time plan for the day and created a to do list to keep track of my tasks. I did make sure I would have a few conscious breaks to my workday. These consisted of either making cups of tea, going for a short walk or doing 10 minutes of Yoga.

In my free time in the evening, we sometimes had virtual drinks with colleagues on a Friday night. Other than that, I sometimes met up with friends or family or went rowing. There were bad days as well when I would not be super productive and feel bad about myself. In these situations, the remote working situation felt like a very big obstacle, because I think in a personal work environment these motivational holes are avoided by having other people around. In the internship, I tried to get out of these motivational holes by taking active breaks, i.e. walking or Yoga.

Lasting Impressions I enjoyed the internship a lot and was surprised by how welcome I felt and how well I got to know the colleagues although the internship was completely remote. I gained a lot of experience in drafting professional emails and calling a large number of people. During the course of the two months I noticed that I became a lot more confident in these things, and it was nice to feel responsible for a client. I also learned many things about data processing, especially within Google Sheets, which I actually found interesting and I believe it will be useful in the future.

Although I never considered Marketing before, I also developed an interest in this direction and could get some insights into the Marketing and Sales processes. Most importantly, I enjoyed working in sustainability, for a company that contributes to mitigating climate

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change. I am especially grateful for this opportunity, because I felt my background in Psychology would never allow me to enter this field. The internship strengthened my desire to work in sustainability or climate change related fields. It also made me realize how much I enjoy communicating with people in my day to day job.

3KEEL Sydney Vennin, St Hugh’s College, Final Year Undergraduate, BA Human Sciences, Remote Working Work Projects I was hired to help one of the consultancy’s partners with a programme called the Landscape Enterprise Networks (LENs) which is growing rapidly. I developed a project tracking sheet for internal purposes as well as external content on the LENs approach for potential clients or stakeholders. I developed this in close collaboration with my manager and other colleagues working on LENs so that it is user friendly and provides logistical support.

On top of this structural work, I helped with individual LENs projects. This involved planning and attending meetings and calls with stakeholders and writing reports. Beyond this, I was also fortunate to be able to work on other consulting projects I am interested in. I contributed to setting them up, as well as to doing research for content, for example on Nature Based solutions or offsetting.

I received a lot of support from my host organisation. This included frequent calls with my manager and colleagues working on the same projects as me. We also had virtual social events (including an online gardening club!) which have given me the opportunity to meet other employees and learn about their work. Everyone was incredibly friendly and helpful and only a message or call away.

Daily Life I am working from home for this internship. This is not always easy, but I am very fortunate to have very supportive and friendly colleagues and managers who were very present (on Zoom!). In order to have a routine, I go for a quick walk before starting work (emulating a

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commute!) and then settle down in my sister’s bedroom for the start of the workday.

During the day, I regularly take breaks to stretch or walk around. I track how many hours I am working to make sure I do not work too much and continue to have a work/life balance even though working remotely. I also attend online social events with my colleagues such as virtual tea breaks so as to get to know the company and develop friendly relationships everyone is so knowledgeable and friendly! Outside of work, I enjoy exercising and being outdoors (especially since work involves staring at a screen all day!). I also spend time with friends and family and enjoy listening to podcasts.

Lasting Impressions I thoroughly enjoyed this internship and learned a lot, as well as meeting very welcoming, knowledgeable, driven and open-minded professionals. The work I have been doing has allowed me to learn a lot, both in terms of concrete skills which I did not develop extensively at Oxford (such as working in a team or collaborating with clients) and in terms of content on fast moving sectors such as sustainability, landscape management and climate change.

The experience has allowed me to confirm my desire to work in the sustainability sector, although I am still thinking about in which capacity. I believe the size of the organisation I am working for, (20-30 people) as well as its values (it is a Bcorporation!) are ideal for me and I aspire to continue working in similar organisations in the future. Overall, I feel very lucky and grateful to have been able to partake in this experience which has allowed me to concretely apply the skills and knowledge I have acquired over my degree.

What advice would you give to future interns?

Don’t hesitate to ask for feedback, Brainstorm skills you would like to develop through the internship before starting and if your internship is remote, try to organize remote chats or coffee breaks with colleagues who are not working on the same projects as you. This will allow you to know the company better and to get a feel for the different roles in it.

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AAD COMMUNICATIONS, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Alexandra Beukers, Merton College, Second Year Undergraduate, BA English Language & Literature, Remote Working Work Projects Working remotely for the University's Academic Administration Division as a Communications Officer, I wasn't sure whether I would play an active role in the team - especially as they hadn't had a student intern before. However, although coronavirus prevented a lot of normal internship activities from happening, it actually gave me an opportunity to contribute more widely and get immediately involved in what the Communications department aims to do.

I was responsible for regular content updates for students and student-facing staff, including populating the fortnightly student and staff newsletters, posting on the Oxford Students social media and adding to both the regular Oxford Students website and the new Coronavirus site which was established over the course of my internship. I also oversaw a largescale overhaul of the content on the Oxford Students website, for which I liaised with lots of different departments from around the University and helped to actualise those changes through web and graphic design.

Another main project which I worked on was re-writing and re-recording the 'Know Your Oxford' audio tour for new and prospective students - this was all done remotely, although as I am lucky enough to live quite close to Oxford, I was able to go in and test the route. We had at least daily meetings over the course of my internship, so I never felt that I was working alone, and both my supervisors and colleagues were extremely supportive.

Daily Life My working hours were 9-5, so I was able to have a pretty rigid schedule, which was definitely helpful! Lunch was flexible, and depended on meetings/my workload, but I generally had around 40 minutes to an hour each day. Throughout the day, I made sure to take small breaks - this is even more important in a remote internship, where everything is on a screen and can be quite taxing on your eyes. I appreciated working from home in quite a few ways - I still got to spend time with my family, there was no commute (cost), and I could wear something comfortable (within reason).

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When I first started, I found it a little difficult to do anything after work, as I was quite tired out each day from learning new things. However, as I became familiar with my tasks and there were fewer surprises or new things each day, I had more energy in the evenings. I started yoga over the summer (partially inspired by one of my colleagues, who bought a new yoga mat in one of the early weeks!), which I would do either straight after work, or in the mornings if I got up early enough. I also tried to make sure I got outside at least once a day, either to do a walk in the afternoon, or to sit in the garden while I had my lunch. I had a bit of coursework that I worked on throughout, although it was a different sort of reading, so it was largely relaxing.

Lasting Impressions I really enjoyed the internship, and even though it was mostly all in one place, didn't find it monotonous at all! Part of this owed to the very weird and hectic circumstances into which AAD Comms had been thrust, early in the lockdown, which meant that sometimes we had an incredible number of updates to put through very quickly. However, I think this helped to bind the team together, as well - it certainly felt to me that we were acting as a force, or one unit, and that the communications we were sending were really very necessary and appreciated by students and staff.

I think that while working in a crisis situation is obviously not sustainable and not quite reflective of what this job is normally, it really gave me an insight into how a team of people can focus, delegate, and work together to achieve a lot in a short space of time. The experience, while confirming that there are some areas which I might not like to work on, also opened doors for me career-wise: I really enjoyed writing and editing audio, as I had never done that before. It's given me a chance and incentive to investigate that as a potential graduate career path, and I was fortunate enough to not have to know much at all or have any experience beforehand. What I loved most about working in communications in general was its sociability, immediacy, and creativity - these are things that, regardless of specific content, I'll be looking for in future work.

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ALBUS HEALTH Lisa Nobis, Wolfson College, Fourth Year DPhil, DPhil Psychiatry, Remote Working Work Projects Albus Health aims to predict Asthma attacks using a device that patients can have at their home. I was involved in working on the signal analysis and machine learning algorithms to improve these predictions. My tasks included preparing and giving a presentation about the company to the team, searching the literature and summarising findings on topics relevant to my task, programming in MATLAB and Python, running experiments with algorithms and preparing extensive documentation of my work.

Throughout the internship I had weekly video calls with my supervisor but he was also always available through chat on Microsoft Teams. I also had 2-3 calls with one of the cofounders to talk about progress of the internship and at the end of the internship I gave a presentation of my work.

Daily Life Because of COVID-19, the internship was entirely remote. I didn't have strict core working hours and was instead allowed to work within my own schedule if I ensured that my tasks were accomplished. My working hours and daily routine therefore did not change much from how I work during my PhD. When I started the internship, I gave a presentation about the company as if I was the CEO with the whole team present which was then followed by some socialising via video afterwards. Two other interns joined later, and I was also invited to their presentations. We also had another large group call at the end of my internship when I presented my work outcomes. My main interactions were with my daily supervisor, once a week.

Lasting Impressions Overall, I'm very happy that I decided to do the internship and that I succeeded in securing a position at Albus Health. The whole team was very welcoming, and I enjoyed my tasks. I learned a lot about the field in just 10 weeks, and feel I've gained a better insight into industry jobs. I was considering going into industry before the internship and my experiences during the internship have convinced me that this is the right path for me.

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ARTS & BUSINESS COLLEGE LONDON Final year undergraduate, BA History of Art, mixture of remote and inperson working Work Projects One major project I helped with during my internship was revamping the college's website - I created content myself, as well as editing and adapting existing content. I also helped research and market new courses to be delivered by the college, which gave me an insight into how small education businesses can adapt to their potential markets. I received useful constructive criticism about my first attempts at marketing and ultimately produced materials that the college will use to advertise their courses.

I also began teaching regularly for the first time - I was proud to be given the responsibility of managing two English students' conversation practice classes. This was a completely new experience for me and my employers were very reassuring about the experience - after a few sessions I got to grips with the syllabus and had a lot of fun!

Daily Life I spent some of my internship in the office - a beautiful Georgian townhouse in Bloomsbury - and the rest of it working from home. Once I had met my colleagues once or twice in person, it was very easy to arrange among the few of us when we were going in, our Whatsapp groupchat really helped! My employers were relaxed and flexible about when I came into the office.

I was provided with an entire room to work in, because it was only the central staff who were going in, and everyone was very attentive to my needs. I was told the office is usually very adventurous at lunchtimes, and I did try a few exciting places with my colleagues, but coronavirus unfortunately largely limited us to Pret! Working from home seemed ideal because it let me avoid the cycle in to work, but in fact I missed the commute, and had to take walks after work hours to stretch my legs.

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Lasting Impressions One thing this internship has really given me is a greater interest in teaching. I was honestly quite nervous to be thrown in the deep end, teaching English as a foreign language one on one. I was worried that I was underprepared, but I did quickly learn what my students responded to well and how to help them do their best as individuals. It felt amazing to help them improve their language and I learnt so much about their cultures too - I genuinely miss all of them and am hoping to carry on the teaching aspect of my role with the college moving forwards.

In the meantime, the experience has confirmed to me that I would like teaching - previously I was aware it could be an element of the kinds of outreach roles I want to take on the future, but I am now confident it will be rewarding in the way I had hoped. Because of coronavirus, much of the internship wasn't as advertised, which I understand - but so much of the value of a job comes down to your own attitude, and I learnt lots of different unexpected skills which I'm sure will be useful in the future.

ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Kathryn Davies, Exeter College, BA History, Final year undergraduate, Remote working Work Projects I spent most of the internship working on a spreadsheet containing crowdsourced data about the Hope Collection. I standardised the position locations of inscriptions and made sure the inputted inscription data was in lower case for a set number of records. I rectified common mistakes, such as the tendency to transcribe ss as fs. I also completed the Place ID column of the spreadsheet by finding the publication location of the print from the inscription data inputted by the volunteers. Finally, I completed the Associated Persons information for many records by adding any missing publishers, artists or printmakers, and I created a list of new Associated Persons and their details to be added to MuseumPlus.

Overall, this gave me a very good understanding of how the Ashmolean collects and records information about prints, and I enjoyed the organisational aspect of the task. I also researched printmakers of the Hope Collection whose records on MuseumPlus were incomplete. I received a list of names and researched all the possible printmakers that these

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names could refer to. I then compared this research with the MuseumPlus records and completed the records with dates, nationality and gender, if they matched. I particularly enjoyed this task as I could view images of the prints in question online and on the MuseumPlus database.

I felt very well supported by the Print Room Managers and Head of Digital Collections at the Ashmolean during my internship. I had regular meetings weekly, if not more frequently, regarding the internship work. I had every opportunity to seek guidance and ask questions via email between these meetings. I was greatly appreciative of the opportunity to speak to many curators within the Western Art department about their experience of working at the Ashmolean, which gave me a great insight into this career path.

Daily Life I completed a remote internship. I managed working from home by finding a suitable quiet location in my house from which to work. In selecting this location, I had to take into account the lighting in the room and the WiFi connectivity to make sure that I was able to complete my work efficiently. This was easier for me as I had taken remote exams a month earlier, and so I already had a suitable location set up for quiet study. I was able to set up a computer station to comply with DSE requirements which aided my comfort as I was working online consistently.

I was encouraged by the Print Room Managers to take regular short breaks to limit my screen time, and I did this by taking short walks around the room that I was working in. To make sure that I stuck to a daily routine, I woke up at the same time each morning allowing me to prepare before I began work. I often had Teams meetings scheduled, and so I planned my working day each morning depending on any meetings that I needed to attend. I also went for daily walks after work to make sure that I was remaining active, as I was spending much of the day sitting down.

Lasting Impressions Despite the difficulties of remote working, my confidence in the work grew quickly thanks to the helpful guidance of the Print Room managers over video calls and email. I very much enjoyed the experience, as I was able to work with both data and people that interested me.

My digital working skills improved greatly from the internship, and I now have working knowledge of MuseumPlus which will be very useful for any future museum roles. I also felt that the curators made it possible for me to work closely with the prints, despite not being in the Print Room, via researching them online. This gave me a good idea of what the prints I was working with looked like, despite the fact that I could not view them in person.

The numerous video calls with curators gave me a great insight into the life of a curator, and particularly how varied the role is depending on the type of art/object being curated, and

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the type of museum. I found out about new aspects of the job that I was unaware of, including accompanying loaned works around the world and spending time on researching the collections. These insights confirmed my career ambitions, and I will be aiming to gain a curatorial role in the future.

BODLEIAN LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Kathryn Peak, St Cross College, Second Year DPhil, DPhil English Literature, Remote and In-person Working Work Projects Over several weeks before the internship began, I worked with the two curators of medieval manuscripts to put together a programme of activities and tasks. They were flexible in suggesting activities while allowing me to tailor the programme to my future career aspirations. I want to become an academic librarian, so we planned for me to research two manuscripts and write new catalogue entries for them, to learn the mark-up language so that I could place the new entries in the on-line repository, to write some educational materials based on one of the catalogue entries which could be used by the Bodleian Education Outreach team, and to publicise the internship through blogging and social media.

With lots of remote meetings (and a few meetings in person) I had plenty of support from Bodleian staff to complete almost everything on the programme. I did receive training on GitHub and Oxygen, the repository and editing software. Within the four weeks I researched and wrote two catalogue entries (with revisions and rewrites based on feedback from the curators), wrote a worksheet for the education team, tweeted extensively during the four weeks and raised the profile of the internship, and received technical training on the online catalogue. I attended a major virtual conference presented by the Bodleian on the past, present, and future of libraries. I also had many meetings and tours of departments within the Bodleian, and also with curators and librarians in some of the Oxford college libraries, which took up quite a lot of time, but undoubtedly enriched the internship significantly.

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Daily Life The internship was conducted as a combination of remote working and working in the Weston Library. I had remote meetings with my two supervisors at the start of my internship, to receive an induction, learn more about the library, its history and activities, and plan the activities for my first few days. This set the pattern for many days to come. I had plenty of remote meetings with the two curators of medieval manuscripts, as well as with other Bodleian and college library staff. I combined this with working from home on research and writing projects, assisted enormously because the two manuscripts I worked on were both fully digitised.

As I have caring responsibilities, this also meant that I could fit family commitments around my work, for instance taking time out late afternoon and then continuing to work later in the evening. I then spent two or three days a week commuting to Oxford to work in the Weston Library, researching manuscripts. I coincided these trips with face to face meetings.

When in Oxford and the weather was good enough, I sometimes met with Bodleian staff for lunch outside. Staff were very welcoming, and it was a good way to learn more about library careers and the routines of the library, as well as learning how the Bodleian has adapted during the pandemic.

Lasting Impressions I enjoyed my internship enormously. Staff supervising me and those I met with were all very welcoming, supportive, and happy to answer questions. That said, it was also a real challenge, and I felt that it forced me to think more carefully about my practices with manuscript research. I gained a great deal from the experience. It has raised the standard of my research and has given me many insights into working in both large and small libraries and working with special collections and modern library resources.

I made a point of asking everyone I met with what advice they would give to someone looking to go into a career in librarianship. I got many different answers to the question, but I did see patterns develop in the answers people gave, and along the way was directed to lots of career resources. The experience has confirmed my career ambitions. I went into the internship thinking that librarianship was an option for me and ended it with the belief that this is the sector I want to work in once I have completed my studies.

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What advice would you give to future interns?

Plan ahead to get the most out of your time as the internship passes very quickly and, where possible, think about how you can tailor the programme so that you gain the most from it depending on your interests and career aspirations. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Perhaps this sector isn’t for you after all, but this is your chance to find out. And be polite and grateful to everyone. Many of the interactions in an internship take place out of goodwill, not because they have to, and people are very generous with their time, It never hurts to acknowledge it.

BODLEIAN LIBRARY, RARE BOOKS DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Victoria Higgins, St Peter’s College, First Year Masters, MSt English Literature (1550-1700), Remote Working Work Projects I spent my internship going through booksellers' catalogues and highlighting what the Bodleian already owns. I also uploading marks of provenance from the Mortara collection to the database CERL, found portraits, ownership inscriptions, and the coat of arms of the donors of the Bodleian's named collections and wrote Wikipedia articles for historic donors to the Bodleian.

Daily Life I had a daily catch-up call with Francesca Galligan. I worked on my projects independently but I still had regular email communication.

Lasting Impressions Considering the internship being moved online, I really appreciate how the Rare Books department handled my internship. I have had plenty of interesting work and very consistent support and communication. I enjoyed the experience and would be happy to work in a career relating to rare books in the future.

