Tag: week one

My first week at Anthony Nolan

Anthony Nolan save the lives of people with blood cancers or blood disorders by matching individuals willing to donate their blood stem cells or bone marrow to people who need lifesaving transplants.

I first got marrow (2)involved with Anthony Nolan through Marrow at Imperial. This is Anthony Nolan’s University Branch and we run recruitment events to sign people up to the register, fundraise and spread the word about how easy it can be to save somebodies life. Next year I will even be taking the plunge along with a whole group of nationwide marrow volunteers and jumping out of a plane to raise as much money as possible. It’s a society well worth being a part of.

The goal of my charity insights project is to increase new donor engagement with Anthony Nolan particularly to increase interaction with young men online. This group is targeted because 50% of donations come from young men while they only make up 15% of the register. In 2015-16 only 27% of all online applications came from young men. This needs to be changed by creating engaging content on platforms that young men are influenced by.

During the first week I have been analysing the current research Anthony Nolan has done as well as looking at different methods by which they could increase awareness around the charity. This could be done through livestreaming events and looking for vloggers/bloggers who may be willing to discuss Anthony Nolan with their audience.

I also have used the opportunity to explore different aspects of the charity. On Tuesday I had the opportunity to meet a donor and it was inspiring to meet someone willing to do something so selfless. Later that evening I had another interesting experience in the form of a spit kit social. To add people to the register they must first be tissue typed which requires a spit sample. At the social the tubes required for this are individually labelled by volunteers before being packed up and sent out. I didn’t appreciate the effort required until I’d labelled and packed a bag of 70 kits!

I have learnt a lot about the charity in this past week and what impressed me the most was how much everyone I have met cares about the charity and not only the patients that they aid but the donors too. Great care is taken of the donors from getting a visit from a volunteer during donation to travel and accommodation for them and a friend being paid for and follow up phone calls a few days and weeks after donation.

Anthony Nolan has been an amazing charity to work for. Before the first day I was nervous as I knew the style of working would be very different to anything I had experienced before but as soon as I arrived at the office I was put at ease by the friendliness of the staff and I soon adjusted to the offices way of working (though I’m not sure me or my bladder can get used to drinking so many cups of tea). I look forward to the next three weeks.

First week at CABI!

Today completes my first week at CABI. I knew CABI was a bit outside London, but the walk from the train station in Egham this week has been a welcome surprise. The forested areas around CABI are fantastic and make for such a pleasant walk to work. I got lost in the forest on Thursday and ended up going further than the public path I was meant to take; I was a bit late for work, but the sights, sounds, and pleasantness of the woods reminded me why I have no love affair with living in London.

On to the work! I met with Peter Baker, the coffee expert of CABI, and we further defined the goals of my work for the next month. There are some MSc students I am getting data from this weekend and I hope to continue with some of the brilliant work they’ve started on. I’ll save a full summary of the background of the work for a later post, but in short we are working with HRNS to (1) analyse the coffee production data in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador to see the impacts of Coffee Leaf Rust, and (2) develop a model/simulation/game based on the results to explore how farmers and extension agents respond to climate and other market risks. While I don’t have the “right” numbers to fill in, I decided to follow the fail quickly paradigm and started drafting a model in excel on the first day. Here is where it is at on Friday and we’ll see where we want to take it next. My knowledge of VBA and creating user input forms on excel has greatly improved this week.

Until next week, Lee

Week One at Royal Society Publishing

This week I started my Charity Insights internship at the publishing office of Royal Society. I’m sure that most of you will have at least heard of the Royal Society (if not, here’s the wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Society for a quick blurb) It’s the oldest scientific academy still in existence and I ended up there because I’m interested in the work they do in communicating science and emphasizing the cultural role that science has to play in society.  Oh and because I wanted to get a taste of academic publishing and their publishing division just happen to bring out some great journals! The editor that I’m working with is in charge of Philosophical Transactions B, which brings out theme issues, so it’s more like a review publication. It’s actually the first scientific journal that was ever published. I think that’s pretty cool…but that might just be me.

Another perk of working at the Royal Society is that they’re based in a beautiful location just behind the Mall and Regents Park:

I know Imperial’s campus has a pretty great location, but that’s the view from the toilets at RS.

 

Don’t judge me for taking photos from the toilets…or for their terrible quality…trust me, the view is GOOD.
I’ve started by taking over some of the junior editorial coordinator tasks for the journal: like checking over author submissions before they’re sent over to production and updating the website with information about the latest issues. I have to say, having access to the proofs of papers by some big names before they’re published (ie still under embargo!) feels pretty special. The editorial team is a small group and everyone’s really friendly, all in all it’s a really welcoming environment to have entered into.
So my feelings about the experience as the first week has drawn to an end are pretty positive! Hopefully it isn’t just the enthusiasm of a rookie…