Category: Placement & Internship Advisers

Where Have Previous Charity Insights Participants Been?

As the Charity Insights scheme enters its sixth year in 2017, we thought we’d put together a list of some of the previous destinations for the 80 or so participants who have undertaken projects with charities. If you’re thinking about applying for Charity Insights this year, this list may provide some inspiration – although of course most applicants to Charity Insights approach charities who have not previously hosted an student as part of the scheme!

2016

2015

  • Albert Miquel (Computing, 1st Year) – Lambeth Elfrida Rathbone Society
  • Alhasan Al-Habib (Life Sciences, 2nd)  – Kensington and Chelsea Foundation
  • Anna Lawson (Chem Eng, 1st) – The Long Well Walk
  • Benedict Conway-Jones (Earth Sciences, 1st) – Collegiate Academy Trust
  • Chris Worsfold (Physics, 2nd) – Sense About Science
  • Daniel Gordon (Medicine, 3rd) – Samaritans
  • Farzana Islam (Biology, 1st) – London Tigers
  • Hossein Rezaei (Civil Eng, PhD) – Birmingham Friends of the Earth
  • Jonathan Dong  (Chem Eng, 2nd) – Wild Hearts
  • Mollie Gupta (Life Sciences, 2nd) – Bedfont Lakes Country Park
  • Nathan Cheetham (Physics, PhD) – Carbon Disclosure Project
  • Philip Sayer (Mech Eng, 2nd) – Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability
  • Ryan Sandhu (Civil Eng, 2nd) – FitzRoy
  • Sandra Okala (Medicine, PhD) – Public Health England
  • Scott Tyler Hobbs (Chemistry, 2nd) – YMCA LSW
  • Stephanie Mellor (Physics, 2nd) – Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI)
  • Vaibhav Krishnakumar (Computing, 1st) – Asha for Education
  • Visakan Balakumar (Physics, 3rd) – Centre for Community Development / Tamil Women Development Forum
  • Xenia Karlsson (Life Science, 2nd) – Pro-Cancer Research Fund

2014

  • Rupert Belsham, 1st year Physics, The Passage
  • Nicholas Burstow, 2nd year Medicine, Multiple Sclerosis Trust
  • Jun Cao, PhD Medicine, The George Institute for Global Health
  • Anna Cupani, PhD Chemical Engineering, Sense about Science
  • Isabelle Erbacher, 2nd year Medicine, Rethink Mental Illness
  • Martha Hilton, 2nd year Physics, RECLAIM
  • Rebekah Hodgkinson, 1st year Biology, The Derbyshire Wildlife Trust
  • Clara Hurst, 2nd year Chemistry, Thomas Frederick Willets Foundation
  • Ramandeep Kang, 2nd year Physics, Barnado’s
  • Julia Langer, PhD Medicine, Population Health Genomics Foundation
  • Juha Leppanen, 1st year Maths, Green Alliance
  • Elizabeth Mitchell, 2nd year Biochemistry, British Heart Foundation
  • Chandrika Nair, PhD Microbiology, The Small Piece Trust
  • Lee Pearson, PhD Centre for Environmental Policy, CABI Trust
  • Chun-Yin San, 2nd year Biomedical Science, Sense about Science
  • Jay Shah, 2nd year Physics, British Red Cross
  • Chloe Thorn, 1st year Biomedical Science, British Red Cross
  • Thomas Windle, 4th year Mechanical Engineering, Cornwall Wildlife Trust
  • Kristiana Xhuxhi, 2nd year Biochemistry, RSPB (Wild about Hampstead Heath)

2013

If you’d like to talk about Charity Insights and your ideas for a project, book to see us in an Internship Consultation (available four days a week) via JobsLive!

Charity Insights Participants 2016!

This year, the bar for the standard of Charity Insights was raised yet again, with our applicants proposing some excellent projects. As a result, we had to make some tough decisions to get from our pool of over 40 applications to the smaller number of bursaries available. After a highly competitive process, we are very happy to announce that we will be awarding 22 Charity Insights bursaries to students this summer!

This year’s participants are:

It has been amazing to hear from all the students about the range of projects they will be undertaking this summer and, of course, their progress will be recorded right here on this blog.

Charity Insights Visits #2

The Charity Insights tour bus was back on the road once again, with a couple more students to be visited on location. Unfortunately, this bus is entirely metaphorical, so means of less imagined transport included the very literal London underground and South West Trains.

On one of the rainiest days of the year, myself and Jess set out to visit Chris at Sense about Science, a charity attempting to equip people to make sense of scientific and medical claims in the press and public discussion. Working with over 6,000 scientists, they run campaigns such as Ask for Evidence and host panels on subjects such as plant science and energy.

Charity Insights Visits #1

I’ve been out on my travels in the last week, getting the opportunity to visit some of our esteemed Charity Insights participants. I was pretty excited to get to see some of the first fruits of 2015 Charity Insights’ labour in full flow; following projects from application form to literal application in a professional setting.

