I am the president of the Digital Media Society at the University of Kent which has given me the opportunity to work with a number of external clients on various design projects. My role as president includes mediating with clients, organising meetings, securing funding and sponsorship and working to deliver solutions to project briefs. I also organise workshops and training sessions to build the skills of our members.

I was able to secure Sponsorship funding from Accenture for our society which helped us to promote ourselves within the University. I gained experience in writing a Sponsorship Proposal and corresponded with professionals at Accenture. I then had a phone interview to discuss the terms of the sponsorship and was able to use my negotiation skills to talk about the funding amount. It has benefited the society as it gave us a helping hand in developing and enhancing the wider student experience.

I was the Project Leader for the film and photography coverage of the 4-week long Employability Festival with over 100 events at the University of Kent. The Project lasted from October 2015 - February 2016. My role required me to organise and co-ordinate a team of students and equipment to deliver 3 videos of the event. I was the editor of all three videos and in charge of taking photography and collating everyone’s work together. Not only did I improve my technical skills, I also improved my interpersonal and communication skills as I had to delegate work and be in contact with clients, exhibitors and students. I have improved my problem-solving skills as we faced a number of challenges and logistical considerations to overcome. I have benefited my team-working and team-management skills as I took the opportunity to help others in the Digital Media Society learn by putting them into teams and teaching them editing techniques.

On April 1st 2015 I was able to support the EDA department on Applicant Day by giving a presentation about the Digital Media Society. I have given many presentations about the Digital Media Society to the EDA department on various Open Days and Applicant Days, as well as Employability Sessions hosted in the Jennison Building. These presentations help to promote our society and also give others an insight into how to gain more experience and boost their portfolio. I was also able to talk to various prospective students about life at the University of Kent and answer any questions they had about the society and the course I am doing.

I attended Standout Training on 29th February 2016 about Leadership and Teamwork. We did group exercises to determine what makes a good leader and I also did a quiz to find out what sort of leader I am. I found out ways in which I can improve my Leadership skills and the most effective team working techniques.

I attended a Health and Safety Training course organised by Kent Union and learnt about health and safety when organising events and being on campus. I learnt about identifying risks and completing a risk assessment, and how I can overcome risks associated with certain events. I also learnt about the importance of recycling and the different bins on campus for different types of waste.

I have worked with the NHS to create a video promoting their new Single Point of Access system for those in need of assistance with their mental health. The task required me and two others to film various members of the NHS team including nurses, GP’s and the Executive Director. I then edited the interviews adding text and visual effects to create one informational video for their internal website. This was the very first filming project I had ever undertaken, so there was a lot to learn with filming, sound mixing and video editing.

I helped the NHS School of Psychiatry (Health Education Kent, Sussex and Surrey) re-design their website utilising engaging digital elements to promote the school to prospective doctors. My role also required me to create content for the website in the form of videos and photography. I filmed and edited 4 videos of members of the School of Psychiatry including the Head of the School; Dr Alastair Forest and 3 doctors in different stages of training to be featured on the website. I had to make sure it was consistent with the existing website structure and used the same colour scheme. I therefore had many discussions with NHS officials during the designing process, including presenting Photoshop mock-ups of proposed ideas and incorporating their own plans for the website functionality.

I was the creator of a promotional video of behalf of the NHS to encourage recent medical graduates and doctors to go on to study Psychiatry. I filmed Professor Sir Simon Wesseley at the Royal College of Psychiatry in London as well as various consultants talking about the different areas of psychiatry and why they chose to become specialists in the area. I was able to network with professionals and experience working alongside experts at the top of their field.

I designed the website visuals for a treasure hunt welcome week activity for the school of Engineering and Digital Arts. I also designed some mini activities in Photoshop and Autodesk Maya 3D to provide students with clues to the puzzle and introduce them to simple functions in the programs. It helped build upon my team working and communication skills and I was able to contribute to the student experience in welcome week.

 I was thrilled to receive this reward at the very special EP rewards evening at the Historic Dockyard in Chatham! University of Kent HIVE have given me invaluable advice and support to develop my business idea as well as my business acumen. I am incredibly thankful to the EP Team, University of Kent HIVE and Sustainability Connections for sponsoring the award.