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BRILLIANT AFRICA Final Year Postgraduate, MSc African Studies student, Remote Working Work Projects During my internship I was responsible for spearheading the Tanzania guidebook expansion. I had to research possible destinations, assess their marketability using SEO and then write a short but snappy guidebook entry for each one of them. I learned not only about SEO and how to direct my content at people online but also improved my writing skills.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the work, including the cooperation with the other intern and my manager. My manager checked in on me weekly, assisting me with organisational aspects and the intricacies of the travel industry. My main achievements were definitely the completion of the project and having my own content now published on a website. It is incredibly rewarding to know that other people might be enticed to visit Tanzania by my words and use my help as assistance.

Daily Life I could work fairly independently, adjusting my work as I needed. We had a fixed amount of work we had to get done during the work so sometimes I was able to take longer breaks during the day but then work at night, which fits my routine much better. I would only talk to my manager about once a week but had almost daily calls with the other intern as we worked closely together. I would usually take about half a day in the morning to research the destination I would write about that day, looking at our competitors and google analytics to find out what website visitors were looking for, and then write the text up fairly quickly. The other intern would then give me feedback on my text, and I would do the same with her. I had lots of time to wind down after and socialise in between so all in all it was a very enjoyable experience.

Lasting Impressions I really enjoyed this internship; the work was so much fun and it really helped me develop my writing skills and assert the idea that I want to continue using my writing skills in my career.

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Final Year Undergraduate, BA Persian Studies, Remote Working Work Projects I was tasked to research and write website pages on tourism and activities in Tanzania. Each page was very similar to the other and there was not much variation. The other intern and I completed so much that we were given more work that was similar to what we were doing before.

Daily Life I worked in France while doing shift work in restaurants, nannying and tutoring. Thanks to remote work, I could easily fit the other three jobs in, and I found it easy to organise my time.

Lasting Impressions I enjoyed the experience because it was easy and there was no micro-managing so I could fit it around my other jobs. I have always wanted to work in the tourism sector and I still do.

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CAREERS SERVICE, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Pauline Gumpel, St Peter’s College, Third Year Undergraduate, BA French and Italian, Remote Working Work Projects As publishing assistant at the Oxford Careers Service, I was responsible for the advert pages in the Oxford Guide to Careers 2021. I liaised with the advertisers to chase in their contributions and laid them up in InDesign to send back a copy of the advert page for approval while keeping track of the progress in a collaboratively used excel spreadsheet. I received great support from the Careers Service, for example in learning the basics of InDesign and expanding my communication skills by managing the Guide's mail inbox. Most of the time, I had one or more video calls per day with my supervisor and colleagues to discuss my own learning progress and clarify and questions.

Daily Life In my daily routine as publishing assistant, I would start the day by checking the Guide inbox in the morning, replying to clients to answer questions and solving queries. I would use InDesign to lay up any new content in a design template and send out a copy for approval to the client. Towards the end of my internship, as all adverts were prepared, my tasks included selecting house ads and pictures for the draft of the 2021 Guide to Careers and proofreading the first draft together with the editor, making suggestions for improvements, and highlighting spelling or formatting mistakes.

Lasting Impressions The Careers Service team is very friendly and welcoming, and I really felt like I became a part of the team, even though my internship was remote. My lovely supervisor, who also is the editor of the Guide, taught me very much and was always available and happy to answer my questions. I even got to be part of the social life, when I participated in a (remote) home/pub quiz that my colleagues organised. I feel like the internship has been an important opportunity for me to gain an insight into publishing - an industry that is known for being rather difficult to enter. I also feel like it complemented other internships which I did on my year abroad in communications and marketing very well, so that I now feel well

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prepared for applying for graduate opportunities. For me, the experience has confirmed that I enjoy editorial work and that I would like it to be (part of) my future job.

What advice would you give to future interns?

Do as much research as you can about the work you will be doing - I felt like this really made a big difference for me in the application process and I was excited to talk about the project in the interview.

CENTRE FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Sichen Liu, St Hilda’s College, Final Year Undergraduate, BA Cell and Systems Biology, Remote Working Work Projects I performed postproduction for three promotional student experience videos that were distributed to all teaching staff across departments at the University. I also planned, hosted and analysed a 90-minute focus group discussing survey uptake strategies, was in charge of student recruitment and communication, produced a 10-page report commended by the University strategy working group, and I planned and conducted a webinar for lecturers and administrators in a team of 6 students. We were working in two groups of three and each group had a supervisor. We had one whole-team meeting and one team meeting every week.

Daily Life It was remote the whole time. Working from home was not easy, as I had a fair amount of distraction and it felt lonely at times, and isolated from my colleagues. However, the team welcomed us in and gave us brilliant induction sessions, which eased the process. I settled into a daily routine based on the core office hours. Outside of work, I enjoyed cooking and experimenting with new dishes.

Lasting Impressions I really enjoyed the internship. I have made friends, achieved personal growth and worked on projects that I had never done before. I think it is a great enrichment of my CV and I gained an insight into the university operation. This was my first experience in

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administration, and it has been immensely useful. Although it has not changed my career ambition, the skills I have learned from this experience and contacts made will surely be useful for further study and careers in the near future.

Michael Fuller, Pembroke College, Final Year Undergraduate, MMath Master of Mathematics, Remote Working Work Projects I was involved in two main projects during my internship at the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL), which I proposed and structured collaboratively with the other interns. The first was a video-making project: we tasked ourselves with making a short series of videos supporting the guidance outlined on the CTL's webpage regarding remote teaching and learning. The videos consisted of students talking about their experiences with remote lectures, tutorials, and classes in Trinity Term 2020: what went well, what didn't go so well, and what could have been improved.

The second was a research project, for which we produced a strategic paper on survey uptake. The motivations for the paper were clear: the Trinity Term 2020 survey attracted only 18% of students, yet the data collected was used by the CTL to plan for remote teaching and assessment provisions in the academic years ahead. With a minority of the student population filling out surveys, we proceeded to conduct a small focus group with Oxford students to explore their motivations when it comes to filling out different types of surveys. We also spoke to numerous university administrators at other Higher Education institutions to discover what works well, and what doesn't work so well.

Daily Life My internship was carried out remotely, which was a new experience for me and all of the interns on our team. For the first few weeks, I was still in my Oxford accommodation, which was great because it meant that I was able to meet some of the other interns who were also still in Oxford. When I returned home, I was fortunate enough to have room outside my

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bedroom for a small workspace. I found it useful to separate my work environment from my recreational environment, as I always seem to be more productive when I am in the designated "work" room.

Our core office hours for the internship were Mondays-Thursdays at 10-12, 2-4pm UK time.

We then made up the rest of the 30 hours per week whenever it suited us the most. I enjoyed this flexibility: it allowed me to structure my week more easily and gave me more time for commitments that came up outside of the internship.

Outside of work, I enjoyed going on walks around the coastal town in which I live and letting off steam by weightlifting regularly. I also cherished the interns-only Teams meetings we scheduled, as they added a social element to the internship that was otherwise lacking.

Lasting Impressions One of the comments that all the interns made in our interviews was about the uncertainty of remote working. In all honesty, this was the least of my concerns during the 12-week internship with the CTL. I enjoyed remote working and the flexibility that came with it. The induction period was not overwhelming, and the tasks we were initially set were enjoyable and allowed us to use our creativity. For example, we were given an assignment to create an alternative dashboard and course webpage for Canvas: I used this as an opportunity to learn HTML/CSS and present a modern, responsive design.

A few weeks into the internship, we were asked to produce ideas for projects that could benefit the CTL. We proposed ambitious projects that appealed to us but found that the workload required for these projects was high. I took part in this internship as I wanted to help make the student experience better for future years of remote learners, but the internship did not change my career ambitions - I am seeking a full-time role in a more mathematical field.

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CHATSWORTH & THE DEVONSHIRE GROUP Isabel Budleigh, St John’s College, Second Year DPhil, DPhil History, Remote Working Work Projects My internship was a month-long placement with the Devonshire Collections Archives at Chatsworth, Derbyshire. Chatsworth has one of the best archives of any historic house in the country, but the archives team felt they were lacking both in their secondary reference material and in supporting researchers to ensure the archival holdings are put to the best use and reach their full potential. My internship was intended to begin to fill these gaps, with two main tasks over the course of the month.

First, I had to compile a comprehensive and up-to-date bibliography of everything published not only on Chatsworth and the Cavendish family (the Dukes of Devonshire), but also five connected families and the multiple Devonshire estates across the country, as well as key servants, designers and historical figures connected to Chatsworth itself. This covered monographs, theses, journal articles and essay collections, and the final bibliography was almost seventy pages long, showing just how much material was out there! A link to this full list will be published on the Chatsworth website for use by researchers, and a shorter version of the key publications will be put online for anyone with a general interest.

My second task was to compile a report on current trends in country house research, to evaluate the archival holdings at Chatsworth in light of these and suggest how the team can best support researchers to make the most of the archive, no small undertaking when you consider just how vast the archives are! This work felt particularly worthwhile at the moment as Chatsworth, like many other houses, considers ways to approach colonial links in its history, so I hope the report will prove to be of real use.

Finally, I also wrote two blog posts, one on a specific aspect of the research I was doing and one on my overall experience of the internship, which will both be posted on the Chatsworth website. Fran Baker, Chatsworth’s archivist, supported me brilliantly from day one; before the internship started she had split the tasks into work packages and outlined what each one included, which helped me to feel that I knew exactly what was expected of me at each stage. We had two Zoom meetings per week to check in on my progress, and even when things started to get more pressured time-wise towards the end of the

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internship (we realised the tasks were just far bigger than had been anticipated) Fran was lovely in checking in and making sure I wasn’t overworking, and gave really helpful and kind feedback on each piece of work as I handed it in.

Daily Life As a remote intern I was working from home, so I was using a very similar set-up to my own DPhil research during the lockdown. I was expected to do eight hours of work a day, but as I was at home, I was allowed to choose the timings of this. As a humanities researcher who also works weekends, I don’t normally have a very conventional timetable, so it made a welcome change during this internship to work Monday to Friday and feel able to set it aside at the end of the day feeling I had done a good day’s work. This was definitely helped by the work package structure Chatsworth provided me with; even though I only had two check-ins a week (perhaps fewer than with a more conventional in-person internship), the check-ins and work packages combined helped me to monitor that I was nevertheless staying on track. Fran was also able to send me everything I needed as PDF files, which was a great help, and all the research I was carrying out could be done through online databases.

Working at home and without the normal dynamics of an office or other worksite meant I did have to be more conscious of keeping track of time and make sure I took regular breaks.

As the research I was doing could be fairly labour-intensive, I found it was really helpful to get out of the house for walks or runs to give my mind a rest, either during my lunch break or after work, and have other activities planned in too. As the internship went on my working hours did get quite a bit longer and I had to put other things on hold, as the workload was bigger than had originally been anticipated. However, this was my choice and I felt no pressure from Chatsworth to do this; the research was closely related to my own DPhil work and I knew the bigger purpose behind it, so I simply felt this was what was needed to get the work finished to the standard I thought it deserved.

Lasting Impressions The internship has only further confirmed for me that I want to follow my current career path, to continue researching country houses (the subject of my DPhil) and ultimately pursue curatorial and archival work. I gained so many valuable insights into the inner workings of an archive including cataloguing, acquisitions, funding and the archives role in relation to the wider plan for Chatsworth.

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There were so many possible research leads that I discovered in the archives that have opened up new areas of interest for me, and I’m now planning to include Chatsworth as one of my own case studies in my thesis. The more I dug the more it felt like discovering a treasure trove, so I hope that the documents I produced for Chatsworth will help other researchers to experience this same thrill in the future.

I also really appreciated the opportunity to write for the Chatsworth website and gain valuable experience in writing for a non-academic audience. I have been in a research seminar with Chatsworth, the National Trust and the University of Oxford since the internship finished, so I’m already feeling the benefits of the connections I’ve made with the wonderful team there. I’ve been invited to visit in person once life returns a little more to normal and was even sent a thank you present from the team which I was incredibly touched by. I genuinely can’t imagine a more relevant, valuable and enjoyable internship in terms of my own career aspirations, and just hope I was able to be of equal benefit to the Chatsworth team in return.

What advice would you give to future interns?

I believe Chatsworth will be hosting further interns next summer, so if you have the chance to do one of these internships, then definitely seize it without hesitation! It’s a lovely team to work for, they will make you feel so welcome and supported throughout your time with them, and if my experience was anything to go by, you will feel like you’re truly contributing to the work they’re doing there as well.

I knew I had been picked from over a hundred applicants, and I definitely put a lot of pressure on myself to prove I was the right choice and to be a good representative of Oxford, so I think it’s important to just trust that they made the right decision and that you’ll do the best you can in the time you have. If you love the task then by all means put extra work in, but you’re not automatically expected to go above and beyond. If something feels too much, then don’t be worried about speaking up!

If you’re working as a remote intern, it’s also so important to maintain the boundaries between work and your downtime, especially when you’re often doing all these different things between the same four walls. Make sure you get out of the house, get some fresh air every day, and even if you completely love the work you’re doing, make sure you plan in some other fun things to give your mind a break. In addition, if the nature of your set tasks

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means you’re often working alone for long stretches of time, then make sure you’re building in time to see other people outside your working hours, to keep a good balance and ensure you don’t end up feeling isolated without the people you may normally be surrounded by with an in-person internship.

CHURCHES CONSERVATION TRUST Julia Duddy, Queen’s College, Second Year Undergraduate, BA History, Remote Working Work Projects My internship project was to design a new application process for community projects to maintain and care for churches. I was supervised by the Head of Conservation, who provided lots of help and support with the project. I was provided with the documents explaining the old process and some feedback about its flaws. I used this baseline to design a more comprehensive structure that would be easier to use and more transparent.

I was able to design the backbone of the new process fairly quickly with aid from my supervisor and input from consultations with staff and volunteers. I produced flowcharts to explain how the new process would work, then I moved on to designing the different parts of the process. These included forms for the volunteers to fill in at each stage of the application, and information to be provided to them to explain the process. I provided drafts of these to volunteers and staff during consultations to ensure that they included an adequate level of information but were easy to fill in.

I also designed the internal documents for the process, including amendment and feedback forms for the projects, staff guidance, a form for the submitting group's supervisor to fill in to provide extra details, and a spreadsheet to keep track of all the community project applications. I had multiple consultations with CCT staff on the information they would need to make the process run smoothly, and I adapted the process to their feedback. Overall, I was able to finish the internship having produced a comprehensive new process for community project applications which is now ready to be trialled.

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Daily Life Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I was working remotely. This made it initially harder to adapt to a workplace environment and establish a relationship with my supervisor as I only had contact with her via Zoom meetings and emails. This, and the relative self-direction of the internship, initially meant that I felt quite at a loss about where to start.

However, after a few days of reading the documents explaining the previous process for community project applications and identifying areas to improve on, I was able to get a clearer idea in my head of how to approach the project, and soon I was able to get into a routine based on work I set myself. My daily routine was fairly relaxed as I was working to my own schedule, but I generally worked around the equivalent of a normal workday - I found that because I was often alone, I was able to work more efficiently. My meetings with my supervisor were almost always 4-5pm, so I ended my workdays writing a tasklist for the next day. I was working in my room at my desk, so at the end of the workday I always made sure to clean away my work things and go into another room in my house, to ensure that I was able to relax and stop thinking about work.

Lasting Impressions I really enjoyed my internship and it has made me much more confident in my career ambitions. I want to work in the arts and heritage sector after university and this experience has given me lots of insight into the variety of jobs there are and how it practically ties to my history degree. I feel that I gained a lot from the internship, both personally and professionally. This was my first experience of working in this sector so I was initially worried that it would take me a while to get used to the workplace environment and the type of work. My supervisor and everyone at the CCT made sure that I felt supported and I was able to develop positive professional relationships. Also, in doing consultations I improved my communication skills as I learnt how to present my ideas clearly, and I also learnt how to adapt my work according to feedback (both positive and negative).

I have gained a lot more self-confidence in my work and ideas, and I hope that I will carry this with me both in my degree and in starting my career. Academically, I learnt a lot about how history exists in the modern world, and the challenges of conserving it and keeping it alive - becoming more aware of this has made me excited to hopefully be a part of the sector in the future.

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What advice would you give to future interns?

When I started my internship, I was very scared that my opinions would not be valued because I was just a student. However, when I started to become more confident in my work, I found that not only did people respect my ideas, they really appreciated the work I was doing. I was even able to win a few people round to my ideas, when they had initially been sceptical. Be confident in your abilities and your work, and don't be afraid to voice your own ideas.

CITIZENS ADVICE OXFORD Final Year Undergraduate, BA PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Remote Working Work Projects I worked as a Research and Campaigning intern at Citizens Advice Oxford. My work was mainly focussed on compiling reports on various issues relevant to Citizens Advice clients, such as the operation of the Local Housing Allowance in the Oxford area and the impact of COVID-19 on Citizens Advice services. Citizens Advice Oxford provided me with ample support and training to be able to complete these tasks, and senior figures in the organisation were in frequent contact with me to ensure I remained on track.

Daily Life My internship was a remote internship - there was a team meeting at 8.45am every day which I attended (this representing the start of my workday). I then worked for a few hours before lunch, then worked some more after lunch, took a brief mid-afternoon break and finished working at 5pm or so.

Lasting Impressions I enjoyed the experience and feel that I gained lots of skills. In particular, I now know how to use pivot tables to analyse data in Microsoft Excel. This internship has confirmed my career ambition of working in the non-profit sector.

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Ali Zinedin Al-Zubaidi, University College, Second Year Undergraduate, BA PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), Remote Working Work Projects As a research intern at Citizens Advice Oxford working in the research and campaigns team I was tasked (along with my fellow intern) to look into a research area related to Citizens Advice work before producing a report on said issue. We settled on a research project looking into the cost of living in the Oxford City Region. In doing so, we assessed housing costs, food costs, schooling costs and childcare costs before producing several recommendations on how said cost issues could be alleviated. As such, we were able to do a thorough deep dive look into the causes of poverty in Oxford and suggest poverty mitigation policies.

In addition to the research project, I completed several funder reports which entailed using Citizens Advice data to demonstrate to funders that their funds were being used appropriately and with positive consequences. This is an important endeavour for Citizens Advice Oxford (as a charity that is heavily dependent on outside funding) as it allows it to make the case to donors that money donated to Citizens Advice Oxford is money well spent.