First up was Farzana at London Tigers, just a short hurtle on the Hammersmith & City line away near Westbourne Park.  London Tigers engage with disadvantaged communities, providing employment and training skills programmes and running youth and sports clubs to young people in the capital and beyond.

20 students taking part in Charity Insights 2015!

After a competitive application and interview process, we’re delighted to announced that 20 Charity Insights bursaries are being awarded to students this year! With a very high standard of entries, successful students will be heading out to complete a 4-week project with their chosen charity over the summer vacation. Yesterday saw a number of the students going out on Charity Insights attend a preparation workshop to meet fellow participants and to learn more about making the most of the experience (plus just a little bit of admin).

This year’s participants are:

  • Albert Miquel (Computing, 1st Year) – Lambeth Elfrida Rathbone Society
  • Alhasan Al-Habib (Life Sciences, 2nd)  – Kensington and Chelsea Foundation
  • Anna Lawson (Chem Eng, 1st) – The Long Well Walk
  • Benedict Conway-Jones (Earth Sciences, 1st) – Collegiate Academy Trust
  • Chris Worsfold (Physics, 2nd) – Sense About Science
  • Daniel Gordon (Medicine, 3rd) – Samaritans
  • Farzana Islam (Biology, 1st) – London Tigers
  • Hossein Rezaei (Civil Eng, PhD) – Birmingham Friends of the Earth
  • Jodie Denmark (Chemistry, 2nd) – Rosa
  • Jonathan Dong  (Chem Eng, 2nd) – Wild Hearts
  • Mollie Gupta (Life Sciences, 2nd) – Bedfont Lakes Country Park
  • Nathan Cheetham (Physics, PhD) – Carbon Disclosure Project
  • Philip Sayer (Mech Eng, 2nd) – Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability
  • Ryan Sandhu (Civil Eng, 2nd) – FitzRoy
  • Sandra Okala (Medicine, PhD) – Public Health England
  • Scott Tyler Hobbs (Chemistry, 2nd) – YMCA LSW
  • Stephanie Mellor (Physics, 2nd) – Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI)
  • Vaibhav Krishnakumar (Computing, 1st) – Asha for Education
  • Visakan Balakumar (Physics, 3rd) – Centre for Community Development / Tamil Women Development Forum
  • Xenia Karlsson (Life Science, 2nd) – Pro-Cancer Research Fund

Finally, I’d just like to issue a well done and good luck to all our participants!

Statistical Internship Opportunity at SCI

Based at Imperial on St Mary’s Campus, the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI) works to improve the health and development of the world’s poorest populations. SCI is offering an internship for Imperial students, which is eligible for the Charity Insights bursary from the Careers Service.

Working with biostatisticians, the internship will involve data analysis using R, providing an excellent opportunity to develop programming skills. Depending of the statistical and programming experience of the post holder, the role can be further extended to test impact analysis recommendations and determine how these can best be applied in ‘real world’ settings using linear mixed models and sample size calculations or simulations.

Charity Insights Drop-Ins over Spring vacation

Your Placement & Internship Advisers, Helen and Barnaby, are running 20 minute Charity Insights Drop-In appointments Monday – Friday over the spring vacation. On the day, book a slot via JobsLive if you have any questions regarding Charity Insights or want some help with your application. We’ve already been helping students with their CVs, speculative cover letters and getting ideas of what type of project may be successful at application stage. These appointments are available Monday – Friday from 2 – 3pm in the weeks of the 13th and 20th of April 2015. We look forward to answering your questions and seeing your final applications!

Launch of Charity Insights 2015

With the spring term in full swing, the Careers Service is very pleased to announce the opening of applications for Charity Insights 2015. This is an opportunity for returning UG and PhD Imperials students to be awarded a bursary to complete a 4 week long internship with a UK registered charity.

Last summer placements ranged across the charity & not for profit sector, including organisations such as Shelter, Barnado’s and RSPB’s Wild About Hampstead Heath. To mention a few, projects involved investigating the feasibility of renewable energy installations; analysis and research into coffee production; through to creating and launching social media campaigns.

Internship Visits and Cupcakes

Amy and I have been out on the road again since our last tour of Hampstead Heath, Vauxhall and the West End. This time we took in the sights of Moorgate, Victoria and trendy Clerkenwell with one mission in mind; to see how three more Charity Insights internships were progressing! Okay, with one minor detour for cupcakes at Bea’s of Bloomsbury…

We got to catch up with Jay, Rupert and Chun-Yin interning at the British Red Cross, The Passage and Sense about Science respectively. What stood out about these visits was the variety that working in the charity sector can offer.

Placement & Internship Officers on tour….

Helen and I have been really enjoying reading everyone’s blog posts about their Charity Insights experience. We thought it was about time we also added a post to the blog!

Last week we were able to visit Isabelle, Clara and Kristiana to hear about some of the fantastic work they have been doing with their charities.

Our first visit was to Isabelle who has been working for Rethink located in Vauxhall. The office is located on the fifteenth floor of a high rise building nicknamed “Charity Towers” as it hosts many charities including Macmillan and Comic Relief (it even has a charity recruitment agency inside).