I began my University career as a language student, fascinated by other cultures. Finishing university majoring in Business and Management, I was frequently given the opportunity to utilise my love for language in presentations and written work (both group and individual). I have always taken great pleasure in communicating new and creative ideas and contributing to an academic conversation. I now have the privilege of utilising my communication skills in my role as project manager at CGI, currently working in the bid side of the business.
Something I love about communication work is that it tells stories, to give a voice to those who would not otherwise have one. Furthermore, these stories don’t just impact the individual telling it; but hundreds, even thousands can be inspired to action. Knowing that content that I have worked to produce and deliver has inspired others is very rewarding - whether that be trying out weightlifting for the first time, taking better care of their mental health or choosing to study at the University of Glasgow. Connected with my studies I was given the opportunity to do a talk at the LEADS Undergraduate Research Conference on an academic paper I worked on for a Business Ethics class. I deeply appreciated being given the opportunity to speak out on an issue that is important to me and engaging and networking with other students across different disciplines, undertaking a variety of fascinating research projects. In other areas of my life I have had the opportunity to promote women in strength sports and through my position as Glasgow University Weightlifting Club’s Social Media Officer and advertise Glasgow University’s investment in state-of-the-art learning spaces for prospective students as a Campus Development Comms Intern at the University. Now working in bid work at CGI I have been given the opportunity to work on a number of projects across a broad variety of subjects. The versatility of the work requires me to be quick to listen and ask the right questions to my client in order to understand the requirements and the scope of the project. Furthermore, seeking out the expertise of my co-workers and bringing the right people together is an essential part of my day-to-day activities. I am then responsible for pulling together all of this information into a cohesive contract which adequately explains and addresses all the clients needs. It is evident this new challenge has utilised and improved my communication skills further. |
Presenting at LEADS Undergraduate Research Conference 'Let's Talk About X':
The most important |
In my 3rd year of university, I applied to deliver a talk at the LEADS Undergraduate Research Conference. My proposed talk was based on a piece of academic writing I completed whilst on my semester abroad at McGill University in Montreal. The talk was entitled “Should kids have Fitbits? An ethical critique of children’s activity trackers”. I was successful in my application and thus, tasked with delivering a 15-minute talk (including 5 minutes Q&A) at the conference. This involved summarising and refining my arguments in order to translate my essay material into something that was succinct and easily digestible for a multi-disciplinary audience.
I re-researched areas of my topic I wanted to focus in on and reordered my research, dealing with broad philosophical underpinnings first beforeand then reviewing key literature and findings in the area. I concluded with my own opinions, underpinned by my own ethical perspective, considering all the research I had reviewed. I wrote my talk down several times, drafting and re-drafting. I also attended workshops with a mentor in this process, in order to sound out my ideas. After these meetings I refined my talk in order to make it as understandable and engaging as possible. I also attended a mock rehearsal prior to the conference where I had the opportunity to present my talk (mostly memorised at this point) accompanied by my PowerPoint slides. This was an excellent opportunity to receive feedback which I eagerly took on board and made the necessary amendments. During the process, I used my organisation and time management skills in order to meet specific deadlines. It also provided an excellent opportunity to refine my communication skills, build confidence and present something I was passionate about to a wider audience in a clear and concise manner. Despite a technical error (where an older version of my slides was displayed rather than the most recent edition) I was able to stay calm under pressure and deliver my talk with passion and confidence. I received very positive feedback from the LEADS team, as well as members of the audience who, having found the talk and short Q&A session interesting, asked to speak to me in the intermission. Some attendees requested I send them my paper, which I was very happy to do. In summary, the experience was excellent and allowed me to develop and refine skills of time management, analysis, communication and adaptability. In addition, I was given the opportunity to raise an important issue and contribute to beginning a conversation amongst members of the academic community. This brought me a great deal of personal satisfaction. |
Social Media Officer of Glasgow University Weightlifting Club:
In my second and third year of university I held the position of Social Media Officer at Glasgow University Weightlifting Club. I was in this position when both the men’s and women’s Powerlifting Team qualified for the University World Championships in Estonia in July 2019 as part of the wider British Universities Team. I was both on the women’s team that qualified and also responsible for promoting and advertising this venture on behalf of the club. This involved organising social media coverage of the competition itself, but also raising awareness through our social media channels of fundraising events we held prior to the competition.