Daily Life My internship was done entirely remotely. Thankfully, Citizens Advice Oxford had a daily zoom call at 8:45 am for volunteers to brief each other on the day ahead and these daily encounters really made me feel that I was part of a team. Furthermore, given that this was a research internship, I really enjoyed the independence that I was given working from home.

It very much felt like a research project driven by the interns and driven by our interests which meant that completing the final product (a report into the cost of living in Oxford) was much more satisfying.

Lasting Impressions I most certainly enjoyed the experience and feel like I gained not only a number of useful analytical skills but also more experience of working collaboratively on a research report. As for the future, this internship at Citizens Advice Oxford has definitely pushed me in the direction of pursuing a future in either the charities sector or in public/social policy while also furnishing me with the experience to go down that route.

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COMPTON VERNEY Wenrui Li, Wolfson College, MSc Visual, Material and Museum Anthropology, Masters-level student, Remote working Work Projects I worked for a gallery which has a large collection of Chinese bronzes. I was asked to research and write object reports on individual objects with the resources provided by the gallery (e.g. auction catalogues) regarding the objects' provenance, conservation, inscriptions, iconography for future exhibitions, research and education programmes. Since the internship lasted only for one month, I could not do very detailed research reports on all the objects, I did 23 object reports in total, and each is around 1,000 words. I also made a list of categories of Chinese bronzes with illustrations for future research and a blog post and collected useful information such as digital resources and came up with a few education programme ideas during the internship.

My supervisor was really nice, and we met weekly to make sure everything was in progress.

She fixed the problems I had during the internship and gave me useful guidance. Since it was a remote internship, I did encounter difficulties in accessing the remote desktop, however, my supervisor responded to all my request timely and efficiently. I would send all the tasks I had done during the week at the end of each week, and she would read it and give me feedback on the following Monday. I also had the opportunity to attend the core staff meeting and gain an understanding of how a gallery operates behind the scenes.

People were really nice, and I got the chance to introduce and share my work with people working in other departments such as education, and finance.

Daily Life I was in China during the internship so I had a time difference with my supervisor who was working in the UK, but this was not a problem since we always managed to find a common time to work together and the communication between us was highly efficient.

Since it was a remote internship, my daily schedule was flexible. I divided my daily working plan into three sections and each last for two to three hours. Every Monday, I would meet my supervisor at 5 pm (10 am UK time). The staff meeting was on Wednesdays at 8 pm (1

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pm UK time). I started my internship after I finished my quarantine, so it was nice to go back home, to stay with my parents, and work from there.

Lasting Impressions I really enjoyed working for Compton Verney as a research intern. I could access first-hand resources such as catalogues and condition reports, which was an unforgettable experience for me. This was very different from the research I did during my studies which was mostly based on papers written by other scholars. Also, I had the opportunity to meet other colleagues working in the gallery and had a sight of the operation of a gallery.

I had worked in a few museums before, but this was my first-time attending staff meetings and sharing my work with other colleagues. They were really nice, and I felt my work valued.

Also, my supervisor was super supportive and encouraged me a lot. I am not a native speaker and she was always patient. Having finished a micro internship and a summer internship both in the heritage sector, I am more determined to work in the sector. It's good to combine the interests and the work together, and work with colleagues with similar interests and passion for the sector.

What advice would you give to future interns?

First, take any applications seriously, no matter if this is an internship of one week or an official job. Read the requirements and the applicant profiles carefully and consider the following questions: Do I match with the opportunity? What do I want to gain from this internship? How do my previous experiences fit with the requirements?

Second, research before writing your application. Go to the employer's website to have a general understanding of the organisation. If the internship post describes specific tasks, you need to look into the required task carefully. For example, I know that I am going to research one collection at the gallery, so I went to the gallery website and looked through all the digital resources provided online about the collection and researched on a few objects as a trial.

Third, be positive and keep trying. I failed twice before I was offered this opportunity.

Sometimes it is not because you are not good enough but because you do not match with the post.

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Eleanor Townsend, Wadham College, Fourth Year DPhil, Part-time DPhil History of Art, Remote Working Work Projects The internship related to the Naples collection at Compton Verney. I familiarised myself with the collection by working through all 50 virtual object files and producing an object information sheet for each object. This involved rationalising the files, and collating their content, which was of variable clarity/accuracy. This was consolidated by a visit to Compton Verney in person to consult the more complete physical files. I was then asked to present ideas for future projects to promote the collection and communicate it to the public.

Given the coronavirus difficulties (and current staff restructure), I decided to present a range of options from the easily achievable to more ambitious, long-term ideas.

Collaboration with other institutions would maximise results with relatively little commitment from Compton Verney. The University of York Neapolitan research network was identified as a potential partner for collaboration, and I have made initial contact with the convenor, Professor Helen Hills. Collaborative ideas include a study day focused on the use of coral as a material, and the suggestion of possible thesis topics for MA students on Compton Verney objects, including the iconography of mother-of-pearl/ivory cabinet or the Immaculate Conception as promoted in Naples, seen through two pendants.

A photography/video project for the website, to 'open up' some of the decorative arts objects, would also be relatively straightforward. These have been very much overshadowed by the impressive collection of paintings and I will be producing a short blog for Compton Verney on this subject. Longer term ideas included exhibitions on Grand Tour life in Naples, or on different versions of the same views of Naples from different UK collections, including later photographic versions, tracing the history of the Grand Tour and in particular the fascination with Vesuvius and the classical history of Naples that made it such a popular destination.

Daily Life Because of the C-19 situation, the internship was offered both remotely and flexibly. This worked well both for me and my main contact, as we both had school age children at home over the summer. I did quite a lot of work in the evenings, as well as being able to

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concentrate days around periods when I had childcare. We arranged regular Zoom catch ups, which worked well, and I was included in a weekly Zoom staff meeting which enabled me to meet some of the other staff members, and to get an idea of the structure of the organisation.

On a mundane note, I dd not have to pay for physical commuting, which meant that the pay award went further. In terms of disadvantages to remote working, there were some technology issues with the remote interface, but Compton Verney always tried to sort these out quickly.

Lasting Impressions I enjoyed the internship, and particularly the opportunity to work with a world class collection which is not within my main area of expertise. I have worked previously in museums, but not for a few years, so it was a great opportunity to update my experience, particularly in terms of how a successful organisation is coping in these very challenging times. I really appreciated the trust that Compton Verney put in me, in terms of choosing my own areas of interest to work on and look forward to seeing if my ideas for future projects can be carried forward.

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DEEP PLANET Lusya Manukyan, St Peter’s College, BA Biological Sciences, Final year undergraduate, Remote working Work Projects As part of the Summer Internship Programme I joined the business development team at Deep Planet, a global AgriTech start-up, for a 4-week Sales Internship. The goal of my internship was to run a series of sales experiments and to make strategic recommendations for the company's sales process based on the insights from these experiments.

Over the four weeks of my internship, I completed 5 outbound sales experiments, researched over 100 companies and organisations, helped set up the company's CRM (customer relationship management software) and participated in 2 discovery calls.

Although I had some prior experience in business development roles, this was my first experience in sales.

I was able to quickly assimilate into my new role due to the continuous support and mentorship from my supervisors at Deep Planet. They helped me learn about the technicalities of business development through one-on-one meetings and by being available to answer my questions any time. This swift learning experience meant that I was also able to adjust quickly and contribute to the growth of my host organisation.

Daily Life This was my first internship completed remotely, so I had to make sure to create a working environment where I could fully immerse myself into work while enjoying the process.

Despite a big time-zone difference, my supervisor and I were able to have daily one-to-one meetings during which I updated him on my progress, asked any questions I had and planned the work for the next day and beyond. Working from home may seem liberating as you get more control of your time and are not confined to strict office hours. However, it also has its challenges as you have to coordinate your work with the people living with you and make compromises.

To ensure smooth working process, I had to find the quietest room in the house where I could also get a stable wifi connection, ask my family members to be quiet and not use much broadband when I had my Zoom calls. It was a bit strange initially but after a couple of

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days, it became routine. I made sure to allocate an appropriate amount of time to work, but I also planned breaks during the day to exercise, rest my eyes from staring at my laptop screen for hours and enjoy the company of my family at lunch. Working from home was certainly an interesting experience and although in the future I would like to have the chance to go into the office, this experience was good practice for time management and discipline.

Lasting Impressions I would not be exaggerating to say that I enjoyed every minute of my internship with Deep Planet. Starting from the interview stage of the application process and later joining as an intern, I was welcomed very warmly and felt like a part of the team. For a long time I had wanted to gain experience working in a start-up - I felt that the dynamic environment of a start-up would suit my skillset and personality to have a real contribution with my work, and would allow me to take on responsibility and gain an insight into a broad range of functions.

When I read about this internship opportunity on the Careers Service website, I thought it would be the perfect fit for me both in terms of the role and the goals/activity of the startup. And my experience confirmed this. I had a wonderful time, learned a lot from very experienced professionals and, thus, made a big step towards my career ambitions. And all these positive experiences culminated into an offer for a full-time position for which I am beyond excited and grateful.

What advice would you give to future interns?

If you are not sure whether you should apply, remember that there are very few, if any, programmes that such a simple application process for as exciting opportunities as the ones offered on the Summer Internship Programme. So definitely have a look and apply!

Final Year Undergraduate, BA Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Remote Working Work Projects Deep Planet is a start-up founded out of Oxford which applies machine-learning models to satellite imagery to help farmers operate more sustainably. As a Marketing and Research intern, I had a variety of tasks over my four-week internship. First, I took time

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to understand how the company's products worked and where they were headed. I then reviewed the blogs on the company website, researched given blog topics, and wrote and posted 5 marketing blogs on the company's website. I also researched relevant industry publications to reach out to for guest blogs. I was involved in design and I reviewed the company's investor one-pager, product brochures, and pitch deck and updated their design and content.

I was also involved in social media and social media strategy I set up a company Instagram and defined a social media strategy for the company going forward. I assisted the Market Research intern with his reports, leading on competitor research for different sectors. In my final week, I researched for and created a company marketing strategy from scratch, which has been subsequently used by the company.

Daily Life This internship was remote, seeing as this company normally works remotely and I was in the US while most of the others were in the UK. I had a video call with my supervisor every morning for the first week of my internship, and then every 2-3 days after that. We also had one virtual team meeting, where people shared what they'd been working on, and two virtual team "experience exchange" days, where each junior team member created a short workshop to teach the rest of the team something relevant to their work. Working from home was great and my day was roughly based around when I was scheduled to call someone, but besides that I could complete my work whenever suited me best.

Lasting Impressions I really enjoyed interning with Deep Planet. I was given lots of responsibility from the get-go, my supervisor provided me with all the support I needed, was very open to feedback and was open to adjusting my tasks so as to help build my skills as much as possible. Everyone else at the company was also very willing to hop on a quick call to collaborate on tasks or discuss ideas. As the company was quite small and in relatively early stages of development, my internship provided a great opportunity to learn about the basics of business strategy and start-ups. Overall, I feel like I got a tremendous amount out of just four weeks!

What advice would you give to future interns?

Try to get as much as you can out of your internship experience by going above and beyond on tasks and asking to join in on client calls, team meetings, etc. where you can. It's also important to always take notes, especially when you're doing a remote internship which means you can't just walk over to the next desk to ask your supervisor to explain something.

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DITCHLEY FOUNDATION Marina Adami, BA Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Final Year Undergraduate, Remote Working Work Projects The internship projects aims were to consolidate and expand Ditchley’s network of contacts. One way we did this involved researching individuals already in Ditchley’s network and classifying them according to guidelines to determine their level and area of expertise. Moreover, we also researched unaffiliated organisations pertinent to areas that Ditchley would like to expand into and conducted a quantitative analysis of the existing network to identify its strengths and weaknesses.

The achievements that I was most proud of were identifying interesting and innovative local organisations that Ditchley may like to connect with, as well as developing and becoming more confident in statistical analysis and the R programming language. I feel that I have made tangible progress in my analytical skills, as well as having learnt many interesting facts about places and people that I found out during my research.

The variety of work meant that I was always learning, and I never got bored. Ditchley was very welcoming and supportive to its interns: we had several contacts in case of issues or even mundane questions, two professionals aiding and guiding us directly in the work, and daily meetings to make sure that everyone was on the same page. I always felt comfortable asking questions and admitting when I needed help with the work. There were also weekly social calls which we used to organise friendly debates around current world issues. These occasions were always informative and enjoyable.

Daily Life Overall, I found working from home a comfortable and flexible arrangement, although I did my best to maintain a regular work schedule and consciously allocate time both to work and to unwind in the evenings.

My routine consisted of beginning around 9:30 in the morning, checking my messages from my supervisors and teammates, checking my google calendar to note the time of any Zoom meetings, and then getting on with the research or analysis as necessary. I took a break for lunch around 1pm, and then worked until 5 or 6pm, depending on how much I still needed

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to do. Afterwards, I would check my personal emails, and do some admin as necessary, and then switch off my computer and spend time with my family.

I tried to make my time off varied and relaxing: I like cooking, reading, and when I felt tired, I would unwind with a film. Sticking to this routine helped me not get too stressed, and to begin each day feeling refreshed and focused.

Lasting Impressions Overall, my internship at the Ditchley Foundation was a very varied and enjoyable experience. The variety of projects available meant that we had some choice to focus on the ones we found most interesting and that the work never became repetitive. I also enjoyed working alongside other interns and getting to know them as people during our weekly social calls as well.

I feel that I gained important quantitative analysis abilities from this internship, as well as developing important skills for the workplace, such as multitasking and working as part of a team. I am now also much more comfortable with video calls in a professional setting, which we are all likely to have to keep using for a while.

The experience has opened my mind to different career possibilities in research for charities or thinktanks, which I had not considered thus far. It has also led me to focus on my digital, and especially programming skills, which I now plan to keep developing on my own.

Working for Ditchley has reminded me of the importance of flexibility and of trying new things outside of my comfort zone, that nobody expects perfection, but that what's most important is putting in the work and the effort.

What advice would you give to future interns?

Use this experience to step out of your comfort zone and try something new!

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Lucas Davison, Lady Margaret Hall, Second Year Undergraduate, BA Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Remote Working Work Projects My role as an intern at the Ditchley Foundation was to help consolidate and expand their network of individuals involved with the foundation. As a foundation with a primary focus on bringing together high-profile individuals from across the world with a variety of expertise, the team of interns was tasked with organising the foundations database of individuals based on their knowledge and experience. This task was to make the process of finding suitable people for conferences more efficient and effective. Most of this work was done independently but with frequent check-ins from supervisors to ensure that our research and classification was on the right track. As a team of over 10 interns we made considerable progress on this research and, by the end of my 6 weeks, the foundations database had been given a serious overhaul that contained more specific information about these individuals.

Alongside this work, we were given a larger task of attempting to expand the database of individuals, with a specific focus on regions in the UK that have traditionally been left out of the political and business bubble that is primarily contained by London. With frequent supervision we were able to construct some potential individuals to contact which will no doubt help the foundation to expand on their motto to ‘Think new things, Make new connections.’ In the last two weeks of the programme I was also able to work on the task of providing some data visualisations of the foundations network using a data analysis programming language. This work was closely supervised and found results that not only confirmed our previous findings during the research stage but also opened up new discussions about the make-up of the network such as the gender disparity. We presented these findings to the larger intern team at the end of the programme.

Daily Life The internship programme at the Ditchley foundation was conducted remotely for all interns. As the foundation is based at the Ditchley Estate in Oxfordshire with limited onsite workspace they were in the unique position where they had offered the same internship

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remotely in previous years. This meant that working remotely was convenient and worked smoothly.

As the internship was primarily research focused much of my daily routine was spent on working independently on the foundations database. We were split into smaller teams of interns and we tried to make a habit of calling each other every morning to ensure we were all on the right track. This was a nice opportunity to meet new people even in a remote setting and to ensure that we all understood the work which was necessary as we were often working on collaborative spreadsheets.

Meetings would also happen twice a week with all the teams together in order to share ideas and gauge the progress of the work on a larger scale. Having a large team of interns also gave us the opportunity to run a social hour on Friday afternoons where one intern would present and topic and then lead a discussion. While initially a bit stilted, everyone quickly became involved in this hour and it became an interesting opportunity to hear from people with contrasting backgrounds. I took the opportunity to lead a discussion about democracy in the world which turned into a fascinating debate about how young people can change levels of participation in politics. This discussion was even joined by the Director of the foundation who provided a unique insight into the politics side of the debate from his experience in public service. Other than that, I would often go for long walks after spending all day at my desk, which was a much-needed activity to get away from the remote working environment which could become tiresome.

Lasting Impressions On starting my internship at the Ditchley Foundation I was initially expecting 6 weeks of mainly independent research work. Although this was a significant portion of the work, I was pleasantly surprised to find how collaborative the working environment would actually be. As a member of a large team of interns, it quickly became a great opportunity to meet people who were mostly at other universities and studying different disciplines. We were always treated seriously and pleasantly by our supervisors and I feel as though our work has made a significant contribution to the future work of the foundation, especially in our task of expanding their network of individuals.

The programme also provided me with an opportunity to improve my career skills, and also my academic work. The most valuable portion of the programme in this regard was my work on the data visualisation of the foundations network which allowed me to improve my programming skills which I imagine will be invaluable for my future career. I began the internship believing that I would like to pursue a career in policy making and the

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opportunity to work at a think tank like the Ditchley Foundation has only confirmed this further.

First Year Masters, MSt World Literatures in English, Remote Working Work Projects The project largely consisted of researching and writing a paper assessing Ditchley’s evolving contributions to democracy and multilateralism using the foundations largely unexplored archives of conference papers and recorded discussions. I contributed to business development by making the archives accessible to the public by producing summary papers and interactive timelines on issues discussed at Ditchley such as the Anglo-American media and US-EU relations. I then formatted these for the Ditchley website or Smartify app. This enables future collaborators to have a greater understanding of what the foundation does and what it has already achieved.

Daily Life Met weekly or bi-weekly with Ditchley's Impact Lead and the other intern (both were lovely) via Zoom. We each chose different topics, then would go through the archives (which date back to 1958, but due to patchy digitisation we mostly focused on 21st century conferences). We peer-reviewed each other's work each week and then met to discuss what to change/ how we would take our research further. There was also an intern social every week which involved discussing current affairs or a topic of general interest via Zoom. I also had the opportunity to go visit Ditchley in person, which was an incredible opportunity to visit the property, to meet those who worked there, and to discuss what our research had produced with the foundation's Director.

