Summer Internship Scheme: Henry Wei
Henry Wei shares his experiences of participating in the Summer Internship Scheme.
My story: Henry Wei
- Course: Biochemistry Biochem
- Year of study when you completed this internship: 2nd going in to 3rd
- Internship: University of St Andrews – Biodiversity Mapping Internship
Why did you sign up to Summer Internship Scheme? What were you hoping to gain?
I signed up to the biodiversity mapping internship to gain experience in collecting data in an area related to biology. I hoped to gain some in-person experience working in a more professional environment with other people more experienced in the field.
How did you find the 6 week internship?
Overall, the internship was very useful for gaining experience. I managed to work with highly experienced people and obtain connections which might otherwise have been difficult and having the opportunity to work in an environment which demands a high level of personal organisation and individual decision making is likely very useful. I have started to learn important lessons in managing what can be done in a realistic amount of time and in seeking the help from other people needed to do so.
The most enjoyable part of the job largely came from the work environment, which was very supportive and rather relaxed. Although in this case there were rather few people working on projects which directly tied into mine, being able to share what each member of the office was doing in a mutually supportive atmosphere still made the experience very enjoyable as well as educational. The set tasks were rather open-ended in this case, but overall, I (together with the coordinator) found that good progress was able to be made after a short acclimatisation period.
This internship was a very good learning experience and there are many general, as well as specific skills which could hopefully be taken forward.
Tell us about your internship, where was it, what did you do during the week?
The internship involved constructing a ‘biodiversity map‘ of university controlled land, as far as possible, in St Andrews and Eden campus. This would aim to be versatile in informing both university management to follow more sustainable development plans and the academic and student body to spread awareness of what biodiversity is available around the university.
The internship was conducted in-person in the transition office in St Andrews, and fieldwork was conducted by eye in places which were accessible. A typical week (after the habitat software was set up) would involve around 50% of the time spent doing fieldwork and the rest of the time working on either digitising existing data or working on the distribution and data collection software.
What skills did you learn and how did you put them into practice during the internship?
The most important skills learned and applied here would be the organisational and networking requirements from the task. Planning out one’s own time-how much to spend on whichever part of the project, what is and isn’t worth the effort to try and do etc was a very important part of the project. Being able to rely on the experience and advice from more experienced surveyors was very helpful as well in building a map with habitat names and formats which I was not previously familiar with. The internship has also provided a degree of specialist skills in habitat and species surveying and data processing using software methods, which were also directly applicable in the task at hand.
What would you say to someone considering signing up for the Summer Internship Scheme?
The Summer Internship Scheme is a good opportunity to obtain experience working in a supportive but very free environment which allows interns a lot of independence. This is a great opportunity to not only develop skills in a specialist subject but also to acquire skills in individual organisation and network building.