I CAN’T BELIEVE FOUR WEEKS HAVE GONE BY SO QUICKLY!
The last two weeks have absolutely flown by. I finish my internship today – I’ll be sad to go. I’ve learnt a lot and met some really interesting people.
During my week break the new website went live, and I believe the new neuroscience Journal has been initiated – everyone in the office has been quite busy.
Last week was spent analysing all of the survey data I’d collected, and producing an overall marketing plan which could be used to inform the marketing approach of the BNA. This involved looking at the automatic analysis SurveyMonkey generated, and picking out/discussing the relevant information. In the week following, I formatted this all into a report, along with all of the other bits and pieces I’d been working on, like an application form for the Student Representative Scheme and undergraduate marketing materials.
As it’s my last day today, I’m currently condensing down my report into a succinct ten minute presentation that I can give when I attend the BNA council meeting on 24th August. After this I’m going out with my supervisor for farewell drinks, along with the other intern and her hosting lab – a lovely way to end my internship.
Taken out of context, this is probably a rather strange photo…
To conclude, this internship has definitely given me many transferable skills; it’s been a largely independent project and so I’ve had to practise organising my time effectively, along with learning how to be resourceful and tackle a complex/unexpected problem from many different angles. I hope my project will be of use to the BNA and help to increase their student and associate membership in future.
If anyone reading this is still debating over whether or not to apply for Charity Insights, I would thoroughly recommend it!
I’ve now reached the end of my second week with the British Neuroscience Association, and plan to take one week off before returning. I chose to schedule my internship in this way so I could maximise the number of survey responses, and it also gave me a chance to head back to London to see my friends (and also attend the infamous beer & cricket festival in my boyfriend’s village).
This week has really all been about sending off the surveys and reviewing the current marketing material. It sounds deceptively simple. As I had created surveys for three different demographics (undergrad, postgrad and potential associate members), I then had to build up an organised directory of “dissemination points”, or people/organisations that could distribute my survey for me. For example, as the BNA is based in both Bristol & Cardiff University, I decided to contact the neuroscience course directors (both undergrad and postgrad) and ask if they could send my survey to their students. I also emailed the offices of the various schools involved with neuroscience at the university, e.g. the School of Experimental Psychology, and the School of Clinical Sciences. I contacted relevant societies as well, and also posted in my own course’s Facebook page, with around 150 of my peers at Imperial. All in all, this involved a lot of emailing.
Finding potential associate members was harder. To elucidate, the BNA are planning to introduce a new membership category for “people with a genuine interest in neuroscience but who do not work in neuroscience in a professional capacity”. For the student surveys I could also draw on the database of current student members, which helped to bolster the numbers, but I couldn’t do this for associate members. Instead, I had to give some thought to what kind of organisations could reach this specific type of person. I ended up using social media, and contacting Pint of Science, Cafe Scientifique, WI, U3A etc. Most of the people I talked to were more than happy to post my survey on their website and Facebook page – everyone has been an intern at some point. I also utilised the BNA’s social media following by posting my survey on all of their social media outlets. At the time of writing, I currently have around 130 responses for each of the student surveys, and around 60 responses for the associate member survey: more than enough to do some solid analysis on when I return.
Surveys were created via Surveymonkey.com
Alongside this, I was tasked with reviewing the current BNA marketing material. After I had given some ConCrit, I set about creating my own flyers etc. through Microsoft Publisher. I’m a big fan of art/design, so I was really happy to be given such a huge responsibility and creative freedom when designing.
That’s all for now – have a great week!
P.S. As I didn’t really take any photos during this week (I was mostly just office based), here’s a picture of one of the first medical drawings done by Cajal, the father of modern neuroscience, who beautifully illustrated the arborisations of neurons.
Drawing by Cajal showing a section of the spinal cord
Hello! I’m Anna, an incoming third year Biologist.
Firstly, let me introduce you to the charity I have chosen to work with. The British Neuroscience Association (BNA) is the leading neuroscience charitable organisation in the UK, and functions to bring together researchers, organisations and individuals which are involved with, or have an interest in, neuroscience. It’s a charity chiefly run for and by scientists and thus must have specifically tailored marketing strategies to appeal to such a niche demographic – which is what first drew my attention to BNA.
The beginning of my internship did not start well. I woke up on Monday morning feeling absolutely awful, and made it halfway down the road before I gave in and had to call in sick. My supervisor was really lovely about it, and agreed that we’d start on Tuesday, in Cardiff, instead. As I was based in Bristol, two trains were required to reach the BNA office in Cardiff – the first of which was (typically) majorly delayed and the second of which I consequently missed. I therefore ended up starting my internship a day late and literally late… not a great beginning, I think you’d agree.
Regardless, as soon as I managed to actually begin I found myself really enjoying the project. After discussing with my supervisor, we identified a couple of project niches: how to increase undergraduate membership (and potentially set up some kind of student representative scheme), and how to effectively market the new membership category, associate membership.
I was given quite a lot of freedom to brainstorm this, and was also afforded the opportunity to speak to leading neuroscientists, who were serving on the BNA committee. Not only could I ask people who started off with the same credentials as myself (a degree in Biology) about how they informed their career paths, but also talk to experts who shared my scientific interest. After listening to their thoughts on the reality of carrying out my project, I began to plan day-by-day what I would actually be doing.
I spent Wednesday in Bristol, and Thursday in Brasenose College, Oxford, where I talked to Prof. John Jefferys about my plans for the next few weeks. We had lunch in the Brasenose senior common room (think wood panelling, huge fireplaces and unbelievable portraits), and afterwards took a brief look around the Ashmolean. It was a lovely day – I had a lot of fun, and it was great to be able to talk with such an interesting individual!
Brasenose College IBrasenose College II
On Friday, I was lucky enough to sit in on a lab meeting between Neuroscience postdocs at Bristol University. They were interested in how natural circadian rhythms of stress hormones like corticosterone could be mimicked to improve the side effects of prescribed steroids, using rats as a model animal (if you’re interested, here’s a bit of background). Everyone was really friendly and happy to discuss their data with me; hopefully at some point I can go down to the labs and actually see some of their research.
Luckily I arrived just in time for the Bristol Harbour Festival on the weekend, which was a great chance to explore the city and eat some awesome food. I also looked around Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, where I got to see Rembrandt’s Self-portrait at the age of 63, one of the last paintings he did before his death.
Self Portrait at the Age of 63
To conclude: I’ve had a great introduction to my internship and am really excited to continue with my project next week…
