My internship: a collection of slivers
Rosie Cromwell – a third year undergraduate studying Philosophy and Social Anthropology – describes why she chose to apply to St Andrews, what it’s been like to study here pre- and post-pandemic, and how her summer internship has given her the chance to learn more about the University through the students and alumni who make up the University community.
My path to St Andrews was pretty straightforward. At the time I was filling out university applications, I was convinced I wanted to study Theology and Philosophy and there were only four universities in Britain that did that combination – St Andrews among them. When it came time to narrowing down my choices, St Andrews was the most attractive one. I’d been to St Andrews before, tagging along when my dad came here to visit friends, and I liked the area better than some of the other universities I’d visited. Learning about the more flexible Scottish system of letting undergraduate students explore different subjects before fully deciding on a specific degree path clinched the deal. This flexibility and allowance for changing your mind came to my advantage later, as it didn’t take long for me to realise that I wasn’t suited to studying Theology and I switched to Philosophy and Social Anthropology for the beginning of my second year.
My first year at St Andrews was overshadowed by Covid-19 restrictions. I spent most of my time in my room as all but one of my classes took place online and many extra-curricular activities simply couldn’t take place due to restrictions. Classes were united more by chaotic group chats on WhatsApp and Snapchat than they were by our limited face-to-face interaction in seminar rooms, but we made friends anyway through bonds formed over text and Teams, and with the flatmates who we spent most of our time with. I didn’t spend the whole time indoors, of course – outside interaction was allowed at this point, and meeting with friends outside became an integral part of my timetable. I went home for Christmas that year, only to find out that I couldn’t make it back for the second semester. The rest of that year was spent wholly online and, when I returned to St Andrews for second year, I felt like a first year all over again.
That feeling gradually faded though, as restrictions slowly lifted, and university life burst into full swing once again. Seminars and tutorials were in-person again, although lectures were mostly still online, and societies that had lain dormant throughout various lockdowns started to come back to life. I started training with the parkour and aikido clubs in the Sports Centre and took my first steps into medieval re-enactment with the Shire of Caer Caledon, who taught me how to wield a sword, a spear, and a sewing needle.
It was one day during my second year when I was idly clicking through the University Careers website, trying to avoid the blank page of my latest essay, that I first discovered the St Andrews Summer Internship Scheme. I had been looking for work experience for a while: although I love the subjects I study, I wanted to work outside those fields and knew that work experience would help me do that. When I saw the link to the Summer Internship Scheme, I realised what a valuable resource I had found but, unfortunately, I discovered that the applications had closed! I reluctantly returned to my essay-writing but, over the next few months, I checked in on the website now and then until, finally, the applications were open again. Clicking through all the possible internships was an exercise in persistence – the options on offer were many and varied, and, unfortunately for me, the ones I was interested in were all at the very bottom of a very long list. The last internship in the list was labelled “Publications/Annual Giving” and the list of intern responsibilities read like a description of my dream job. Still, students were allowed to apply for up to three internships, and, deciding to hedge my bets, I applied for two internships and got invited to interview for them both. When I was invited to accept the Publications/Annual Giving internship, I knew I need not have worried.
At the time of writing this, I have been working as the Publications/Annual Giving Intern for three weeks of my six-week term, working with the Publications team (and the Development team more broadly) from Monday to Thursday, and spending Friday with the Annual Giving team. The work has been interesting and varied. Perhaps unsurprisingly, everyone has been very busy getting ready for, and then working through, graduation. Early on in my internship, I spent an hour helping put together the bags that the Development team give to new graduates at garden parties. The time sped past and, by the end of the hour, we’d put together some of the last bags of the over five thousand that were given out this year.
I’ve spent most afternoons during the last two weeks helping out at the graduation garden parties, handing out bags to new graduates and helping with the photobooth in the marquee. It’s been a wonderful opportunity to see old friends on their graduation day and to have a little insight – not only into the logistics of graduation day itself, but also into all the work across departments that goes into making graduation what it is. I’ve also spent time going through the Development website, picking out new thumbnails and identifying potential issues with the website layout. I’ve written an article about the 50th Anniversary of the Medical School Class of 1972 (the last medical graduation in St Andrews until this year) and I’ve proofread the Summer 2022 edition of the LINK magazine for Family Programme members. I’ve also helped put together the St Andrews in the News e-newsletter and interviewed callers from the Annual Giving Telephone Campaign.
The University has swathes of rich history, and it seems like most students learn only a sliver of it. More than anything else, what this internship has done is given me the chance to learn more about the University through the students and alumni who make up the University community. Whether through talking to current students about their work at the Laidlaw Music Centre, through reading blog posts from alumni about their experiences at St Andrews, or through chatting to people at graduation garden parties, my work across this internship can be seen as a collection of slivers: slivers of history and experiences and slivers of elements that work together to make a complex social history and a diverse university community. It has been wonderful to experience.