Lasting Impressions I really enjoyed my internship and I loved working with Ditchley. Everyone was incredibly interesting and welcoming (both virtually and in real life) and I have been asked to return for future collaboration and events, which is very exciting. It has definitely convinced me that I am interested in both a research-based and political career.

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Second Year Undergraduate, English Language and Literature, Remote Working Work Projects For my internship with Ditchley, I was asked to create a number of written pieces on various works of art for Ditchley's new "smartify" app.

This will enable visitors to Ditchley to hold up their smartphone to different artworks and learn various details about them. Initially, we were taken on a tour of the Ditchley Estate and given an opportunity to see each artwork in the flesh and take notes. After this, my colleague and I did some preliminary reading and research on each of the different pieces of artwork and were assisted by our supervisor in collating a body of information. Over the next few weeks, we took to writing an excerpt on each painting, highlighting interesting contextual detail about the figures portrayed and about the history of the Ditchley Estate whilst simultaneously creating an engaging narrative for readers.

Daily Life My internship with Ditchley included a number of in-person visits to the Estate but my work and meetings were mainly conducted remotely. For the first two weeks, I spent the majority of my time using SOLO to research and read about as many of the paintings as I could whilst jotting down missing information. Every week, my fellow intern and I had a zoom meeting with our supervisor where we shared our challenges. In addition to this, the other intern and I met a number of times in person and online to discuss issues we had encountered and to socialise. Because the hours of my internship were relatively flexible, I was able to take regular breaks and take enough time for reading, with targets at the end of the week as my motivation.

Lasting Impressions I really enjoyed my internship with Ditchley. It introduced me to a lifelong friend in my cointern and granted me the freedom to conduct solo research on a medium (paintings etc.) which I had never explored before. What's more, I felt very grateful to have the opportunity to explore Ditchley and see how the organisation operates. One of my favourite parts of being part of the team was being able to watch the selection of talks and seminars that Ditchley ran in July.

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FRASER FINANCE Second Year Undergraduate, BA History, In-person Working Work Projects My work mostly focused around industry coverage. This meant market research, e.g. producing lists of firms within an industry and then segmenting the industry and firms. Much of this was to inform ongoing deals. A specific example was working on the sale of a German VoIP firm with sell-side client, in which buyers weren't particularly forthcoming as the firm's growth prospects weren't great - my job was to produce a shortlist of 20 firms that might make good potential acquirers for this firm and to justify why I had chosen each of the firms I put on this list in a meeting with the team. This was particularly interesting as they then acted on my recommendations and contacted some of the firms that I had suggested.

Another task was working on financial valuation. I produced a comps table comparing EV/Rev to Revenue Growth for firms in the SaaS space recently with firms that had operated in a similar manner previously. Did a similar thing for the same firms comparing EV/EBITDA and EBITDA Margin. Identifying the change in correlations here over time helped provide them with a better understanding of how these firms worked.

Daily Life This internship was mostly in person. Officially the hours were 10-5 with an hour for lunch but I wanted to learn as much as possible so I would generally get in a bit earlier and take 10-15 mins for lunch. I stayed past 5 for the first half of the internship but as focus on academic commitments to prepare for the coming term heated up, I started to leave at 5.

They were pretty relaxed about hours and would have taken us to lunches more if it had been a normal year.

The guys there were genuinely great - I got on really well with them and got so much out of talking to them as they are all 30 years into a career in the industry that I'm applying for. As a steppingstone internship for someone who wants to go into investment banking but isn't good enough/doesn't know enough at the time of applying to get into somewhere bigger and more established, this place is brilliant. The guys who worked there all had proper experience working at top firms (one with 5 years at McKinsey and 5 years at Goldman, another ex-Morgan Stanley, another ex-BCG) so the experience felt quite blue chip in a way

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despite being generally pretty relaxed. I spent A LOT of time just chatting to them asking them question after question about banking and finance, which they were really happy to answer even if it was going off topic to the deals they were working on at the time. They also were very happy to discuss ongoing deals with me, which was brilliant, as having that kind of senior exposure and top-down perspective on a deal just doesn't happen anywhere else.

I really couldn't recommend this internship more. They were really just great people and really fun to be around. There was another intern there as well whom I got on very well with. The atmosphere in the office was great and I felt particularly lucky to be doing an inperson internship at this virtual moment in time.

Lasting Impressions I think I got a lot out of it because I specifically know that I want to work in Investment Banking and so I worked hard at and alongside the internship to learn a lot of concepts and skills that I could apply to my work there. The experience has reaffirmed my commitment to applying to investment banking and has massively enhanced my CV which has helped me with the investment banking applications I'm currently in the middle of.

Third Year Undergraduate, BA European & Middle Eastern Languages, Inperson Working Work Projects My role as an intern at Fraser Finance was to research and analyse capital raising trends and M&A transactions in the Pharmaceuticals sector.

Day-to-day, this involved reading a lot of industry and market coverage, compiling data and analysing it to identify areas of growth and opportunity and keeping in regular contact with my supervisors to update them on my progress and ask relevant questions where I did not understand things.

I also had an advisory role on a project, in which I identified a list of potential targets for an acquisition; I was involved in the phone call with the client and I felt that my insights were well-received and valuable to the possible transaction. In all, the experience was very enriching; I learnt a great deal from my supervisors, other employees in the firm who were keen to discuss their experience as well as through conversations with the other Oxford

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intern about the markets and company valuations. The support from the host organisation was also excellent - at one point on the internship I had a bad accident and had to go to A&E to get stitches. They were very accommodating about this and I was able to return to the office when I felt ready to.

Daily Life On the first day, the supervisors allocated different market coverage areas to each intern and divided their supervision according to their own coverage areas. I was given Pharmaceuticals, while the other intern was to focus on TMT. I then had a discussion with my supervisor about the plan he had produced for my time on the internship, including an outline of my tasks and when they should be completed by - it was very helpful to have this comprehensive structure, and we followed it throughout the internship, with some adjustments to the timeframe at points. Outside of work, I used the opportunity of being in London to socialise with school and university friends, which was really enjoyable.

Lasting Impressions I very much enjoyed the internship - I gained a great deal of knowledge about the industry and, more specifically, about M&A, capital raising and company valuations. I also learnt a lot about the impact of political decisions on markets, particularly in the COVID-19 period, and I have had regular discussions with my supervisors about this.

As to how the knowledge I have gained has impacted on my career ambitions: I will use the knowledge I have gained from this internship to inform my applications to positions in the sector, and I am certain that the experiences I gained on the internship will help me in securing a longer-term internship or analyst position with a bank. I am not sure if I want to pursue a career in investment banking, though the fundamentals of what I learnt are applicable to the other roles in banking I want to apply to.

What advice would you give to future interns?

I would advise future interns to seek out every opportunity they can while on the internship; volunteer your help, ask questions and engage with discussions.

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GOOD FOOD OXFORD First Year Masters, MSc African Studies, Remote Working Work Projects My internship project involved researching Oxfordshire resident’s food related lived experiences during COVID-19. My main tasks involved drawing up a research design, contacting research participants, interviewing them and writing up a report on my findings. I am happy to have completed the report as completing the research was really fulfilling, enlightening and a nice break from my degree. It was so refreshing to meet new people through various online video calling platforms and have the privilege of hearing their stories.

My line manager was supportive but also gave me room to work by myself. I enjoyed that I was not being micromanaged but also could reach out to her or anyone else on the team when I needed to.

Daily Life Initially, I found the idea of working from home to be really strange and struggled to have that work/home division but now I love the flexibility working from home brings. Eventually I settled into a routine where I would work from early morning to mid-afternoon with some breaks in between. My official hours were 8am-3.30pm but, as I wake up early, I would start before 8 and then exercise for my mid-morning break which helped me push through to 3.30pm. My daily tasks were varied and included desk-based research, contacting people and conducting interviews. The interviews were more taxing than I thought they would be, so I tried to only have two a day.

Lasting Impressions I definitely enjoyed this experience. I was definitely given more serious responsibilities than in previous internships and I felt like my ideas were valued. I gained so much from this internship including strengthening my research abilities but more importantly I gained knowledge of food insecurity and poverty and just how complicated the whole issue is and also how important it is that we continue to fight food insecurity and poverty and the misconceptions surrounding it. My career ambitions were 80% set on academia prior to this 20% set on the non-governmental organisation sector but I am now at 50% academia and 50% non-governmental organisation which is exciting.

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First Year Masters, MSc Environmental Change and Management, Remote Working Work Projects I was put in charge of two research projects: the first, to look into the resilience of the local food supply chain in response to the COVID-19 crisis, and the second to explore opportunities for accessing land for food production in Oxfordshire. For the former, I was responsible for reaching out to the organisations network to assemble a number of case studies from producers, suppliers and distributors.

The results were used to compile recommendations for how the host organisation could build a more resilient local food system and prepare a more coordinated response to future shocks. The latter research project required me to investigate data on council and college landholdings and contact councils, community land trusts and community farms around the country to identify a range of options for improving land access.

Daily Life I worked remotely and found it was important to keep to a schedule that mimicked a normal working day. I set myself up a table and made sure my back was well supported.

Exercise in the evenings was a great way to wind-down mentally, tire myself out physically and get away from my laptop screen.

Lasting Impressions I had a brilliant experience and was incredibly grateful for the trust that Good Food Oxford put in me to carry out projects independently. The research topics were on matters I care a great deal about, and which were highly topical. It was very exciting to carry out research that will be put to use by an organisation that I respect. It has given me really useful contacts and experience in a sector I want to continue working in and has confirmed by career ambitions.

What advice would you give to future interns?

Apply for something you really care about and, in a field you would be interested in working in. It's a really mutually beneficial experience because you're motivated to work well for them, and that sets you up for success.

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GOODLORD First Year Undergraduate, BA Music, Remote Working Work Projects Goodlord offers an end-end software that allows letting agents to manage the whole pre-tenancy process in one cloud-based platform. Within this platform additional products and services are sold to both letting agents, landlords and tenants. During my internship I worked on developing Goodlord's tenant offers business area. I was assigned a line manager (the head of tenancy services) who I had daily meetings with, I also had weekly meetings with the people team, and finally weekly meetings with a buddy who was an Oxford alumni.

At the beginning of the internship my manager and I created goals for the internship in order to monitor my performance. My key achievements were that I identified and formed partnership with AnyVan which is forecasted to generate circa 13k yearly revenue, operationalised automated marketing emails which is forecasted to generate circa 32k yearly revenue, tripled Goodlord affiliate commission rate with business partner AnyVan, designed and executed A/B email marketing test sent to 60k people involving 7 external partners, analysed and collated data from marketing test to identify tenant offers with greatest commercial opportunity, Led presentations to both partners and SMT receiving excellent feedback from the CEO & Head of Finance and I organised a cross-team shuffleboarding social with a ÂŁ450 budget. I exceeded targets, achieving 112% score in internship performance review and receiving return offer.

Daily Life I had a daily stand-up at 9:15am followed by a short meeting with my manager to discuss anything I wanted, from my projects to personal development and more. The rest of the day would usually have a few other meetings alongside company events called lunch and learns, or virtual coffees with different people in the business. I spent the time between meetings working on my project. Remote working made it easy for me to continue practicing piano for 4 hours a day and I found this helped me unwind.

Lasting Impressions An amazing experience which will undoubtedly shape my future career. I now definitely know that I would prefer to work for a small/medium sized organisation with a flat

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structure, at least in the near future. I am also considering going into tech as a career much more seriously now.

Second Year Undergraduate, BA Economics and Management, Remote Working Work Projects I was responsible for the automation of a number of processes, mostly the visualisation of public tenancy data, the visualisation of private agent data and the segmenting and contact of tenants for the purposes of marketing emails. I was able to do these to great success and lay the groundwork for systems that can be built upon as new use cases come up and fortunately got them working with no hiccups.

Daily Life Generally speaking, I would get up for breakfast and sit in for my morning meeting where the team outlined what they would get up to for the day. I found they were very flexible with how I went about my working day, provided I could meet my deadlines (which I did manage) and this greatly enhanced my experience.

Lasting Impressions I really enjoyed it. It was my first experience programming and I found that it is in fact something that I really enjoy and might even pursue in the future.

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HERITAGE ALLIANCE Julia Pieza, Trinity College, BA History and Politics, Final Year Undergraduate, Remote Working Work Projects My internship at the Heritage Alliance was 6 weeks long and throughout this time I was able to contribute to a wide variety of projects. First, I was introduced to the Alliance’s work on their Heritage and Wellbeing report which I could contribute to by editing case studies. I was able to sit in and take notes during roundtable talks with sector specialists from heritage organisations which was a great introduction into the evidence-based work being conducted.

I really enjoyed learning more about the potential of heritage as a way to improve wellbeing and I felt my contributions were useful to the rest of the team. I would also feel supported to ask questions about my work, and more generally to ask about opportunities and projects to get involved in. Since the wellbeing report was being finalised, I sought the opportunity to conduct some preliminary research myself on the next report published by the Alliance. This report will be about diversity in the heritage sector, and I helped create an initial guidance document of resources and analysis from my independent research. This was a very valuable experience and something I found deeply engaging and important to contribute to.

I presented my ideas to the policy and communications team and found that I could bring a different perspective as a young person starting out in this sector.

My team were encouraging and receptive to my ideas which made my work feel rewarding.

Given the circumstances of the pandemic, my day-to-day work consisted of summarising government updates and guidance on re-opening, any updates on relevant bills and policies such as planning. This aspect of policy work helped me develop my communication and analysis skills further, I was able to take in new information and synthesise it with speed and accuracy. This was challenging yet highly useful for learning more about the link between government and advocacy organisations. Some examples of this type of work included summarising recent changes to VAT and how they will impact the heritage sector, or summarising planning policy papers and noticing upcoming changes to Environmental Impact Assessments that could impact the heritage sector.

During my internship, I wrote an issue of Heritage Update, a fortnightly newsletter that the Alliance publishes for around 14,000 people. This was a great way to get an overview of the

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sector and learn more about projects that members of the Alliance have been organising for audiences during the lockdown. It involved some training in a design programme for the format of the newsletter as well as some WordPress training which will be a useful skill to take onwards.

Lastly, I ran the social media of the Alliance on Thursdays and Fridays, this introduced me to more organisations and individuals in the sector and I could notice how important digital skills were especially during the lockdown. I think as a young person it is easy to take those skills we almost naturally develop in the digital space and overlook how valuable our knowledge of communicating effectively online can be to organisations. I also had the opportunity to attend Heritage Digital webinars (run in partnership with the Heritage Alliance) about online engagement with audiences and an introduction to online data analysis which also helped me develop these key digital skills.

Daily Life Working from home was certainly a unique experience but after finishing Trinity term at home I felt adapted to working in this setting. I was used to having a routine and had a good workspace. With time I also appreciated the flexibility and comfort that comes with working from home, for example the lack of an hour-long commute each way gave me more time to relax in the evenings. I found that the Alliance had adapted to online working really well, the team met regularly and worked together effectively across the organisations sharing information about upcoming projects. We also had informal coffee breaks during quieter days where I got to know people better.

Outside work, I relaxed by taking walks and running, once restrictions were being lifted, I could see friends in socially distanced circumstances. At the end of my internship, my team arranged leaving drinks for me, so I was able to meet them in person, again adhering to social distancing and other safety guidelines. This was a really nice way to end the internship and though there is definitely less of a social aspect to working online I did not feel I missed out on building valuable relationships with my team.

Lasting Impressions Throughout my time at the Alliance, I felt supported by my team. On my first day, I was introduced to everyone at the Alliance via an online meeting, and I quickly learnt about the organisation as well as the typical structure of the working week. I was set clear and achievable tasks and given responsibility over projects and assignments that I was

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interested in. The team held regular online meetings, and I had one-to-one support from my supervisor. I found it easy and effective to communicate with everyone via teams and email.

Overall, I've had an amazing time at the Heritage Alliance. I think the internship even in the online format far exceeded all of my expectations and the range of projects I've been able to get involved in has been great. I have developed valuable policy, research and communication skills and feel much more equipped to search for further opportunities within this sector. The experience has also definitely confirmed my interest and ambition to work in this sector and to engage with more policy work in the future.

What advice would you give to future interns?

My advice for future interns is to write down a general list of the projects that the organisation is working on. I worked on many smaller more urgent tasks alongside less urgent but more research-based tasks that involved independent work so knowing how to prioritise this work was helpful for staying organised.

Further advice for working from home is to try to reach out to team members for one-toone meetings as a way to learn more about their work and generally learn more about their career path. I found this was a great way to add to the more social side of the internship. I would also recommend writing about the tasks you're doing throughout the internship, with how much I worked on it was easy to forget certain tasks I had completed.

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HORATIO’S GARDEN Charlotte Peart, Jesus College, Final Year Undergraduate, BA Experimental Psychology, Remote Working Work Projects I analysed quantitative and qualitative data from patient surveys, condensed the data into a presentation to be given to donors and gave presentations of the reports to charity.

Daily Life I had Zoom meetings to update my supervisor. Every day I was crunching numbers in excel, performing thematic analysis of interviews and formatting PDFs. Lasting Impressions Horatio's Garden was a charity filled with lovely people. I felt that I was performing meaningful work that was making a real difference to people's lives.

IQVIA Yifei Chen, Trinity College, Third Year Undergraduate, MChem Chemistry, Remote Working Work Projects Thought leadership is the intersection between business development and strategy. The team is essentially a commercial think tank for IQVIA, which develops the company’s strategic thinking for macro trends at a longer time horizon. The internship allows choice for interns to explore any interesting areas that the larger team does not have time for. You can usually undertake multiple projects throughout your internship, and you will be assigned one project mentor per project. The other experienced members of the team are also there to help.

You are also encouraged to reach out to other IQVIAns abroad or in other specialisations (particularly as Thought Leadership has such an interdisciplinary role in the firm). This year almost all the projects were relevant to COVID in some way; I was tasked with building

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databases, creating slide decks with data analysis, writing articles, and contributing to white papers in projects spanning from genomics, to primary care to the pharma supply chain.

These are usually viewpoints developed to be presented for top 20 pharma clients, but one project that we worked on this summer actually was sold to a client directly as well.

