Hi, I’m Mehwish. I was given the opportunity to join Resilience Brokers as a Sustainability Projects Intern. Resilience Brokers helps organisations to use systems thinking to improve the climate resilience of places.
Climate resilience is the capacity to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to hazardous events, trends, or shocks related to climate.
During my internship, I undertook five research tasks that revolved primarily around building resilient communities and communicating with stakeholders. These included:
• Visualising research findings on post-Covid green recovery
• Designing project flyers and branding for the organisation
• Analysing social media activities
• Researching water sector-related infrastructure interdependencies
• Working on enhancing the business development strategy
I took this internship because I had a keen interest in climate resilience and it proved to be a very insightful experience. Connecting with like-minded people and sharing ideas made it easier to bring about changes in different sectors including water, education and local governments. Interactions with colleagues from across the globe introduced me to a whole new world of collaboration.
Through this experience, I have developed my skills, including resilience. Having worked in an in-person environment all my life, I found it difficult adjusting to the workplace culture virtually, without having met any of my colleagues in person. Using remote working tools such as Slack was a shift from the usual communication platforms I was acquainted with. Gradually I adapted and by the end I became so comfortable with the regular pattern that I felt as if I had been doing this for years!
The flyer designing and strategy-making tasks enabled me to bring out my creative side, along with embracing diverse perspectives from sources provided to me.
As a whole, my experience with Resilience Brokers was fascinating, and I would recommend it to anyone who wishes to gain experience in this line of work. Part of what made this internship so beneficial for me was getting to know people from different backgrounds, and the opportunity to enhance my skills from their expertise. If you are lucky enough to be offered a chance to work here, do take every opportunity that comes your way. You certainly won’t regret it!
The SME Internship Scheme
The SME Internship Scheme is open and we are currently advertising internships that you can apply for. Check out our website for more information, and details on how to participate.
If you have any questions about the scheme, or anything else relating to careers you can speak to us on live chat.
Read more blogs in our “My SME Internship” series to hear about other SMEs that our students have worked with.