My last week at Nesta. Queue the classic “Time flies!” and “It feels like it was only yesterday when I arrived” and “We’re all going to die someday” clichés. It was a week of many “lasts”: the last catch-up with my supervisor, my last lunch with the interns, the last time I logged into my Nesta email, the last time I had a glass of water at the office… Okay, I’m getting too nostalgic.
The end of my internship consisted of me scrambling about trying to finish up all the little projects I’d been doing over the past month. It was both satisfying and sad (and stressful) adding the finishing touches to my reports with the tight deadline of Friday afternoon, which kept inching closer. Despite this, I still had the chance to have a few last coffees with some colleagues and get some last minute life advice. Oh, and I also received a visit by Jessica Noon of the Careers Office, to chat about my experience and to show off the coolest office ever.
My last proper act as a Nesta intern was supposed to be a meeting with the other interns to discuss the internship process; an informal reunion to just bounce ideas off of each other. Little did I know it was all a ruse to get me to a room where I was greeted by all the people in the Policy & Research team for a small goodbye party. It was very sweet and unexpected, and I even got to give a little thank you speech. But the sweetest thing of all was the blueberry tart cake they bought for the occasion. These people know how to make an intern happy!
Working at Nesta has been an eye-opener for me. 4 weeks ago, I knew pretty much nothing of the world of policy-making and innovation, and now I’m subscribed to at least a dozen newsletters on the topic. It has shown me that there are so many fascinating projects going on around us that we don’t hear about unless it’s related to our line of work, and we should put more effort into discovering and understanding them. I’ve learnt that working in the world of policy research is fascinating, but most importantly I’ve met people with amazing stories and unique perspectives on the world. And of course, my fancy political small talk has really upped its game.
Thank you for having me, Nesta, and thank you Charity Insights for making it happen.
Highlight of the week: The proper answer should be “All the experiences I’ve lived and all the things I’ve learned over my time at Nesta.” But really, it’s the blueberry tart cake.