Daily Life The internship consisted of around a week or so of training and introductions to familiarize one with the team, IQVIA proprietary data and with technical skills. A day usually starts around 9am, but because of remote working, offers more flexibility. There is an hour for a lunch break and work generally ends around 5pm. Unlike consulting roles, the internship is more internally facing, so there is usually no overtime.

You are usually tasked with multiple projects at the same time (this is totally manageable and trains project management skills) so a day will usually have a couple of catch up calls with respective supervisors in each area. Then throughout the day, you work on data analysis, research or sometimes primary data collection (with experts or otherwise). The work is not that different from consulting work. Interspersed there is usually a few calls a week (around 30mins to an hour per call) of networking sessions within the company (a bit more formalized due to remote working) where you can get some touch points with other departments at IQVIA. Then to wrap up the week there are also often unwinding sessions to socialize with the team on Friday evening.

Working under the pandemic has been quite challenging, but also offers one a lot of flexibility. I was able to do some staycations in the UK and see a lot of cool scenery on weekends and avoid London rent. I was able to see the seaside and hike as well.

Lasting Impressions I was first really pleased to see so many hard-working and smart people working and by the end I also felt like I was a part of this incredible team. Despite the pandemic, the team did everything possible to make us feel welcomed and I personally learned a lot about healthcare and the pharma industry.

I would like to continue working in the healthcare sector in the future and would like to do consulting-style work, but the internship has also made me reaffirm my desire to contribute to global health in the long term. Having seen problems within the industry’s focus, I think I

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want to contribute to addressing some of the unmet needs, particularly in lower- and middle-income countries.

I really enjoyed my internship overall and would recommend it to anyone who is curious about the developments in life sciences. Some of the projects I’ve worked on are almost completely original research and methodologies, and I had a lot of autonomy in what I wanted to investigate. IQVIA has unparalleled expertise in access to information and is fast growing; most importantly the team is small, and you can receive a lot of mentorship from many who have worked in the industry for 20+ years. In terms of COVID thought leadership, the company has also been recognized for putting our high impact pieces for top pharma, and even interns’ analysis is readily used by the team.

What advice would you give to future interns?

Seek out opportunities to build your network and IQVIA is a really good place to do that and learn about healthcare. Take advantage of your time in this large organisation and try to talk to as many people in the organisation who interest you as possible.

ICON NEWS Adam Hewitt, Harris Manchester College, BA Philosophy and Theology, Second Year Undergraduate, Remote Working Work Projects I was tasked with coming up with how ICON can monetise their back catalogue of newsletters.

Currently their newsletters are available for free on their website, but they wanted to place them behind a paywall in order to generate more income from non-members. I put together a presentation detailing my research into how they could achieve this.

The presentation included a demo of a squarespace storefront that I created which simulated how the percase process might look. In the end, my research into copyright law showed them that monetising the back catalogue will be difficult, so instead they opted to create a searchable database of articles for their members based on the demo I put together for them. I was supervised by the chief executive but because the role was work from home I was given a lot of flexibility over how I went about my research, which worked well for me.

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Daily Life The role was work from home so I did not work regular office hours, although I was available on Slack from 9am until 5pm. I also had to have a meeting later into the evening with one member of the team who lives in Australia.

Lasting Impressions Working with ICON was great and I'd love to work with them again in the future. The experience I got with squarespace was very valuable. I also got great experience presenting research findings to senior members of staff.

MARVELLOUS MAPS Nadja Mundi, Christ Church, Final Year Undergraduate, BA Geography, Remote Working Work Projects I applied for the Marvellous Maps internship despite not having the experience with data management they were looking for as I have a passion for trivia and maps and thought it was worth giving it a go anyway. During my first interview, we discussed potentially tailoring the internship to instead play to my strengths in research that I have developed while at university. I then had a second interview with the founder and business development lead where we further discussed what I might bring to the company.

During my internship, I was given the task of brainstorming and researching for a new map idea. First, I spent time considering the different possible categories for the map, aiming to think logically about how the topic might be divided and the most accurate syntax to use to describe each group. I was also responsible for finding a list of sources which would provide the information necessary for the map. Once I had done this, I started collating data entries for the map. In addition to my role on this new map, I helped gather coordinates for the map they were finishing off. Furthermore, I helped with customer service, making sure orders went through smoothly. I had weekly catchups with the founder where we discussed my progress in relation both to the map and to my internship learning & development goals.

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Daily Life The internship was remote, not due to coronavirus but because, being a very small company, there was no office. This meant that the team was already accustomed to working and communicating online.

I was at home in France during the internship due to the lockdowns therefore I also had to deal with the time difference which caused a few confusions with meeting times etc.

However, the advantage of the time zone was that I could start an hour later (at 10am) and finish later (at 6pm) which better suited my lifestyle. I made sure to take regular breaks and spend time with family and friends throughout the day. Furthermore, it meant I didn't have to miss out on family activities such as hiking, rafting or beach trips, as I could catch up on hours in the evening or at the weekend. This was particularly useful when I moved back to the UK during my internship as it gave me the flexibility to travel and settle in while still working.

Lasting Impressions I really enjoyed my experience of the internship. I learnt all sort of things about all aspects of the business, from product conception to end product and sales. I liked working alongside a former intern who was working part time over the summer on a new project. It was nice to have someone to give me advice and for me to get in touch with if I had any small questions. I also really enjoyed working with the founder as he was a great manager and put a lot of time aside to talk through the project, company and internship with me. We had lots of catchups throughout the internship which helped confirm that I was interested in the sector and company.

Throughout the internship, we discussed the possibility of me staying on full time once it was over. I remained open to the idea during the two months since everything was going so well. When the internship was over, I took a week off and then returned in a full-time graduate role. I am therefore now working for Marvellous Maps as a researcher and product development analyst. I'm currently still working on the project I started over the summer and I'm looking forward to seeing the end product!

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MK GALLERY Eva Haghighi, Wolfson College, Third Year DPhil, DPhil Classical Languages and Literature, In-person and Remote Working Work Projects As part of my internship at MK Gallery in Milton Keynes, I worked alongside the Exhibitions Team on the forthcoming programme of exhibitions scheduled by the gallery. Most of my tasks were carried out remotely, but I also had the chance to spend some time at the gallery and working from the office. As an Exhibitions Assistant, I was primarily in charge of conducting research and creating content for the upcoming display, as well as participating in meetings and discussions about practical arrangements when possible.

As the internship started, my supervisors supplied a list of tasks for me to carry out and, on a weekly basis, we would have meetings to catch up and update the list with any additional pieces of work required. As the team operates in concert to produce material for the exhibitions, all the content developed is the result of a collective effort, and I felt included and valued throughout the entire time. The members of the Exhibitions Team were incredibly supportive, both remotely and in person. They did everything in their power to provide me with the best possible experience despite the uncertainty of the current situation, while making sure I felt safe going into the office.

Daily Life My internship was carried out mostly remotely. The first day my supervisors arranged a virtual meeting to discuss their current projects and go through the list of tasks they had planned for me. We then scheduled weekly virtual meetings to catch up and talk about my progress. Seeing as working from home can be tricky, as the lack of structure can potentially hinder productivity, I created a daily schedule to follow, with working hours, a list of tasks to carry out and time to take short breaks. This routine contributed to keeping me focused and efficient while allowing me time to relax and unwind.

After the gallery reopened and the staff settled into their work routine, I was invited to Milton Keynes to gain some experience of the daily life of the gallery. My supervisors and I would arrange specific dates for me to be in the office, making sure the anti-Covid measures

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were respected, that there was no risk for either the other employees or me to be in the gallery and that my presence would not overcrowd the office space. On the days scheduled, I took every precaution and was able to commute from Oxford to Milton Keynes by bus.

Although I did not have much time to socialise after work, every single person at MK gallery was incredibly welcoming and supportive, and I greatly enjoyed meeting all of them.

Lasting Impressions I immensely enjoyed my internship at MK Gallery. My supervisors and the rest of the team were all welcoming and supportive, both remotely and in person, and the gallery itself is a brilliant institution, absolutely worth visiting. I profoundly appreciate the Exhibitions Team's efforts in such precarious and uncertain circumstances to make me feel included and appreciated, and to do their best to provide me with the most rewarding experience.

The pandemic prevented me from working in the office full time, but my supervisors and I were in constant contact and really worked as a team. As soon as it was safe for me to be in the gallery, they offered me the opportunity to go but left the decision to me, seeing as travelling can be difficult or unsafe. The decision to be in the office was dictated by the fact that the team believed that it would be useful for me to have the opportunity to understand the dynamics of the gallery, to participate not only in the research process but also in the more practical aspects involved in setting up an exhibition. I agreed and was more than happy to gain as much insight as possible into the process and the field.

Overall, I have learned a lot from this experience. Working alongside the Exhibitions Team at MK Gallery has confirmed my career ambitions and has further fuelled my fascination for art and my motivation for working in the heritage sector.

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MUNCASTER CASTLE Lily Tidman, St Hilda’s College, BA History & Politics, Second Year Undergraduate, A mixture of remote and in-person internship Work Projects I was working with one other intern - Alex Beeton, a first-year DPhil student - researching two glass objects held by the castle: the Luck and "Fake" Luck of Muncaster. Our main goal was to determine their provenance and the credibility of legends surrounding them, using historical research to reveal the credence which should be given to an associated family tradition telling of a visit by Henry VI during the Wars of the Roses.

Our main achievement was the production of a 100-page academic report on the two Lucks, their context and their history. We made use of a variety of sources to produce this report, from our own interviews with experts in various fields to documents held by the castle and secondary literature available online; we then produced a smaller document recommending various commercialisation strategies based on our findings, for use by the castle in future.

The castle team were all incredibly supportive, especially given the unusual circumstances under which we were completing this project. Peter Frost-Pennington, our main point of contact, was very flexible with regards to the outcome of the project given the closure of archives and libraries, and went out of his way to put us in contact with relevant academics and local people. Alex and I were empowered to choose the format the presentation of our findings would take and encouraged to exercise our curiosity and creativity during both the research process and whilst making recommendations for a visitor experience based on this research, all the while able to contact Peter with any issues or questions that we had and being made to feel at home amongst the castle staff.

Daily Life This internship was conducted partly remotely and partly on-site at Muncaster - with social distancing measures in place. The majority of the internship involved working from home pursuing various avenues of research, from conducting Teams interviews with academics in various specialisms to perusing the journal of a local history society.

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Typically, Alex and I would have a couple of meetings per week to ensure we had a clear road-map for our research and to delegate tasks, incorporating other members of staff as they started coming off furlough through July. We also had regular catch-ups with Peter Frost-Pennington as the project progressed.

We visited Muncaster twice during the internship, once to make use of the castle's library and documents held on-site, the second time staying for a week to write up our report and plan a visitor experience. During the second visit, we worked in spacious rooms in our own area of the castle, with lunch breaks outside overlooking the mountains on nice days. In the evenings we drove to local villages and beaches such as Ravenglass and Drigg to enjoy the scenery; one memorable day, we visited Wast Water together, taking a short hike before enjoying a meal at a local pub.

We were also encouraged to experience other aspects of life at the castle, seeing displays at the Hawk & Owl centre and going behind the scenes to spend time with volunteers. Getting to experience the local landscape as part of our research was an unexpected bonus: we were encouraged to explore sites of built and natural heritage linked to our project, such as nearby Chapel's Monument built to commemorate the spot where Henry VI is said to have been found on the run from a battle.

Lasting Impressions Peter and Iona put their hearts and souls into their work at the castle, creating a welcoming environment for everyone who visits - being able to experience that has definitely been a highlight of my summer.

Although I am from the local area, I believe this internship has the added benefit of introducing other students to new areas of the UK, encouraging them to consider careers outside cities and to broaden their understanding of the opportunities available in rural areas. For me, taking part in this project as part of a duo was extremely beneficial; working with Alex not only gave me an insight into life as a DPhil student (a path I have been considering) but also provided me with an invaluable opportunity to learn from someone more experienced in producing academic documents, a skill I hope to carry forward to a career in history or heritage.

One of the main things I have gained from this internship is a sense of confidence in my own ability to "do history" beyond my University essays. Being given the trust to complete a project of such significance to the site and to local historians using our own instincts, and

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being able to complete that to a higher standard than I expected of myself, has cemented for me a desire to undertake similar work in future, whether in my own research or in the workplace.

What advice would you give to future interns?

If future interns are new to the area, I would recommend taking a car yourself if at all possible - there is not a great deal of public transport in the area and the nearest shop is 3 miles away. Also, this would enable you to take full advantage of being in such a beautiful part of the country, with England's highest mountain and deepest lake on your doorstep in Wasdale and miles of gorgeous beaches nearby!

On your time off, definitely take advantage of being in the Western Lakes as it has some of the most amazing scenery in England and great opportunities for activities like walking and swimming. Be open to sampling everything the castle has on offer, from birds of prey shows to guided tours, as this will give you a good impression of all the work being done on-site and allow you to immerse yourself in its history. And you should definitely try the chocolate brownie at the castle's Creeping Kate cafe!

Alex Laith Beeton, DPhil History, First Year Postgraduate, A mixture of remote an in-person internship Work Projects Our task was to research the "Luck of Muncaster", an object held at the castle, and write a report including recommendations for commercialising our research. The task was enormously fun and ultimately, we were very satisfied with our final offering. We produced a report of over 100 pages and a separate report with advice for using our research. We contacted and interviewed relevant experts as well as carrying out our own secondary and primary research.

We worked in a team of two and were largely left to our own devices. We communicated most days and agreed clear divisions of labour and coordinated work. Peter, the castle manager, was always helpful and we talked with him via calls or messages regularly

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throughout the project. He was extremely enthusiastic as was the castle curator and other staff and volunteers on site.

The project was a mix of remote and in person (at the castle in Cumbria). I felt towards the end of the project that my colleague and I could have used more specific direction regarding the commercialisation advice, but this was resolved easily in discussion with Peter. We are now hoping to convert some of our report into an academic article and, again, Peter is being very supportive.

Daily Life The internship was a mixture of remote and in person and I was working with one colleague. For remote working I tried to treat it as a 9am-5pm job, though I usually worked more in the evenings out of personal choice than the demands of the project. My colleague and I would communicate most days about the project but before the project began we discussed broad divisions of topics and fell into a pattern of twice weekly audio meetings to discuss the project and our strategy. Thanks to this structure, I would do mini projects with mini reports every few days which we would then discuss. We organised and carried out interviews (where necessary) or email correspondence with relevant experts. I tried to ensure clear break off points from work in my daily routine including exercise and leisure activities.

When at Muncaster, I was housed in the castle's tower and separately at the guest house.

We were given freedom to work our own hours and to use rooms in the castle. This was an excellent working environment. I socialised with my colleague and the castle staff where possible and went on a few excursions to local beauty spots which was a great deal of fun. I was only at the castle for two spells totalling 10 days but, under normal circumstances, I think an on-site project with colleagues would be an excellent working environment.

Lasting Impressions I loved my time working on the internship, both remotely and at Muncaster. Every person involved in was kind, helpful, and enthusiastic about our project and it was really interesting and intellectually stimulating to undertake the internship. The castle itself is stunningly beautiful and for a brief period I was fortunate enough to live and work in some of the nicest settings imaginable.

It is a quiet, peaceful place outside of opening hours and in normal

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circumstances a great location for exploring local lakes and beauty spots. I feel I gained an invaluable experience of a research project within the heritage sector as well as a very enjoyable experience.

Joel Casey, St Anne’s College, DPhil English Literature, DPhil, A mixture of remote and in-person internship Work Projects I was tasked with researching and planning a 'below-stairs' tour of Muncaster Castle. I researched past staff at the Castle, systems and hierarchies of domestic service, and the gender and class politics of domestic life in a stately home. I visited the Castle twice to conduct archival research and to take visitor surveys on its re-opening.

I was also given access to a number of digital resources and previous research. I was able to have meetings with the two curators at the Castle and other tour guides and staff, who all showed me a dizzying array of artefacts and documents which contributed to my research!

They also helped me map out the practicalities of a tour route that avoided the Frost Pennington family's private rooms and could work on a one-way system.

Daily Life Most of my work was remote, with a couple of visits to the Castle. I would begin the day slowly with a coffee by catching up on emails and correspondence relating to the internship.

At the beginning, the key task was to work out what research I could do online and what would not be feasible. I compiled reading lists and contacted archives to see what I could access remotely and drew up a list of priorities for reading and research to carry out.

In the evenings, I spent a lot of time watching films and TV shows or cooking to wind down (but not period dramas set in similar country houses!). When I was at the Castle, I would get up and meet with Peter as he was setting up the Castle for the day. There was not a set routine for the first visit as I was squeezing a lot in, but I spent a lot of time walking around dusty corridors and back rooms of the castle to map out potential routes for the tour, and poring over old wages books and other archival materials relating to domestic staff. I also had a work base in the very beautiful billiards room with wood-panelled walls including a piece of panelling from HMS Temeraire!

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My second visit was more structured, and I spent the days shadowing tour guides and conducting surveys afterwards with visitors. On this visit, I was based and even slept in the 14th century Pele Tower! The sense of being in a Victorian novel that this created was enhanced by my late-night rainy walks through the Castle's grounds. Due to social distancing, I was unable to socialise with the Frost Pennington family, but these walks made up for it!

Lasting Impressions I had a fantastic time doing the internship. I was initially very nervous about the prospect of engaging with visitors and other organisations, and much more confident about the research side of the role. However, the most fulfilling experience was speaking to visitors and getting a sense of what they enjoyed about places like Muncaster Castle. This actually helped solidify my thoughts about working in the heritage and history sector: hearing other people talk about their enthusiasms made me reflect on why I had done the internship and what I enjoyed about this sector, personally and professionally. Despite purportedly being about research, this internship has provided me with practical and commercial skills that are often lacking in PhD study.

I feel more confident in communicating with the public, in analysing the commercial viability of a project, and in dealing with the practical obstacles of a project. This has definitely confirmed to me that I would be happy working in the heritage industry, and has given me time to think about how I could combine this with the interests of my PhD work.

