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Student interns making a lasting impact on UCL's student experience

15 September 2016

In the 2015/16 academic year, undergraduate and postgraduate students embarked on a range of internship programmes across the university to improve the student experience at UCL.

Student interns at UCL

Sharing their unique insights, they collaborated with staff in UCL Student Support and Wellbeing, UCL Accommodation and UCL Communications and Marketing, to name but a few, to make sure the student voice helped to inform the direction of key projects.

Annie Warren and the UCL New Student Newsfeed

Seven questions with Annie Warren

Annie Warren (UCL Modern Languages 2016) has been working closely with the UCL Student Support and Wellbeing Team, managing the UCL New Student Newsfeed, a website that features daily news articles about life at UCL and in London, as well as essential pre-arrival information aimed at prospective UCL students.

Her role involves writing and editing articles, liaising with staff and students to source interesting articles and features that will help new students get better informed about UCL. She also runs surveys to find out what incoming students are most worried about as they get ready to join the university, so we can help them settle in and feel a part of the UCL community.

Annie's work has proved extremely popular with prospective students, so much so, that the team recorded a record figure of 13,000 page views in a single day and has been viewed by users in 176 countries. 

Annie said, "I've really enjoyed working with Student Support and Wellbeing team - managing the Newsfeed has been really fun and I've learned a lot. I had a great time at UCL and it's great to be able to pass that feeling on to this year's new students."

Abigail Collier and UCL Accommodation

Abi Collier

Over the summer, Abigail Collier, a second-year BA German and History student, joined UCL Accommodation as a student intern to help UCL prepare for the arrival of new students who are set to live in UCL halls of residence this year. Abi's role has been to focus on pre-arrival and arrival weekend initiatives, as well as coordinating the Accommodation Ambassadors and producing social media content.

Following the summer period, Abi will continue her role on a part-time basis so that students are actively involved in helping shape the future of UCL Accommodation on an on-going basis.

Speaking about her role Abi said, '"I love to be busy, so this job is pretty perfect for me in that regard. My role at the moment is very focused on the new intake of students and we have so much planned for when they arrive, it's really exciting! From training ambassadors, managing social media channels, choosing decorations for the halls and putting together the plans for our events during the welcome weekend - there's loads to do, the days are counting down and the pressure is on. It'll be so worth it though. These are without a doubt going to be UCL's best welcome weekends ever."

Tom Butler and UCL Communications and Marketing

Tom Butler

Tom Butler a second-year BA Philosophy student joined the UCL Communications and Marketing (CAM) in July as a student intern to help out with student, staff and digital communications.

Tom's writing skills were put to the test during his internship, penning a range of articles for both The Week@UCL, the university's staff e-newsletter as well as myUCL, the all-student e-newsletter.

Tom also did some blogging for the UCL Events Blog during his internship and reported on the sold-out Brexit Q&A session held for the UCL community over the summer. His popular blog post highlighted key information from the session which aimed at helping provide some clarity about what Brexit means for students and staff.

Rachel Heatley, Student Communications Manager said, "Tom was a real asset to the team, helping out writing for corporate channels. He also shared some very insightful feedback and ideas about myUCL and UCL's Instagram channel which has helped to inform the direction UCL CAM will be taking the channels in the upcoming academic year."

If you are interested in doing an internship this year, you can find out more about the range of internship opportunities available via UCL Talent Bank, hosted by UCL Careers.