150th Anniversary, events, yearbook and more

Grace:
At the start of my internship I received lots of training, including fundraising, databases and group intern training. It has been really enjoyable and interesting to have regular training with the interns across the University. Being trained in the database has in no way been boring as I wrongly expected - it’s been so useful in understanding how we can maximise communication with our alumni.

I’m also happy to say I have just become a qualified fundraiser, having passed my introductory certificate, which is great as Brookes' Development office are members of the Institute.





Within the faculty, I have been working hard on organising events as part of our 150th celebration.

This has involved working on public lectures and dinners, and has given me the opportunity to get used to meeting with employees across the university.





I’ve had the chance to try my hand at producing material for print, liaising with designers and copy editors, designing posters and a Department of Planning Alumni Newsletter.

I have dealing with all sorts of requests and queries (both phone and email), writing press releases, leading focus groups with students, creating electronic direct mail and regularly talking on the phone (which I have loved).


Sarah:
Last semester, was the start of my internship and I was completing a lot of training on fundraising, databases, and group interns training. This training is really beneficial to my career and I now have some professional training that I can add to my CV.

As time went on, it got steadily busier with several projects building in the Faculty of Business and the Alumni Relations office. In the alumni office, as well as continuing some of the previous interns’ work, Grace, Joe and I launched the Yearbook Reps scheme to promote Yearbook 2015 to students. In addition, we started to plan a joint event between Careers and Alumni, and I also worked the launch of the 150th Anniversary International Wave in Hong Kong.

Whilst in the Faculty of Business, I started to put together a round table discussion, two 150th Anniversary events, a brand new newsletter, and a reunion dinner. I even got the opportunity to help run the bingo in a No Mince Pies event for the local community!
 
I’m looking forward to seeing all of these events through the end in the next semester and completing my training courses in leadership (ILM) and marketing (City and Guilds).

Joe:

The first four months of my internship have flown by and have already been packed full of events and activities.  September was mainly filled with my induction, which involved meeting a lot of new faces and drinking lots of coffee.  We also began our internship training series, which gave me the chance to meet all of the other interns from across the university.  

By October I had started work in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, my designated faculty for the year.  I attended a few faculty events to get a feel for the kind of things going on there, before beginning to introduce myself to the various heads of departments and get the ball rolling.  

Most of my time in the Faculty so far has been spent organising events for the 150th anniversary celebrations this year.  These include a 10 year physiotherapy reunion, an Occupational Therapy alumni lecture and a faculty wide careers events for final year students.  I also helped to create a newsletter for the department of Clinical Health Care, where I have been involved in the planning for the 125 Years of Nursing in Oxford anniversary, happening in 2016.  

More centrally, all three of us have started work on the 2015 Yearbook, enlisting a number of 'Yearbook Reps' from the current final year cohort to help us plan and advertise the book.  We are also planning a university-wide careers event and have all become qualified fundraisers.  It’s been quite a productive few months in hindsight!

With 2015 now upon us, I’m greatly looking forward to getting stuck in with finalising the events I have been planning as part of the 150th anniversary celebrations.  The year has already started off memorably for me, as I interviewed Doris Simms, our oldest living alumna on her 96th birthday about her time at the Oxford Schools of Technology, Arts and Commerce in 1935 (eight decades ago!).  

You can see the interview on the new 150th Anniversary timeline.