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MUSEUM OF OXFORD AND THE BODLEIAN LIBRARIES Devika, St Antony’s College, First Year Masters, MPhil Modern South Asian Studies, Remote and In-Person Working Work Projects I worked with the Bodleian Library and the Museum of Oxford to explore race and diversity narratives. Of particular interest to the Libraries was to explore how these current and topical issues, including the recent public demonstrations seen in our city, relate to their existing collections, collection development and the interpretation and description of these collections. I explored the collections and resources with a view to curating a case of material for public display in the Weston Library. The output of the internship, as a possible exhibition is still being explored. I was supported by both the Museum and Library staff through training, regular calls, workshops and brain storming sessions.

Daily Life Post introduction to the teams, I was trained in using the Bodleian Archives virtually and then in the libraries by Ms Lucy McCann (Bodleian Archives) who also introduced me to the Anti-Apartheid Archives, which I have primarily worked with. It was in the same week (Week 1) I was also trained by Mr David Juler (Museum of Oxford) on using Omeka/City Stories website. Much of week 1 and week 2 thus was spent researching different ideas and talking to different members of the museum and libraries team to understand their work, to check up and to share ideas. All of it was done virtually due to the pandemic.

Here is where I bring in the wonderful race and diversity workshops I was allowed to be a part of, organised by Dr Mai Musi. These three workshops allowed me to understand ideas around race and diversity from new perspectives as it had people from different projects and backgrounds sharing their thoughts and opinions. Luckily, with the opening of the Bodleian libraries, I also had access to archives, which shaped many of the ideas I have worked with and tried to convey and reflect on below, which I hope will be useful for both the Museum of Oxford and the Bodleian. The third week, therefore, allowed me to access and work with the physical archives, rather than just the virtual ones.

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Lasting Impressions I quite enjoyed working with both the organisations because of the amount of freedom I was allowed and the resources and training I was provided to approach it with. The training bit, personally, as a student I would always ask for more training but what was provided was quite useful and focused. I would have really liked to know more about oral histories, collection of archives and artefacts -as museum acquisition was a popular idea discussed during Dr Musis workshops and a more detailed idea on how to propose exhibitions. As a research student who works with race, diversity, postcolonial politics and museum studies, this internship was extremely useful. It has confirmed my career ambitions for research while changing them in that now I consider museum studies and archival work an important area I would like to work in as well!

What advice would you give to future interns?

I believe it is important to be very proactive in your internship to get the most out of it! Go out of your way to interact and help your colleagues, it will pay off in terms of work experience, learning and relationships.

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ORIEL SQUARE Ben Angell, Lady Margaret Hall, Fourth Year DPhil, DPhil Ancient History, Remote Working Work Projects My daily tasks included editorial work such as proofreading, copyediting and document formatting; marketing tasks including producing and checking copies for the company website and newsletter, analysing survey data and updating the mailing list; and administrative tasks such as writing letters of contract for freelancers and setting up folders for new projects. As well as assisting the team with projects on a day to day basis, I was tasked with using my research skills to produce an assessment of the company’s strengths and weaknesses, identify opportunities in new markets, namely Southeast Asia and the Middle East, and produce a strategic report on how the company should approach these markets.

I was given good opportunities to make important contributions to the company such as redesigning Oriel Squares post-project surveys to gather more useful information and creating new templates for meeting agendas, project tracking documents and post-project review documents. I was also the main individual on an entire piece of work for a client which required finding the best way to convert a major educational publisher’s textbook materials into a storyboard form for inputting into a new online learning platform, then writing up that process as a set of instructions for other suppliers to follow.

Daily Life The internship was remote, each day began with a short meeting of everyone at the company where we described our tasks for the coming day. There were also other regular meetings including a weekly meeting where every ongoing piece of work the company was involved in was discussed. We had weekly Zoom mornings, where everyone would remain on a video call while we went about our work, but the rest of the time I worked independently and used Google chat/email/video call to interact with others when needed.

I also had a weekly check-in with a member of the team to discuss my progress.

I would be given tasks at the start of the day or as they came up, team members were very good about briefing me thoroughly. Working from home was very difficult at times, especially being stuck in a tiny flat where I essentially lived in one room. This made it hard to maintain a distinction between working hours and my free time although I did ensure that I

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went for a walk every day. To relax outside of work I listened to a lot of different music from around the world, did online museum tours and watched footage of nature or other countries, really anything to introduce a bit of variety.

Lasting Impressions The people at Oriel Square were lovely, from the start they were welcoming and keen to ensure that I felt like I was a part of the team. There was a very pleasant working atmosphere in which I always felt motivated to do a good job. I was given a variety of different tasks to do so that I had a good overview of the publishing industry, and although these experiences haven't changed my desire to do editorial work if I manage to get into publishing, I do feel that I benefited from getting experience in so many new areas. It was particularly interesting to see areas where the publishing industry is, in my opinion, bloated or inefficient. I do think that I missed out on a lot due to the internship being remote, such as not being able to be part of office conversations about the industry, asking questions, getting into interesting conversations meant that a lot of the insights one would usually get from being in an office weren't possible. However, the team did their best to try to answer any questions I might have and simulate some social events.

OXBRIDGE FORMULA Ruby Gaffney, St. Anne’s College, Final Year Undergraduate, BA English Language & Literature, Remote Working Work Projects The first half of the internship was based in sales which entailed calling potential clients to book them onto free video consultations about the products. The next half of the internship involved editing videos for the Oxbridge Formula's YouTube and Tiktok channels. I learned a lot doing both of these jobs.

Daily Life Working from home had its ups and downs, on the one hand I didn't have to commute or buy lunch and on one or two days I could even do some of the video editing while sitting in bed, on the other hand, it was quite difficult to share a house with my whole family while both my parents also worked from home, especially during the heatwave in the summer. I

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found that I had to make sure I got out of the house every evening, or I would just spend the entire day in my room looking at a screen.

Lasting Impressions I definitely learned a lot from this experience, phone sales were something I never thought I'd be able to do beforehand but I was surprised by how easily I picked it up. It definitely boosted my confidence and enhanced my communication skills.

First Year Undergraduate, MPhys Physics, Remote Working Work Projects I worked for The Oxbridge Formula as a sales intern and also spent a week working as a tutor for their physics summer course. The first week was primarily a training week and we were taught what tasks we would have to do and how to use the technology. We also did some general sales and closing technique training. My main tasks were calling prospective customers and carrying out video consultations in order to sell the courses. I was required to have excellent knowledge of the products and courses offered by the company and also of the application process for Oxbridge and its challenges. In my week tutoring, I worked with the main tutor to help students prepare for the PAT, ENGAA and NSAA tests.

Daily Life My internship was a remote internship with set hours. At the start and end of each day we would check in and discuss plans and targets for the day and we would review these at the end of the day. In the training week we used Zoom the whole time to be in constant communication and this was also the platform we used for the physics course that I tutored on. We also used slack and WhatsApp to communicate.

Lasting Impressions I really enjoyed the internship and it gave me a lot of new skills. I knew almost nothing about sales coming into this internship, but I quickly learned a lot about different sales techniques and strategies. The internship also gave me an insight into working in a small business as my previous work experiences had all been with larger companies. It also gave me an insight into the education industry which was not something I had experienced before. Through my tutoring role I was able to gain skills in teaching physics and maths to teenagers and how to execute this online.

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Second Year Undergraduate, BA Theology and Religion, Remote Working Work Projects During my internship I focused on both sales calls for the company as well as editing video media. Regarding sales, I spent the first week of the internship in sales training which was very informative. I learnt about the academic products provided by the company that helped students practice for various admissions tests including the STEP and more. We also followed video training by an expert in sales that improved our technique when it came to speaking on calls. I became more confident when discussing the products and how best they could help improve people's approach to taking admissions tests.

Regarding video-editing, I edited interviews conducted with students at Oxford and Cambridge which were informative for prospective students regarding colleges and various courses. These videos were great because they gave insight for future students about life at Oxford and Cambridge as well as on what the courses are like from the perspectives of students. I would edit any mistakes or pauses in the videos, and eventually began to create shorter versions of the videos that would be uploaded to the social media website TikTok. This helped me become more proficient at editing and also was very informative for me learning about different colleges at the two universities.

Daily Life Working from home meant there was no travel time for commuting which was convenient.

Furthermore, my Wi-Fi connection was usually fine so there were no problems regarding virtual meetings. My hours for the internship were originally 10:00-18:00 with an hour lunch break at 13:00. During the last few weeks of the internship they changed to 09:30-17:30.

At first during sales training we were on Zoom for most of the day, listening to advice on sales and learning about the academic products provided by the company. This schedule gradually changed when our tasks shifted to video editing. When this happened virtual meetings with the rest of the team occurred two or three times a day, usually at the beginning and end of the day with potentially a catch-up meeting after lunch. In between these times we worked on editing the media.

Outside of work I spent most of my time reading and walking outside, usually trying to get some fresh air after a day inside. This was really helpful and gave me much more energy throughout the week. Because of the lack of commuting due to the internship being held remotely, it was great to walk around and exercise after work.

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Lasting Impressions I appreciated how informative the internship was regarding academia, teaching me a lot about other courses and their requirements, as well as life at Oxford and Cambridge outside of my personal experience. Watching and editing interviews of other students gave me a great sense of pride at how much I love my university. Moreover, as I grew quicker at editing the videos, I now believe I have gained a new skill for video editing which I believe will be useful regarding future career aspirations. I also appreciated the sales training I was given, which really taught me how to seem confident and knowledgeable when speaking to potential clients about the company's products.

I think the experience was very informative in that it gave detailed insights on how to sell a product and be both direct and informative when asked questions. It also importantly taught the team about what to avoid when approaching sales calls. Finally, the fact that the internship was held remotely will always have a lasting impression on me. This completely unprecedented time meant that all communication and team meetings were virtual or on the phone. This definitely helped me feel more confident when speaking on Zoom, and I believe I will now be more comfortable when attending future virtual meetings both for lectures and other events.

PAMELA STEELE ASSOCIATES Sophia Iosue, St Cross College, First Year Masters, MSc Migration Studies, Remote Working Work Projects I interned with the Research Team at PSA and I also did some work with Communications and supported the Technical Advisory team as needed in my capacity as a researcher. My main task involved producing a report on pharmaceutical disposal, which is one of the topics that had been previously started by the Research team. I was encouraged to do primary data collection in addition to a literature review for the report, so I had the opportunity to create a survey and conduct key informant interviews with professionals in the health supply chain. I converted this report into a PowerPoint and presenting it to the Supply Chain Think Tank that PSA initiated.

In addition to this ongoing task, I assisted with multiple Research team tasks throughout the weeks, including: a report on Covid-19s impact on the private sector; proofreading tasks on

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funding proposals and other research reports; preparing PowerPoints for the Director; updating Mendeley, a research team platform; and representing the research team in certain meetings.

I am very pleased with the support I received from PSA. The Research team has proven to be a valuable network of academics and professionals to learn from and discuss career opportunities with, especially considering many research team members also started out at PSA as interns. Although we were working remotely, my Manager was always available to chat or catch up over video call, and we usually checked-in multiple times per day. Finally, it was meaningful that the Director also made herself available for my questions and included me in tasks as needed.

Daily Life My internship with PSA was remote. I had developed a routine for remote working while I was finishing my Masters so it was quite easy to transition into the remote internship with PSA. I have a specific workspace, which helped me get into a working mentality, and I maintained a routine in terms of when I ate meals and took breaks. After work, I would exercise and go for a walk in the evenings. Although at first it was challenging to get to know the team through remote working, I also feel that we still managed to get to know each other despite never actually meeting.

It was occasionally challenging to unplug from work entirely, especially when I had a big deadline coming up or project to work on. In these cases, it was tempting to continue working outside of work hours to make sure I did a good job with the work and because all of my materials were at home with me. However, PSA did a good job of offering TOIL when I did work after hours and encouraging all team members to take breaks as necessary.

Another aspect that helped me maintain my schedule was that I was living with my partner, who also works remotely. I think the experience would have been much more challenging if I were completely alone, especially because many students had already left Oxford.

However, my partners routine helped me maintain my own.

Lasting Impressions I enjoyed my experience with PSA for many reasons. First, I received solid training in the health supply chain area which was important because I had an internship in the past which was focused on pharmaceutical donations, and working with PSA helped me understand how organisations like PSA can work with in-country health supply chain organisations to develop long-term solutions, such as capacity building. Second, it was valuable to work in an office setting, albeit remotely, directly out of my Masters. This helped me acclimate to

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working life again and has given me a jumping off point for my career following my Masters and my internship. Finally, I have received an offer from PSA and this will certainly make a lasting impact on me as it has provided me with the opportunity to continue working in this sector for the next few years. I am looking forward to working across teams and contributing to PSA's overall mission.

What advice would you give to future interns?

I learned a lot by taking every chance to contribute to projects the team was working on, even if the project did not relate to my specific tasks as an intern. Offering to help when it was needed helped me understand the work that different teams do, gave me a better sense of PSA's various projects, and it helped me develop various skills that have made me more employable and a better all-around employee.

Bhanu Prasad Mellachervu Naga, Green Templeton College, First Year Masters, MSc Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation, Remote Working Work Projects At PSA I created a Strategy Roadmap for the Organization and also helped set up the Organization Structure that will drive them towards realizing their full potential as they embark on very significant developmental work in the field of Public Health Supply Chains. This involved working with each of their departments which have now been converted into Business Units (Technical Advisory, Program Management Office, PSA Research, Business Development and PSA Academy). Each organization has now initiated their strategic plan and how they will interface with other units within PSA to achieve their objectives.

Daily Life My remote internship due to Covid meant I engaged with PSA over Teams and participated in all their discussions online. For a certain time, I was also working on my Thesis and I had enough time (as the internship office and PSA worked together to approve me working only part-time during my internship) to carry out all tasks I needed. This was a huge support for me to gain this excellent experience even during the Covid pandemic. Big Thanks to the Oxford Internship Office!

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Lasting Impressions I enjoyed the experience. The founder, Pam Steele, is passionate about the humanitarian outcomes of her consultancy efforts and deeply connects with challenges in the African continent. Her personal story, determination and vision for Africa is inspiring. I have formed very good connections during this time, and I can say that I have friends in PSA and several cities in Africa that I have got invitations to visit.

What advice would you give to future interns?

I strongly encourage all future interns to consider speaking to the founders and their personal stories of determination and change that helped launch transformative initiatives, be it their firm or an initiative within the firm. Also, spend time in understanding the cultural diversity in the teams and the countries they come from as it is always fascinating.

PINEWOOD GROUP Second Year Undergraduate, BA Classics and English, In-person Working Work Projects I organised, classified and catalogued the extensive artistic reference material that forms the Pinewood Research Library. At the end of my four weeks, we had shelved and catalogued almost all of the bound books and the box-files in the library (in 16 shelving-units) ordered according to the subject. We had the guidance of a member of the British Film Designers Guild as well as the Brand and Marketing Manager and continual support from the other members of staff in the Studios.

Daily Life We worked in a large room at Shepperton Studios in which our first task was to open and empty all the boxes of books and files that covered its floor! That's always the hardest task, knowing where to start, especially in a project of this size, but once you do it's nowhere near as daunting. Every day was different since we liked to vary our tasks, and indeed our breaks as well. There is quite a bit to see in the site itself, but we also enjoyed walking along the River Ash nearby, eating our lunch by a brook and exploring the village. What made the work itself so interesting was the sheer variety of material in the collection, some of which

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dated back to the 18th Century. We could be viewing vintage architectural drawings one day, and modern topographical photography in another.

Lasting Impressions I had an extremely enjoyable few weeks with Pinewood and learned a lot about what it takes to be a librarian and archivist: there is not one system that fits all, you have to use your own judgement and initiative, thinking about how a visitor would want to use the material you are preparing. The job has confirmed my interests in librarianship, archiving and curation, but also suggested to me the possibility of working as a researcher within the entertainment industry, for productions or perhaps for Pinewood itself.

PITT RIVERS MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD First Year Masters, MPhil Visual, Material and Museum Anthropology, Remote Working Work Projects As a photograph collections intern at the Pitt Rivers Museum I was asked to research unique items within the Pitt Rivers online archive and produce blog posts. To begin this research, I examined what was in the PRM collections before producing three outlines to be approved by my supervisors. Once my outlines were approved, I completed three blog posts over 5 weeks, maintaining contact with my supervisors throughout the internship.

Daily Life As this was a remote internship due to the coronavirus, my research for the Pitt Rivers Museum was completed at home. Working from home is a challenge, with many interruptions, loud neighbours and housemates, and spotty WIFI. What worked for me was maintaining strict working hours (9-5) which allowed me to have a more defined schedule in an attempt to separate (as much as possible) work life from home life.

Lasting Impressions This internship was a very enjoyable experience and cemented my passion for photographic research. The Pitt Rivers Museum is an incredible and unique institution with gifted

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researchers at the forefront of their fields, and it was an honour to have worked with them for this internship.

PRAGMATIX ADVISORY First Year Undergraduate, BA History, Remote Working Work Projects Pragmatix was working on three different projects during my internship and as a first-year intern, I was expected to help out on many of the different tasks.

However, I was assigned a primary project to focus on. My main tasks were collecting the data required for a report, such as employment statistics related to a particular industry and then producing graphs, which tracked those statistics in relation to the questions we were answering in the report. There were a few days of my internship when a report deadline was approaching, and it was those days when I felt I contributed the most because everyone in the team would chip in towards producing a final report.

There was a lot of support from Mark, the C.E.O of Pragmatix, and the other interns, who had been at Pragmatix for longer than I had. This meant that I never felt like I didn't know what I was doing, and I always knew how my work was contributing to the team effort.

Daily Life Every day of my remote internship started with a Teams meeting where everyone would give an update report on the different projects, the list of tasks to be completed was updated and everyone was assigned their tasks for the day. Often, this call would be kept on all day, so that, in a simulation of a real-life office, we could ask questions or work together on certain sections if necessary. We then worked on shared documents, so that we could see the work everyone was doing in real time.

If I had advice for another intern working remotely in this way, I would tell them not to be intimidated by the online call. It's ok to get up to make a cup of tea and to log off when the workday ends, even if others aren't, as long as you know that you're working hard and you're completing all the work assigned to you.

