Katrina
“I have greatly developed in my internship. I feel that my research skills have flourished massively, something that is really important with my career path.”
Make a professional impact with an internship
After making an impact at Fotonow, Katrina was successful in securing a second internship with the company
Utilise your network
She then secured a second internship at Fotonow in the following academic year by utilising the network she had built to reapply for an archival internship.
“My internship was at Fotonow, who are a photography and media company that also working within community-based projects, as well as some professional programs.
I was the archiving intern, so I was primarily working with their collection of Carte De Visites, or cabinet cards, that they had from the Victorian era. The staff are very sociable, and I felt very included there.”
Gain advantages
When asked how the internships are useful for students, Katrina says that her experiences have assisted her to make difficult decisions regarding career paths, and given her an advantage over other graduating students in terms of being able to demonstrate impressive experience on her CV.
“I went into the internship program not knowing, quite, what direction I wanted to go in. My degree is quite broad, which is what I wanted, but when it gets to the end of the third year you’ve got to work out what avenue to go down. It really helped me to file these down. I'm now interested in looking at becoming a registrar, and perhaps something to do with conservation as well. I feel that the internships with Fotonow will definitely help me to get roles that are out there. It’s quite tough, as there’s not got a huge range of roles available, so hopefully the experience makes my CV a bit more competitive.
I have greatly developed in my internship. I feel that my research skills have flourished massively – something that is really important with my career path. I have also gained confidence in approaching and articulating myself to people, as well as maintaining a drive in independent working.”
Make an impact
At Fotonow, all of the interns are managed by Dan Carter, who made it clear that these internships have a lasting affect on the organisation and the specific projects interns are a part of.
“Student interns bring an interesting insight, we are better able to understand the way university students view the working landscape and their post-university future, helping us to better support these cohorts in both work placements and programmes we design.”
Katrina worked on a historical archival project of Plymouth's Victorian-era photographic studios. I think it's fair to say that she took the project further than we thought an internship would manage, liaising with various stakeholders (local historians, museums like The Box and other archives, our staff at Fotonow) to take the project to a place where it is ready to be part of a funding application for further work and outcomes.
Katrina has set a high bar for our other interns, now and in future!
Dan Carter, Engagement Lead at Fotonow