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.

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.

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.