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Lasting Impressions I think this was an incredibly valuable experience since, in many ways, COVID has felt like a full stop in my development. This internship was challenging, but that just meant that I learnt something new every day and it served as a perfect opportunity for personal development. I've learnt a lot about the ways in which I prefer to work; working in a team to produce a final report was a great motivation for me. Unfortunately, this has thrown a spanner in the works when it comes to my career plans, as before I hadn't seriously considered Consultancy, but now I think it is a type of work that could really suit me.

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PRINT EXPRESS Matthew Widojo, Wadham College, Second Year Undergraduate, MEng Engineering, Remote Working Work Projects My Software Engineering internship with Print Express consisted of me working on one of their start-ups with other interns. The particular programme I worked on allows users to create their own web applications with minimal software engineering training. At first, we were taught skills through online courses and in-person mentoring by experienced software programmers on Javascript and other languages/packages so that we can assist the team with their work. We were given work alongside the learning and after some time we decreased the amount of learning so that we could get more work done.

With regards to the work itself, the interns were treated like regular software engineers. We were assigned subsections to do and we kept in constant contact with supervisors and the others in order to report on progress. Sometimes tasks would overlap and we would work with other developers and interns and I gained loads of experience from that. Personally, my tasks focused on the user interface. I made things intuitive for the user by allowing them to resize and select and drag components on the screen. I also worked with other segments of the design such as enabling user designs to respond to a variety of devices. The changes I made actually contributed to the final product and it is great to know that something you have done contributed to creating a massive project.

Daily Life As an international student I don’t have a permanent place of residence in the UK outside of college, and as such, I spent most of the summer at a friend’s place in the UK to avoid the hassle of having to quarantine twice by travelling back to my country of origin.

Outside of the fact that I was working from home, the job really seemed like a full workday.

We started each day with a video call and I generally kept in touch with my supervisors and other interns through Microsoft Teams. There are some benefits to working at home such as

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getting to wake up right before the job starts and right after the job ends being immediately free to do whatever I wanted to without worrying about transport. We also got to choose when to have our lunch break, I tended to have mine after a midday meeting.

There were also intern socials arranged at the end of Fridays and sometimes I would socialize with the other interns outside of work hours. We would talk and play games such as hangman and some other online flash games during these socials. Outside of work I tried to get out of the house often. Due to COVID, there really wasn’t much to do, so I tended to go on walks often and occasionally go to the local cafe. I have also tried to keep in touch with my college friends, either through video calls or online video games like the Wadham Minecraft server.

Lasting Impressions I think that one of the biggest things the internship has done for me is to provide exposure to software engineering. I applied to this internship out of curiosity on what a career in software engineering would look like and really, I had no idea what it entailed. The internship has answered a lot of my questions about the field, and as a result of it, I have figured out that I really enjoy software engineering. I decided to apply to Oxford for a conventional engineering degree because I love solving problems and constructing things and I have learnt that Software Engineering utilizes a lot of problem-solving as well. Now I am definitely considering software engineering as one of the major options for my career in the future.

The internship has also given me many skills relevant to software engineering that I feel are applicable with other programming jobs or in other fields and I have definitely gained a lot by having an additional programming language with experience to add to my CV. Outside of that, I have also enjoyed working with the other developers during my internship. My supervisor was very friendly and would often provide me with help and there were other interns in the same boat as me, so I was able to have plenty of discussions with them. There were also many after-work socials planned in so it wasn’t always just work in the company.

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SAFETY OFFICE, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Clare Ballantyne, M Earth Sciences, Second Year Undergraduate, Remote Working Work Projects At the start of July, I excitedly accepted the offer of a summer internship with the Oxford University Safety Office, under the supervision of the University Fire Officer, Steve Emery. The internship took place over a fortnight, during which I investigated the types of limestone used in English cathedrals and how they could be furnace and compression tested to inform fire-fighting and post-fire restoration techniques.

My supervisor was really encouraging and helpful, providing articles and links to resources which provided a starting point for my research. During the first few days, I looked into methods for determining the compressive strength of rock samples, including saturated and heat-exposed samples and the procedures for achieving these rock conditions. I then compiled data from the British Geological Society and Historic Englands Strategic Stone Study about the specific types of building stone used in English cathedrals. I found that twenty cathedrals were predominantly constructed of limestone. However, the data I had collated did not consistently provide context about where in the cathedral each type of stone was used.

Knowing whether a specific limestone had been used for ornamentation, flooring, walls, or all three, would be vital for effectively applying the test results to inform fire safety plans in cathedrals. Therefore using creative internet searches, online Bodleian library resources, Google Scholar, the Stone in Archaeology database, and extensive use of Chromes find function, I conducted further research with a particular focus on identifying the building stones used in vaulted ceilings, as these separate the high fire loads of the roof from the bodies of the cathedral. This culminated with my proposal, along with justification and explanation, for which stones it would be most appropriate to test using the scoping exercise I had outlined.

Daily Life It was not difficult to be motivated about this internship given my fascination with the way geological and human history coincide in cathedrals, and the knowledge that my research

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could help to save important heritage buildings and human lives from fire. I appreciated my supervisor always being up for discussing the project over email and video calls, but I was also grateful for the flexibility of working hours while working remotely.

It was great to wake up knowing I had a set number of hours I needed to spend working that day, but that I had the freedom to distribute those hours in the way which suited me best.

When the weather was nice or I had completed a large chunk of work in the morning, I was able to go for a run, dog walk or bike ride before returning to work later on, feeling refreshed.

Alternatively, I could plan my breaks to coincide with those of my family members who were also working remotely from home, particularly if I discovered something fascinating or wanted to talk through some ideas.

This was a great opportunity to focus on sleuthing through intriguing subject matter and apply my knowledge, energy, and enthusiasm to a meaningful project. It was a welcome change from the monotony of lockdown life!

Lasting Impressions I really enjoyed this internship, despite the unprecedented pandemic situation in which it took place. Although it was a challenge at times to find the desired information, the project was always interesting and thought-provoking, and the experience I have gained of online research and report-writing will prove beneficial during the next year of my degree.

This internship has opened my eyes to career opportunities I hadn't previously considered, having disproved my theory that I would hate to work behind a computer all day: it turns out I can actually enjoy it if concentrating on fascinating topics! I appreciated being given the freedom and time to learn about so many amazing places and look forward to visiting the cathedrals in the future to see the structures and building stones in person.

I also enjoyed the way discussions with my supervisor prompted the internship to evolve as we considered how the testing could prove most useful. This adaptability enabled me to branch out beyond the original brief and expand my research to touch upon iconic Oxford buildings that I am familiar with from my studies, cathedrals constructed predominantly of sandstone, and the structural engineering aspects of the investigating fire risk to cathedrals.

This internship has fuelled my interest in pursuing a career in the heritage sector, having discovered it can provide unique and rewarding opportunities to harness my love of geology and historic environments in order to help protect people and place.

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STORYMIX Ayesha Serena Purcell, Balliol College, Second Year MPhil, MPhil Classical Archaeology, Remote Working Work Projects I worked for Storymix, an inclusive children’s fiction studio founded by Jasmine Richards, and my internship involved working directly with Jasmine to research and create outlines for a new fiction project.

I spent my first week doing background research for the project which involved market research of other media in the same frame, synthesising academic research and finding ways to present the research for a non-specialist audience. In the second week I focused on producing a detailed outline for one of the projects that specified every stage of plot and character development.

The internship began with a conference call to discuss the aims for the internship, projects to complete, and first steps. This was excellent as it gave me a really clear idea of what my main goals were and how this fit into the broader organisation of the company. Halfway through the internship Jasmine and I met for a socially distanced brainstorming session which was invaluable in terms of talking through ideas and bouncing concepts off eachother. In addition, during this meeting we were able to discuss my aspirations and career goals beyond the internship and how Jasmine might be able to support and advise me on those.

Daily Life Throughout the internship my supervisor and I spoke every morning at about 10am to establish where I was up to, how work was progressing and when I expected to finish. This helped to provide structure and support even though the internship was remote and there were reduced opportunities for meeting in person. Working remotely, I was able to organise my day around my own routines which meant I was able to fit my work into my own schedule, working 8am-4pm most days and occasionally doing longer hours on days when I felt in the flow and wanted to capitalise on that. During the abnormal times of COVID-19 it was really lovely to have the regularity of a routine with clear set goals to achieve every day.

Jasmine was also very understanding about times and days when I had to change plans or routines due to external COVID-19 factors such as needing to help family members.

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Lasting Impressions This internship was a fantastic opportunity and has given me insight into an industry that, in many ways, I previously thought was inaccessible to someone like myself without the resources to do unpaid internships or take time off work to write and create. Jasmine not only provided information about how she got into the industry but also the way the industry works and the best way in which to pitch projects and concepts. This information will be invaluable moving forward and will make a real difference to the way in which I approach my future career. Jasmine was supportive, professional, and encouraging and I finished the internship feeling as though I had gained an incredibly valuable contact within the industry who was interested in supporting my own goals and aims. Overall, it felt as though the internship was an incredibly rewarding experience in which I made a genuine contribution towards the progress of the company’s projects as well as receiving invaluable feedback and support.

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THEHILL Second Year MPhil, MPhil Medical Anthropology, Remote Working Work Projects TheHill is Oxfordshire’s health and care digital transformation catalyst. They work in Oxfordshire and across the Thames Valley with NHS Trusts, universities, digital developers, innovators and investors to promote and encourage commercial and impactful technological solutions to problems in healthcare.

During the COVID-19 pandemic TheHill was commissioned by Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Foundation Trust to analyse their changing use of digital technologies and innovation. The first phase of this project, marked by the production of a report for the OUH Trust, was just coming to completion as I joined TheHill for a two-month internship. This report informed the next phase of the project that I and another intern would be taking forward. One of the next steps involved showcasing any best practice of technologies and innovations that had been identified during phase one. For example, this may include how teams used digital platforms to achieve tasks remotely during COVID-19, or how clinical appointments were triaged as either appropriate for telemedicine or requiring face-to-face consultations.

In order to share this best practice, we organised and ran TheHill Learning Sets for OUH employees. Learning Sets act to bring people together to share experiences and learn from one another. As interns, we prepared all aspects of this remote learning set including inviting OUH employees, setting up the meeting, creating a presentation and prompts for topics of conversation, and having continued conversations with those that attended.

Another follow-on project was the collation of all innovations gathered from conversations with OUH employees. As part of this, an email address was set up by OUH for any employee to submit a digital innovation idea for the Trust. TheHill received these submissions and we categorised all ideas. We arranged and carried out follow-up conversations with all of these submissions, the majority of which were led by us as interns. These conversations were pivotal for us to suggest new pathways for innovation for the Trust and initiate the codesign process.

While many of these projects were collaborative efforts between me and the other intern, we both had independent roles within them and side-projects that we were working on. For

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example, I analysed phase one information to discern contacts to gather patient feedback regarding telemedicine.

These provided me with patient viewpoints that TheHill hopes to showcase in the next output of the report. I received a good amount of support from TheHill however it felt less like support and more like a working relationship which was what I really enjoyed about this internship. I was given a lot of responsibility and could receive support from other employees whenever I needed but was given the freedom to take initiative myself and suggest how the project would develop.

Daily Life This was a remote internship and the hours could be flexible dependent on when you preferred to work. In order to maximise my experience with TheHill, I made sure to work 9-5 on all days so that I could participate in all team meetings and have an experience as close as possible to a usual employee. Every day started at 9am with a daily stand up, this was a 15 minute meeting where everyone shared their plans and actions for the day and could ask the whole team any questions. This was a really great way to start the day and to gain knowledge of all projects going on within TheHill.

Most days I would have 2 or 3 other virtual meetings. Those specific to our project were held every other day and very much led by us as interns in order to ask questions and gain feedback on any work we had initiated or completed. Every week we had a team learning session where different aspects of TheHills work was discussed. For example, one week the Market Accelerator programme was discussed, in another the marketing team presented their KPIs and we even ran one session ourselves to showcase all the work we had done over the course of our internship. Other meetings were arranged ourselves as interns, often involving interviews with OUH employees, attending webinars and discussing possible development of our project with other team members within TheHill.

I really enjoyed working remotely as it allowed to me to work efficiently and have time for other commitments in the evening. It was also very useful as the very nature of our work involved us analysing remote working and consultations practices, and meant we were often facing similar issues. Therefore, working remotely gave us a commonality with all those OUH employees that we spoke to. Working remotely was made more effective by having another intern who I worked collaboratively with most days. This meant that the work felt more team led rather than a solo at-home project.

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Lasting Impressions This was definitely one of the most enjoyable internship experiences I have had. TheHill has a wonderful culture and environment, everyone was extremely friendly and supportive and I really appreciated the amount of freedom and responsibility that I was given throughout the internship.

I very much felt in charge of the project and that I was having an influential impact on the outputs. I have developed a range of skills including improving my verbal communication skills as the internship was remote and involved me carrying out interviews with OUH employees. Through the weekly team meetings, I learnt more about industry sectors, such as med-tech start-ups, marketing and the current changing role of grants in a Brexit era.

The experience has definitely confirmed my career ambitions to work in the healthcare sector and has enabled me to understand specifically what areas I might be more interested in. For example, I became more interested in the health communication and design side of the project during my internship.

VESPULA LTD Putuchon Vongvorakul, Trinity College, First Year Undergraduate, MEng Engineering Science, Remote Working Work Projects My internship project was about website development. The organisation gave me a task to write code that can analyse given information about circuit boards and then display it effectively. The parts I completed were integrated into the main website to show the user information about the circuits they are dealing with. The host gave me full support for any questions I had regarding the project, so it was a good internship.

Daily Life I did a remote internship. There is 6 hours difference between Thailand and the UK, so working from home turned into just doing it whenever I can. This was very good because I could do the work whenever I felt like as long as I had done the job in due time. There were

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some hard times where I could not find a solution, but stopping it, going outside, meeting and talking to co-workers did help me. Hence, when I came back, I could start working again smoothly.

ZENOBE ENERGY Edmund Richards, St Edmund Hall, Final Year Undergraduate, MEng Engineering Science, Remote Working Work Projects I successfully completed two projects during my 8-week internship. The first was to aid the Operations team at Zenobe in managing their assets (battery sites). After a meeting with this department it was established that providing alerts when a battery had an issue and could not offer its full capacity would be hugely beneficial. This alert was to be provided by WhatsApp to ensure it would always reach the Operations team even when they were on a site.

Further complexity was added as team members wanted to be able to request specific historical information about a battery triggered by a WhatsApp message. This again aimed to improve the process of accessing key data quickly, allowing them to make better decisions about battery management. With the brief established, it was then task of implementing it in Python. It involved integrating 3rd party apps that allowed a WhatsApp "chat bot" form of communication, as well as decisions on how to filter the raw data in the database and how to best communicate it to the Operations team in a message. These latter points I feel were crucial in my development as an effective data analyst for the company, communicating the key headlines in the data to a team in a way they could understand and act on them quickly.

The support I received from the Operations and Data Analyst members of the company was brilliant. I was given the responsibility to make decisions on the additional software I needed as well as a significant amount of their time to discuss issues. One example was the problem of filtering of noise from the data before sending alerts, so as not to report false periods of a battery having an issue. Despite the workload a colleague had, he was as committed to the project as I was and provided useful feedback to my coded solutions and we approached the challenge from a range of directions before finding a method that

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worked. After some additional tuning of the code, the WhatsApp bot went into production and is now used by the Operations team as a useful tool in their continuous management of the battery assets.

The second project I undertook was again for asset management, this time providing a tool to use for diagnosing why a battery was not fully operational. The aim was to be able to run this over historical data to group and categorise reasons for battery unavailability and to provide useful metrics for measuring battery performance. In this task I was able to develop my coding skills further, by developing a neat and flexible code structure that could be used as a framework for future projects. I also explored the functionality of Python software that is used for testing to ensure each new section of code that was added was robust and worked in isolation before adding it to the flowchart of diagnosis decisions. Here presentation of results was in the form of plots rather than messages allowing me to develop another area of data analysis skills in a professional environment.

Daily Life The internship with Zenobe was conducted remotely. Over the course of the internship I was both in my student house in Oxford and at my family home. My student home was more compact, meaning working and eating was very easy to combine into a routine. The house was quiet, and I was not disturbed which helped productivity. However, this was a negative outside of work as there was no private space to walk around in or take a break in and living on my own for weeks at a time lead to periods of loneliness. I made the effort to meet up with friends who were still in Oxford in the evenings, but due to the restrictions and it being the Long Vacation, these opportunities were limited.

At my family home, the opposite of the above was true. It was harder to find somewhere quiet to work and not be disturbed, but I grew used to this atmosphere quickly and it was not a problem apart from the occasional disruption during a virtual meeting. It was nice to have a garden to get some fresh air, and to have constant company if I wanted it during the evenings to help me switch off from work.

The data analysis team at Zenobe had an excellent system set up for remote working. We would have a daily meeting every evening to summarise our day's work and importantly our plan for the next day. This allowed everyone to stay aware of each other's workload and to establish times to organise meetings to discuss specific issues. It also kept my focus and

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gave each day a structure which I feel was very important when working on large projects independently. Most days I would also check in with a colleague who was supervising my project to discuss any ideas or problems we had and to update the direction of the project if necessary.

My mentor was also helpful in organising some networking meetings with other colleagues in the company, to explain their roles and that aspect of the business. There was on average one of these a week, so by the end of the internship I had a thorough and wider understanding of the industry than I could have hoped for when joining under remote working circumstances. These provided an interesting interlude to project work and allowed me to establish some useful contacts for the future. Finally, the data analysis team did manage to meet up in personal after work twice during the internship. It was great to socialise properly and pleasant to have a more relaxed and natural conversation with the team rather than the focused and intense nature of a virtual meeting.

Lasting Impressions My lasting impressions from my time at Zenobe are very good. I could not have asked for an internship more tailored to my aims when I was searching for work over the summer. Sustainable energy was the industry I wanted to work in, as it linked with my 4th year modules at Oxford as well as my research project. But the internship went further by expanding my knowledge of energy storage, a developing sector crucial to the industry, and inspired me to want to return to the sector in the future.

I hope the experience I have gained will aid me in applying to roles in this area later in my career. The work was challenging and fulfilling, which is exactly what I want from any future job. Challenging as I was out of my comfort zone for periods of the projects, allowing me to learn a huge amount. Fulfilling because I could see the need for the work that I was doing within the company. The fact that the company's business aligns with facilitating and driving the transition to a carbon-neutral society was also important to me and inspired me to put in the extra effort. I went into the internship expecting to learn about energy storage and develop my Python skills, and was happy to achieve both of those goals. However, I had not considered that I would also get to experience the culture of a start-up company, which was very different to larger organisations I had had placements with in the past.

