Blog posts

How to be Sensible about Science – Beginning

Hello dear future intern,

A bit about me; my name is Koral, and I interned with Sense about Science in August 2017. I knew about this charity because I noticed every year one person from the Charity Insights Scheme chooses it. So, I assume every year after me, interns from Imperial will keep coming here. Therefore, I have chosen to write my blog in the format of a diary to you, dear future intern; though everyone else is welcome to read my adventures as well of course. I plan on writing 3 posts, all of them in retrospect. They will encapsulate the beginning, middle, and end periods of my internship.

Review of my great internship experience at S.A.S!

It’s the penultimate day here at surfers against sewage, and what a fun and engaging experience this has been.

Week 3 & 4:

  • During the last two weeks, I have been doing smaller tasks, such as typing up many of the plastic-free pledge names and emails into a spreadsheet (thankfully, a handful of volunteers took the main chunk out of this task!) I also made a comprehensive budget for 25 new Beach Clean boxes for schools around the country. To be more suitable for school pupils, certain items had to be altered from last year’s budget, such as 2x goggley eyes and 2x graptor, and a change from a regional reps hoodie to 4x school reps tee’s, in the hope that a small team of pupils will safeguard the box year upon year.

The end?

Today was my last day with the Anthony Nolan Team. Honestly, I have no idea how come this month passed so quickly. Each week was slightly different as the team was changing and my tasks varied. In the last two weeks, I worked more independently. Mainly because most of the Register Development Team have been on annual leaves. As their email boxes were practically shut, many of them were directed to me, meaning I would start my day reading at least 20 emails. Not going to lie, it kind of made me feel important!

However, answering to emails wasn’t my only job.

‘How do you ride a bike with no wheels?’ – My time at London Nightline

After a brief hiatus, I am back to complete the final half of my project at London Nightline! Right now, big changes are happening at Nightline as the charity moves from its long-term home at the University of London Union to a new location in Central London. In the meantime, I find myself at Nightline’s temporary office nestled in some KCL student halls. This means a new commute to South London and new challenges such as ‘How do you ride a bike with no wheels?’, which is how I’ve found it after a short stay in the new neighbourhood.

Transportation challenges aside my project is progressing well, with the trials & tribulations of organising volunteer interviews and collating feedback data all but complete I find myself freshly adept at conducting interviews and creating both spreadsheets and surveys.

Embrace the egg…my final weeks

My time at the RHN has sadly reached its end but I know this isn’t the end for my project.

During the 3rd week I spent my time putting together a presentation for primary schools where I had to channel my inner child. I found it quite difficult explaining such a serious disability in terms that children could understand while still making the presentations enjoyable. I found some resources online from charities that help explain neuro-disability to young children so that they can better understand the condition when it affects a loved one. To make the presentations interactive I came up with a few props and experiments including a ‘brain box’ that will be used to explain the touch sense to the children (as you can see I’m very proud of my box) and a jelly bean taste experiment to highlight the importance of the smell sense.

A report paints a thousand words

Last weeks Healthcare tech community roadshow had inundated the researchers with a plethora of fresh data to interpret and analyse. Luckily for me, this meant that I had been presented with the unique opportunity to see the process of report-writing first-hand and live; right at the start of the week. From this, I was able to decide on the format and parameters of my own report.

My suggestion to my friends at the refugee meeting place, for an in-house written monthly publication to be written by the team of regulars that I met with, had not fallen on deaf ears. Over the next several weeks, I hope to help them develop this from an idea to its fruition.

My final week at Drop4Drop and Brighton

I’m genuinely sad to say that my 4 weeks at Drop4Drop has come to an end. It has been a great experience in a new city with a great team, partaking in interesting work.

In my final week at Drop4Drop I have been analysing and summarising project partnership proposals from other organisations to see the eligibility and suitability of Drop4Drop working with them in the aim of eliminating global thirst. This has also entailed me doing some outreach to other charities and organisations to see if they would be willing and able to work alongside Drop4Drop.

This week I also got the opportunity to look at geological reports from data that was collected on site by the geologists working the project in real time.

Macmillan Weeks 3-5

Week 3 began with some proper work, looking into the needs of cancer patients in digital – exploring the different attitudes towards digital as well as the different ways patients use it. This, firstly, involved investigating a list of various health apps currently on the market and seeing how they worked, different features they had and in what ways they’ve hit the target market. Funnily enough, this involved actually having a play around on most of them so if I’m ever in need of health-restoration, I know exactly where to go!

With everyone at Macmillan being so friendly, people in other departments are kind enough to give you an induction into their area of work, answering any questions you may have.

Mid-internship here at Surfers Against Sewage

Following a long, hard but very enjoyable weekend working with the team at Boardmasters festival, I am now back in the office.

Being the chosen sponsored charity at the site gave us a huge advantage, in that artists would promote our movements, whilst videos and artwork such as a boat created from plastic bottles purely sourced from UK beach cleans were displayed at the festivals most popular locations.

I was very much involved with community engagement regarding the new campaign ‘Wasteland’, and informing the public on how to reduce their individual plastic footprint. Working closely with regional Reps from across the country gave me the opportunity to understand more about the problems they also faced with respect to marine pollution in different areas such as Scotland, Southampton and Essex; the experience has very much inspired me to become a regional Rep once the internship finishes.

Tech care of your health!

It’s no secret that the NHS has had a tricky past with technology. Just this year, we saw malicious software cripple 61 trusts across England and Scotland! However, the demands of an ageing population and the shift in the supply of healthcare professionals has meant that tech-enabled care is needed quickly to alleviate pressure from the bed blocking phenomenon.

As part of the devolution of health and social care in Greater Manchester, a Bolton locality plan set out how healthcare services would change over the next five years. This plan looks to introduce technology such as a push button, or fall sensors and alarm pendants worn around the neck, that can allow patients to safely go back to their own homes, rather than staying in hospital longer than necessary.