Campus Intern of the Year 2021
Posted on 11 January 2022
Over summer 2021, 61 students at the University carried out an internship with a range of departments. After receiving a number of high quality final reports and some difficult deliberations, Careers and Placements awarded Emer “Campus Intern of the Year”.
Emer, who is studying for a Masters in Bioarchaeology, worked part-time for six weeks as a Risk Management Assistant with the Planning and Risk Office.
The overall aim of the project was to create a report on Risk Management for the University to be presented to the University Executive Board. This project covered new ground and provided an initial exploration of risk assurance, identifying gaps that could be addressed. Over the course of the internship Emer was responsible for key tasks in delivering this report, such as mapping departmental risks, calculating risk coverage, and creating graphs to identify priorities, all while working remotely.
Emer said: "I chose this internship as I wanted to gain experience working within the Higher Education sector, a sector in which I am considering working in after graduation. While I had no previous formal experience of risk management, my role as Safety and Welfare Officer for the University of York Boat Club gave me an initial insight into the importance of risk management and appropriate controls.
"Overall I have gained a huge amount of experience from the six weeks of this internship, improving my ownership of work, problem-solving skills and initiative in approaching new tasks."
Russell Grant, Risk Manager, said: "Emer was fantastic. She was able to work independently, understand and interpret complicated instructions and prioritise. She is a clear communicator and produced outputs that have been very useful. Some of the work output was quite undefined when we started, giving Emer a chance to be proactive in some of the directions it could take, and she ran well with this opportunity. Some of Emer's work has been through the University Executive Board and Audit and Risk Committee (ARC), and notably the Chair of ARC (from University Council) directly commented on how useful the work was."
Emer has been awarded £200 and a certificate to recognise her achievements.
University Internships 2022
The Access and Participation Group have approved funding to support "on-campus" student intern projects.
Applications for Easter vacation internship projects must be received by Monday 31 January.
Applications for Summer vacation internship projects must be received by Thursday 31 March.
For more information, see Student Internships 2022 or email careers-placements@york.ac.uk.