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I think the strongest impression that was left with me was that I really enjoyed the start-up culture. The responsibility I was immediately given was empowering as I felt I could take ownership of my project, and the fact that the company is not weighed down with complicated internal administration meant I could get my code into production and see its effect on the business very quickly. The exposure to the whole business and the ability to have an impact on the company's future in such a short space of time, has seriously impressed me and will be something I consider when applying for work in the future.

Despite only meeting a couple of members of the team face to face, I could join them on weekly company-wide virtual calls which I look back on warmly. Everyone gave the impression of being dedicated to growing the company and the battery sector but could step back and have a good time whilst doing it too.

What advice would you give to future interns?

If there are areas or members of the business you would like to speak to just ask your mentor if they can set you up a meeting. Working remotely did not stop the ability to meet the whole company if you want to. Setting up a regular catch up session with your team or supervisor was very useful in structuring my daily work and project. Zenobe already had an excellent plan for this but if there is not one in place when you start, I would really recommend trying to keep in regular contact with your team.

Cormac Sarch Thomas, Wadham College, Final Year Undergraduate, MEng Engineering Science, Remote Working Work Projects For my internship at Zenobe I was working in the Data Science Team, which consisted of 5 people (including me and another intern). I worked on two main projects during my time at Zenobe. The first of these was developing a python model of a battery providing frequency response services to the national grid. This model took a week or two to complete. With the completed model I explored how to optimise the operation of the batteries while providing frequency response services. This involved forming a cost function and performing sensitivity analyses over different values for the operating parameters of interest. The final optimal scenario was able to increase income significantly.

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My second project saw me design an automated email reporting system. This was also in Python. The project required designing functions to find revenues, cycling and energy costs for assets performing frequency response services. This involved a wide variety of different data sources and some basic html coding for formatting the emails. Throughout the internship I was supported by the rest of the team; we had a half an hour call every day together and my colleagues made it easy for me to contact them with questions if I ever needed help. I always had something to work on, which was great.

Daily Life My internship at Zenobe was completed remotely. While it was a shame to never go into the office, this did get rid of the daily commute. Zenobe had a laptop sent to me for my time at the company and I completed my work on this. For most of the internship I worked at my desk from home in London, but remote working allowed me to spend some time with family outside of London during the 8 weeks. A typical day consisted of working on my projects and catching up with my colleagues if I had completed a piece of work or needed some help.

Every day at 17:30 my team would have a half an hour call to go over what we had done during the day, and our plans for the next day. These daily calls were particularly useful as I got a good sense of what everyone else in my team was working on and they were a good time to raise questions and they ensured I always had something to work on. On Friday afternoons the whole company would join a Teams call and catch up. Sometimes this would involve a quiz or a guest speaker, and other times everyone would chat about what they were working on.

Lasting Impressions My internship at Zenobe was a very valuable experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it. While it was a shame not to experience daily office life at Zenobe and get to know colleagues outside of my team a bit better, I actually found that working remotely allowed me to adapt to my work more easily. Over the 8 weeks I developed my Python and Excel skills, and I learned a lot from my colleagues in my team. I was also able to gain a significant insight into both Zenobe and the clean energy sector in general. This was aided by regular sessions with members of the company both inside and outside of the data science team. These sessions ranged from covering accounts to regulation & policy and I found them very valuable. The experience has confirmed my desire to work in renewable/clean energy.

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USA UNIVERSITY IMPACT Joel Fraser, Oriel College, Third Year Undergraduate, BA English and French, Remote Working Work Projects University Impact is an impact investment fund dedicated to tackling the most serious social, economic and environmental problems by impactful investment in social enterprises and NGOs. They seek to increase awareness of impact investing as an area of finance for students in the hope that they will be more equipped to enter the industry after their studies which is why they work with students, having identified a lack of opportunities and expertise for careerstarters.

The internship lasted four weeks, with a different group project to complete each week. The first week was a research project, followed by three memos on real-life investment opportunities. These differed regarding the type of investment that was on the table: the first was a grant, the second an investment in debt, the third in equity. Alongside these projects, there was extensive group training on areas important to impact investing, such as accounting, measuring social impact, evaluating management, clarity of expression for business writing, etc. There was also a guest speaker each day, ranging from NGO or startup founders and investment bankers to politicians and even an NBA player!

The first week's work was a research project tailored to a social/economic/environmental issue that we felt particularly passionate about. I had specified an interest in dealing with systemic poverty. As such, I was put on a team researching the informal economy in India, and the responses required in light of the pandemic in order to prevent large numbers of workers suffering as a result of the hit to the economy. The second week involved producing an investment memo evaluating the risks and opportunities of giving a grant to a company producing cheap ventilators to address shortages during the COVID pandemic. We also had to make a recommendation on the investment opportunity based on our research.

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Daily Life Daily life included logging into a Zoom call at around 10-11 each morning, sometimes having completed some further research on the project or training sessions beforehand, and having a catch up with my team. I was working with the South Africa and Oxford cohort which included three students from Oxford and four from Cape Town as well as two team leaders from University Impact.

We would often discuss how we had felt about the previous day, share findings from any research we had conducted and talk about how to progress with the weekly project. I would then usually work for about an hour on the weekly project. Normally this was done alone but with a Zoom call running in the background to check in with other team members if anyone had found something important.

Then we would have lunch and work afterwards until 2 or 3pm, at which point we would have a larger call with the US cohort. This would normally involve a training session and a guest speaker with time to reflect on what we had heard in smaller groups. The day would normally end around 6pm. Depending on the state of the project I sometimes did some more work in the evening, but I was often quite tired of looking at my computer screen by then!

Lasting Impressions I absolutely loved the internship. I was genuinely expecting very little of a remote opportunity like this, but it was managed so well. The way that time could be split between smaller and larger groups, as well as some time listening to guest speakers and training sessions, made the day varied enough to avoid it feeling monotonous. Also, the different level of input required from, say, a discussion where active participation is encouraged, to a guest presentation where you are mainly listening, meant that you didn't always need to have your video switched on, which helped with 'Zoom fatigue'.

I gained a lot from the training; I study English and French and so practically all of the content was new to me. I similarly learnt a lot from the process of putting together an investment memo and the clarity of thought and expression that is required to make it readable for busy people who want to make quick and efficient decisions. The experience confirmed that I would like to work in some kind of area involved in tackling injustices like poverty and inequality. It made me believe I could do this even though I haven't really studied the area before.

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Peter Wallich, St Hilda’s College, Second Year Undergraduate, BA Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Remote Working Work Projects Technically, the internship itself (which would have been held in-person in Provo, Utah) was cancelled, but what replaced it was a full-time experience that involved real work, unlike some online internships. The Summer Boot Camp included extensive training (2-3 hours per day over 4 weeks), calls with entrepreneurs, group investment memo research, and some excellent daily guest speakers (including a US Congressman and a Y Combinator backed entrepreneur)! It was really a great experience.

The work itself was interesting and challenging. Our main task was to write investment memos in groups. These memos would follow a standardised format and analyse the potential for high financial and social returns on investment, University Impact’s two main criteria as well as issues such as how an investment should be structured to best suit the interests of both our and the recipients organisations.

The investments we were looking at were very interesting and included a low-cost medical equipment provider targeting Latin America and a farm equipment leasing platform in a sub-Saharan African country. We would then present our findings to a larger group and vote on whether to continue the due diligence process, which would ultimately culminate in a review at an Investment Committee meeting for the most promising opportunities. (After the internship, we were invited to watch an Investment Committee meeting unfold, which I really enjoyed.)

Only a very small proportion of deals will actually be invested in, but I felt I was having an impact by playing a small part in a process that allows socially impactful organisations around the world to access the funding they often desperately need. We were given real autonomy and responsibility. Whole-cohort training was provided on impact and financial analysis, writing skills, the memo structure, company management evaluation, and more, and ranged from very good to excellent. Aside from this, we had plenty of time in smaller groups to ask questions and discuss ideas and were sometimes in smaller subgroups when writing the memos. This meant that, despite being entirely remote, I felt I made new friends across three continents.

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Daily Life I was lucky to be in a stable home with a healthy family and plenty of space, but I also think that the structure of the boot camp helped make it easier to work at home. Perhaps because of the shorter-than-usual duration (4 weeks) the work was intense in a good way and the programme was highly structured and synchronous. The majority of the time was spent on calls, but these were usually interesting and high-energy, so I very rarely felt Zoom fatigue.

The boot camp was excellently structured. I didn’t have to stay up late to work in Utah time because University Impact has Associates in Cape Town too. What this meant was that we had different groups within the whole cohort and would operate on different schedules to accommodate time differences. Most participants were recruited from Brigham Young University (Utah), the University of Pennsylvania, Oxford, and the University of Cape Town (UCT). Our Oxford-UCT group started at 10am or 11am UK time with group time and investment research.

The US participants then started early in their morning and joined our group in our afternoon for training and the guest speaker. After that, the US groups would have their group and research time in their afternoon. We did some presentations across multiple groups and they arranged some inter-group discussions and networking sessions, as well as taking on board our (daily!) feedback as we went through.

We were officially done by 6pm on each day, although occasionally we chose to start earlier or work later. There was a lot to do in a short space of time, which was overwhelming for some people, but I really enjoyed the intensity of the boot camp, it was a bit like a more structured Oxford term, only half as long, faster-paced still, and with different deliverables.

In hindsight, I would have reduced my schedule before and after each day. As it was, I had a lot of video calls with friends, dozens of 1-on-1s with people from a global online conference, several interview chats with students applying for our new InsideUni Oxford team, and internal calls to discuss who would be best suited to the different roles on that team. I actually really enjoyed this fairly intense schedule, but I think I would have been more able to go above and beyond in my contributions during the boot camp if I had taken on less and got a little more sleep.

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Lasting Impressions I really enjoyed my internship, learned a huge amount, felt I contributed something and made friends I’m still in touch with today. It was a textbook model of how to provide an engaging and informative experience across three continents remotely, which was particularly impressive because it was the first time that University Impact had run such a boot camp.

I learned a fair bit about financial analysis and various other topics, as well as making great new friends. No prior knowledge is needed, and you really do learn a lot. I was offered the opportunity to take on more work with University Impact after the boot camp, although I declined because I felt I was at full capacity given other goals for the summer. I’m still in touch with University Impact about expansion to Oxford, which excites me.

Just before the last week of the boot camp, I read a book that challenged my perspective on global economic development and made me rethink a lot of assumptions about how I might be able to have the greatest possible positive impact with my career. I got interesting insights from discussions of this with people at University Impact. I now have a short-term plan for which my internship will be useful experience. I also enjoyed the opportunities for cultural exchange, including a long Zoom call with a former Mormon missionary trainer also on the programme.

After the University Impact boot camp, I did a virtual internship replacement programme with a large professional services company. I feel I gained more from my University Impact experience than from this later one. Although both were certainly valuable, only the University Impact boot camp involved real work and my second internship had much shorter hours.

What advice would you give to future interns?

Enjoy the experience! Learn as much as you can and take time to get to know people on the programme. Hopefully, you’ll be able to be in Utah, which I’ve heard is a great experience. If you’re not, don’t put as much on your schedule outside internship hours as I did. It can be difficult to wrap your head quickly around financial analysis. If you want to learn more, I found a great book called Financial Statements: A Step-by-Step Guide to Understanding and Creating Financial Reports (by Thomas Ittelson). That said, you’re not expected to have prior accounting knowledge.

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ZAMBIA COPPERBELT UNIVERSITY Jonathan Zilberman, Christ Church, BA Geography, First Year Undergraduate, Remote working Work Projects I completed an internship with The Copperbelt University (CBU) Entrepreneurship Centre.

Copperbelt quite literally is located on a belt of copper in northern Zambia; therefore, the province is heavily integrated with mineral mining. Working at the centre of this juxtaposition of an entrepreneurship hub in such a province was an exciting prospect. There was a clear twofold purpose of the tasks completed during the internship. Firstly, to facilitate the growth and exposure of the CBU Entrepreneurship Centre.

The two other interns and myself collaborated on creating a newsletter for the Centre aimed at promulgating its benefits to students. Furthermore, we curated a marketing strategy to this end. The second role of the interns was to facilitate Start-up Advisor positions for existing start-ups founded by students at CBU. This ranged from advising their business plans to assisting with developing a pitch deck and researching potential investors to raise seed funding. The role of the CBU Entrepreneurship Centre in outlining the tasks and supporting us throughout was very helpful.

During the three weeks, the interns met with the point of contact within the Centre who would introduce the weeks tasks and the relevant students who we would be liaising with.

Afterwards, the onus was very much on the CBU students and ourselves to complete tasks and feedback ideas from one another.

This hands-off approach from the Centre allowed flexibility and allowed greater collaboration among interns and CBU members alike. Finally, there was a weekly feedback form at the end of the week for the Entrepreneurship Centre to better understand how to improve the subsequent weeks work, through implementation of interns’ feedback. This worked well and allowed consistent improvement in communication and feedback.

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Daily Life It was a vast shame that the international internship, which was supposed to take place at CBU in Zambia, was adapted to a virtual format. Nonetheless, it must be said that these three weeks, albeit virtually, provided a lucid insight into the CBU Entrepreneurship Centre and still allowed for impactful work to be carried out.

Zoom was widely used for communication both between the interns and those located in Zambia, which luckily is just one hour ahead of BST! This format worked well, particularly as a majority of tasks were individual. Regardless of the physical distance, I still feel as though I managed to get to know a lot of new people very well.

The remote nature of the internship allowed greater flexibility for when work was done and personal time management. It was very convenient being at home and indulging in home comforts to wind down after staring at a screen for the best part of the day.

Lasting Impressions The diversity of the tasks throughout the internship at the CBU Entrepreneurship Centre was something which I thoroughly enjoyed. This allowed us to meet more interesting people from CBU and gain a broad range of experiences in the three-week time span. The lasting impression of CBU Centre I received was one of excitement, with plenty of exciting start-ups stemming from the university-style accelerator of sorts.

Further, it was fascinating to witness first-hand how the start-ups coming out of CBU differ from those born from the start-up ecosystem at Oxford! However, the most substantial lasting impression I gained personally was associated with doing business in Sub-Saharan Africa. As it was my first time, albeit remotely, working with start-ups and businesses in this region, it was an eye-opening process; this impression was left both from interacting with individual start-ups and the Centre itself. This will undeniably prove useful for grounding university work and a better understanding of how international development and policy pans out on the individual, micro-level. For example, the absence of potential investors not only within Zambia but in the entire region was surprising.

What advice would you give to future interns?

The main thing I would recommend when approaching such an internship is to ask as many questions as possible as early as possible. This can be incredibly helpful for several reasons.

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Firstly, it allows you to learn as much as possible about the problem to be solved and prevents confusion later in the internship.

Secondly, the clarity gained from the questions aids with managing expectations from the offset; managing expectations proved very important during the CBU Entrepreneurship Centre particularly when tasks were flexible. In a time when remote internships are more normalised, this is especially important to bridge the gap between the ability to pop into someone's office for a question in real life, against the tedious process of creating a Zoom call to ask a simple one-line question.

Alessandro Pruegel, Trinity College, BA Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Second Year Undergraduate, Remote working Work Projects In the three weeks of the internship, I was given a new project each week. For the first week, I was put in contact with a student at the entrepreneurship centre who was running a business selling underwear, and it was my task to create a business plan for the expansion of his business.

In the second week, I worked with one of the other interns on rebooting the newsletter of the entrepreneurship centre. We created a structure with suggested content for each weekly edition, as well as a plan of how to select an editorial committee and assure that the newsletter was produced and distributed every week.

In the third week, all three of us interns worked together to create an investor pitch for a company trying to design and sell a kitchen appliance all over sub-Saharan Africa. We also created a list of investors to reach out to with contact details.

Daily Life My daily life during the internship was very well balanced. I was free to plan my day however I wanted to, as long as I attended the zoom calls which we would have about twice a week, and did the work I was asked to. After a slow start to the day, I would usually sit down in the afternoon and do a few hours of work before calling with the other interns to discuss our work and give each other feedback. This self-paced approach was nice because it made it possible for me to do work whenever I was most productive, but also meant I was reachable at any moment by the organization in case something was urgent.

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Lasting Impressions I would say that the internship definitely left a positive lasting impression on me. Although we did lose out on a lot of the cultural immersion that would have been part of the internship if it had happened in person at the entrepreneurship center in Zambia, I learned a lot from interacting virtually with the people at the center.

I'm especially happy about the fact that each week had a different focus, meaning I was able to get a lot of different insights within a relatively short period of time. I very much enjoyed the experience and gained a better understanding of the hurdles that entrepreneurs are faced with in Zambia and sub-Saharan Africa more generally. The internship made me even more convinced of my desire to enter a career in international development in order to help reduce these hurdles.

Alina Marie Kunisch, Regent’s College, BA Theology and Religion, Second Year Undergraduate, Remote working Work Projects During each week of the internship, I worked on a different project which made for a varied and interesting placement. For example, I created a business plan for a local student who just started his own business and created a comprehensive strategy plan for the monetization of a mentorship program.

While all interns completed some individual tasks we also collaborated as a team on the last project during which we created a pitch deck for a Zambian start-up and researched investors. Everyone I worked with was very kind.

The host organization seemed keen to make the experience as pleasurable as possible and conducted weekly surveys to assure we were satisfied with the workload, our tasks, treatment etc.

Daily Life Since the internship was completed remotely, daily life was normal. Due to the varying tasks, each day was slightly different to the other. Some days there were calls with supervisors, whereas on other days everyone was free to create their own schedule.

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After already completing Trinity term remotely, I didn't find working from home too much of a challenge. Despite having more freedom of when to work, I think it is useful to treat a remote internship like an in-person one and try to stick to usual working hours.

Lasting Impressions I very much enjoyed the internship. Compared to previous internships it was lovely that the host organization seemed to really care about the quality of our internship experience. It was also great that everyone was very approachable, and that communication worked well despite being in different locations. The internship gave me more insight into working with young start-ups and confirmed my interest in the entrepreneurial sector.

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