What were your main duties and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

My key objective was to ensure the delivery of several outputs relating to the EU-funded Living with a Changing Coast project. This involved: writing and overseeing the production of a 14-page magazine; organising an event for key project stakeholders; working with partner and external organisations to write, design and oversee the production of interpretation panels for the Exe Estuary; overseeing the delivery of two project-critical reports; writing and overseeing the production of an information leaflet focusing on the heritage of the area, and how the coastlines have changed over time. Additionally, I was responsible for ensuring that critical elements of the Partnership’s work was delivered while there was no permanent Officer in place, ensuring that partners, stakeholders and members of the public had a point of contact; that issues requiring immediate or short-term responses were addressed; that the Partnership remained active in national or international legislative projects that affected the area (e.g. Marine Protected Area and European Marine Site designation); and that ongoing concerns such as the website and community clean up events did not experience any break in continuity.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

Contributing to a European project with only a day or so to familiarise myself with its goals, objectives and internal idiosyncrasies.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I think the largest impact I had was being able to step into the breach in terms of the LiCCo deliverables, following the resignation of the previous Exe Estuary Officer. I do not think these outputs would have been delivered without an intern.

Did you encounter any problems during the course of your internship and if so, how did you overcome them?

I worked very much in isolation for the majority of the project (i.e. little managerial/supervisory support). I sought help and advice from other partner organisations to get round this.