During their first and second semesters, many GLOCAL V students took on internships or volunteering jobs to complement their studies. Below, the students share their experiences as an intern or volunteer while studying GLOCAL.
For more information about GLOCAL Careers, you may want to read the ultimate GLOCAL job-hunting guide and the GLOCAL Careers series!
Alejandra Cruz - Intern, Games and Gaming Lab
I worked as an intern at the University of Glasgow’s Games and Gaming Lab during my first semester at GLOCAL. The Lab, supervised by university lecturers, supports various cross-disciplinary research related to Games and Gaming. The Games and Gaming Lab provided a chance for two GLOCAL students and two IMSISS students (another EMJMD program) to engage as interns in the Tempest Project, an educational wargame about climate change. I learned about the possibility through an internal email from the university placement staff before I even arrived in Glasgow.
During my internship, I had the opportunity to work on the co-creation of a wargame that tried to mimic an environmental disaster in Glasgow. The game’s concept envisioned a flood in the city and the situation is handled by many actors, all of whom were to be played by postgraduate students (roles included politicians, police, civilians, and so on). For the internship, I had to conduct research on many types of data and concepts, such as crisis management, floods, and city mapping. I also contributed to the game’s plot and outcomes. This was a collaborative effort with my fellow teammates and the support of Dr. Tim Peacock (one of the Lab’s co-directors).
Connect with me via LinkedIn.
Bridget Bofinger - Marketing Executive, Actify
After my semester in Glasgow, I subscribed to the weekly newsletters from the University of Glasgow Career services and frequently explored the job offerings within the online career services database. Eventually, this led to my marketing internship at Actify. Actify is a small social enterprise based in Glasgow that offers training services and an online platform for sports, health, and fitness organizations to improve their reach and results. I started my role remotely in March during my semester in Barcelona, and this summer, I am back in Glasgow working in person.
Because Actify is a very new and small organization, consisting of six people, I have an opportunity to explore many responsibilities and projects. I have been building a marketing strategy, researching the market and target audience for the platform, and developing a brand identity and key messages to best communicate the value of our organization. I am also running their social media accounts, writing and sending out promotional emails, and recruiting new people to sign-up for our training. Recently, I attended an Actify hands-on training session where I took photos and videos of the activities and created content to promote on our digital channels. I am so appreciative of this incredible experience!
Connect with me via LinkedIn.
Jonny Amon - Marketing Automation, OMMAX
During the peak of the pandemic, I began a job in Munich at OMMAX. OMMAX is a digital consultancy that helps companies with their digital marketing needs. The range of services that OMMAX offers is huge, from social media to strategy and providing help with transactions for private equity clients. Over the last two years, the company has grown tremendously, from roughly 100 when I first began, to over 220 today.
During my time at OMMAX, my position has shifted as the company continues to grow. Originally, I was in the Content & PR division. Here, my role was often to help create marketing material and help analyze company websites. When OMMAX took on a new client, I would look at their digital presence, the website, social media, email newsletters, and help determine what they might be able to do better. As the company grew, the Content division was divided in different sections. Currently, I work in Marketing Automation as a Working Student. Here, the team helps clients build up their various email workflows, and nurtures relationships in order to keep them coming back. OMMAX continues to grow, and it will be interesting to see where it goes in the coming years.
Connect with me via LinkedIn.
Spencer Long - Microfinance Fund Management, Innpact
For the past two months, I have been interning at Innpact, an impact investing firm based in Luxembourg. My internship is with the Microfinance Fund Management team in which we invest in banks that focus on microloans in developing countries. In my role, I am supporting the data collection for the portfolio database, including corporate, financial, ESG, and impact data and review. I also assist with the creation of portfolio monitoring reports and participate in improving the existing reporting tools and templates.
I was able to secure this internship because I was volunteering at COP26 while studying in Glasgow and I met a fund manager at an event. I met several interesting people within the sustainability and development world and after a few informational interviews was asked if I would be interested in interning at the company. Before GLOCAL I worked for several environmental non-profits and international development agencies but this will be my first foray into the finance side of sustainability. In this internship, I hope to expand my data analysis abilities and gain more experience in ESG monitoring.
Connect with me via LinkedIn.
SzuTung Chen - Ambassador, READL
Starting in March 2022, I was an ambassador of a startup called READL in Barcelona. READL is a blockchain company that aims at reshaping the book publishing industry and bringing it to Web3. Content creators can create non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to own true content ownership and royalties on the blockchain. Readers can also purchase book NFTs to crowdfund and support their favorite authors.
I came across READL when I was working on a consultancy project at the University of Barcelona in January, and I became intrigued by the idea of establishing a fair economic model for content creators while creating an open space for authors, artists, publishers, and readers to connect and interact with each other freely. The ambassadors help to manage the community, create book or blockchain-related content, and host activities or events on Twitter and Discord. Working in a rather new startup, I was given a lot of opportunities to come up with new ideas and focus on what I wanted to work on. Every ambassador was able to contribute to the program based on their expertise. As the semester ended in May, I now have more time to actively participate in the work. At the end of June, I will co-host the first trivia game for books on the READL Discord channel!
Connect with me via LinkedIn.
- Read more about consultancy projects at the University of Barcelona.
- Learn how to put theories into practice and find a dream job from Melanie’s summer internship experience in Romania.
- Check out some tips about how to balance work and studies during GLOCAL.