I worked closely with our fundraising convenor and created Facebook events of fundraising activities and made sure to be present at our fundraisers to take pictures and share these on our channels. I also got in contact by email and phone with several companies to investigate sponsorship opportunities and negotiated with relevant parties to get us monetary contributions to the trip in exchange for promotional packages including logos event t-shirts and social media posts highlighting their services and mentions in Instagram stories of the trip and ‘Thoughts from the Platform’ competition recap posts. Managing my time was crucial to get all of these tasks done in order that the team would be assured of reimbursement as they booked their flights. In addition, communicating with directors of several organisations required confidence in my communication skills and also organisational skills as I often had to go back to these companies and chase them up for payments as things were slowed down by several layers of organisational hierarchies. We obtained sponsorship from 3 separate companies that I negotiated with. We also raised additional funds through bake sales, a gofundme page and individual fundraisers. One of these included our men's team getting their legs waxed! All in all, this enabled us to cover the flights to Estonia for every team member (16 athletes), which made the trip affordable for all involved. Our women’s team excelled at the competition and placed 2nd overall, making Glasgow University Women’s Powerlifting Team among the best in the world. This subsequently led to several members of the team (including myself) being awarded Half and Full Blue awards from Glasgow University Sports Association and the team being crowned Women’s Team of the Year at the GUSA Sports Awards. |
Campus Development Communications Intern at the University of Glasgow
Between January and July 2020, I was employed as an intern on the Campus Development Communications Team. This involved promoting the new buildings and facilities due to open in 2020/2021 on The University of Glasgow’s main campus. My main responsibilities were to do with brainstorming ideas and developing material for student facing communications. This enabled me to improve skills in designing graphics and social media content, working as a part of a team to raise awareness amongst students of the project, and contribute to ideas for the opening of the first building: The James McCune Smith Learning Hub. However, I also produced a number of pieces for internal communications newsletters for both staff and students which involved summarising key press articles and writing up/editing various interview material – telling people’s stories that were related to the project. This greatly enhanced general communication and video production/editing skills. One of these projects involved interviewing a PhD Immunology student named Kristyn who was inspired to study at Glasgow University by the story of James McCune Smith, who was the first African-American to ever receive a medical degree.
I firstly conducted some research on the story of James McCune Smith in preparation for the interview. I then proceeded to design the interview questions and confirm the final list of questions with my line manager. I emailed Kristyn back and forth to arrange a good time for her to meet in the lab and film the interview. This took a great deal of time management and organisational skills. My line manager accompanied me to the interview and filmed Kristyn whilst I interviewed her. This required me to demonstrate relational/social skills. We co-directed the filming and made sure to get a variety of shots of Kristyn in the lab as well as the core interview content. I then began to put together and edit the footage using Final Cut Pro with the guidance of Glasgow University’s Digital Media Co-ordinator Greig Gallagher. Once the video was finalised, I began to work on a written ‘blog post’ style article summarising the interview to accompany the video. Through this project I really felt I was given a real opportunity to getter a better grasp of video editing and production and improve upon those skills, as well as improving my written communication skills through the accompanying article.
The video and article were used for internal communications newsletter and shared on social media channels. I received very positive feedback by both my line manager and the social media team. Most importantly, Kristyn herself was also very pleased with the final result. The video, in particular, was very well received on social media channels and received many positive comments from followers of the University of Glasgow.
I firstly conducted some research on the story of James McCune Smith in preparation for the interview. I then proceeded to design the interview questions and confirm the final list of questions with my line manager. I emailed Kristyn back and forth to arrange a good time for her to meet in the lab and film the interview. This took a great deal of time management and organisational skills. My line manager accompanied me to the interview and filmed Kristyn whilst I interviewed her. This required me to demonstrate relational/social skills. We co-directed the filming and made sure to get a variety of shots of Kristyn in the lab as well as the core interview content. I then began to put together and edit the footage using Final Cut Pro with the guidance of Glasgow University’s Digital Media Co-ordinator Greig Gallagher. Once the video was finalised, I began to work on a written ‘blog post’ style article summarising the interview to accompany the video. Through this project I really felt I was given a real opportunity to getter a better grasp of video editing and production and improve upon those skills, as well as improving my written communication skills through the accompanying article.
The video and article were used for internal communications newsletter and shared on social media channels. I received very positive feedback by both my line manager and the social media team. Most importantly, Kristyn herself was also very pleased with the final result. The video, in particular, was very well received on social media channels and received many positive comments from followers of the University of Glasgow.
Get In Touch
Interested in talking to me more? Whether it be regarding employment opportunities, my Powerlifting pursuits or anything in between, I am always keen to chat and endeavour to respond to messages promptly.
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