I was matched to AXA Insurance through Change100, a charity organisation that provides an internship programme with the aim to improve the future for students and recent graduates and businesses in the UK.

I attended and assisted with AXA Live Boldly cycling event which took place at a popular cycling café, ‘Look mum no hands!’. I helped in decorating the place, registering customers and encouraging them to get involved in various activities such as static bike challenge, face painting and caricaturist. I also met British track cyclist, Phillip Hindes who is an Olympic gold medalist (one standing next to me at the right)!

One of the project included performing research on AXA’s 2020 strategy with other interns which was later presented at AXA’s London office. I also made and delivered an individual presentation on Information Marketing Communications (IMC) which included AXA and its main rival's recent campaign strategies such as Direct Line's '#directfix campaign' compared to AXA's 'Live Boldly' campaign. Additionally, as part of the firm's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), I got involved with the ‘Throwback Thursday’, a one day fundraising event for Alzheimer’s Research UK were I helped them raise £136.

I also got the opportunity to travel to AXA's London Office to attend the development sessions with other interns on the programme. The sessions included creating Personal Development Plan (PDP) and making a group video about why graduates should apply to AXA company. My internship experience with AXA helped me learn how to manage tasks and projects, how to carry myself in a fast paced professional environment and it helped improved on my verbal and written communication skills.

Books to Africa (BTA), is a society that collects unwanted books from the University of Kent campus and other external places which are then shipped to some African countries such as Nigeria and Morocco. The aim of the organisation is to educate children in Africa by equipping public schools in Africa with books and educational materials to immediately improve the quality of education for the poorest in society.

I was the Marketing Officer where I was in charged of marketing strategies and activities. I created and designed flyers and book marks for the fresher’s and re-freshers fair to promote the society and to encourage more students to join the volunteering organisation. Also, I organised a 60 minutes takeover which is a presentation to a large audience about African culture. I took the opportunity to explain more details about the society after the session. I also offered promotional materials such as free book marks and leaflets. As a result, I persuaded 15 people to join the society which and helped to attained about 35 unwanted books from students and teachers. The standout session resulted in raising £30 for my society through funding by the Kent Union. The presentation developed my verbal communication skills and boosted my confidence.

Moreover, I assisted in the society's biggest fundraising event which was the Crispy Cream event where we raised over £600. Other fundraising events I helped to organised are Pancake Day, selling homemade Christmas cards, designing t-shirts for BTA's marathon and the Easter Treasure Hunt. The money raised was added to the £1,000 project to build a Community Library in Ganawuri, Nigeria (to build and equip the community's only library and equip it with 5000 books and 5 computers with internet access).

Refreshers Fayre allows students especially those on their first year, to know what Kent Union offers them. This ranges from sports clubs to societies and a lot more.

I was the Marketing Officer for Books to Africa (BTA) society and therefore attended the event to make students aware of what the society is about and our objectives. I also persuaded individuals to register their names to our cause using my sales skills. It was significant because we needed more volunteers to help with fundraising events to achieve our £1000 target which will be used to set up a community library in Nigeria. I persuaded the potential volunteer students to join the team by informing them about the benefits of volunteering which include being awarded a Kent Student Certificate Volunteering (KSCV) and attending social events for team building. Moreover, I distributed promotional materials including BTA book marks and posters that I created and designed. These contained all the details of the society to further increase awareness about the brand and what the organisation stands for.

I attended IBM's Consulting Experience Day, which covered business consultancy. The session was a 1-day training session that involved a range of interactive exercises. For example, one of the exercises was a role play with us as Consultants providing advice to our clients based on their case study. This was a unique opportunity to gain exposure to real life Consultancy work which was very exciting.

As an international student from the Gambia, I was really keen to share my great experience with other oversees students about life in University of Kent. The reason being to give them the reassurance that they will get the right support to settle in the UK. That was why I grabbed the opportunity of becoming a global student ambassador. 

I attended the International Forum in the Darwin Conference Suite on campus. We discussed the subject of Global Citizenship which was presented in front of about 80 guests. I also assisted in promoting Global Citizenship at the university by making a short video with other global student ambassadors. For the Canterbury town tour, I showed international students from around the world popular places in Canterbury, such as the Cathedral. I also did a campus tour for University of Kent’s Educational Partners including Brussels, Turkey and Germany.

Clear Books is a fast growing small business that provide services such as 'Cloud'. My internship experience with the business working as the Marketing Executive allowed me to work with the Account Management department. Through working with this team, I was able to use the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to network and build relationships with clients by informing them of future events such as the ‘Community Networking’ event. I was also trained on how to use Link Building, where I was educated on how the business establishes relevant inbound links to its website in order to achieve higher rankings with the major search engines and drive targeted traffic to its site.

Moreover, I generated an online survey on what motivates start-up small businesses using Google forms from which I received 97 respondents. I then worked closely with the design team to change the numerical results from the survey into infographic. Furthermore, I produced a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) article about how the firm was sponsoring local deprived schools and other charity organisations.  Finally, I performed bench-marking market research on Clear Book's competitors such as Xero, using Microsoft Excel. This experience helped improve my IT and written communication skills.

Chaucer Speakers Club provide individuals with learning techniques, practice skills and helps them build confidence in communicating with large groups of people. I won a free membership after attending University of Kent Employability Points Scheme (EPS) presentation workshop, which was organised and presented by the club on campus. 

Joining the club encouraged me to get out of my comfort zone and my confidence escalated as each member had to make a speech in front of the audience. Also, the team were very welcoming and supportive which enabled me to quickly adapt to the environment. The experience had an immense impact on my academic and work presentations because I was able to speak precisely and with impact. The best part was interacting and building rapport with influential and experienced individuals.

One of my main passions is volunteering therefore during my one year placement, I participated in a community volunteering with Cancer Research UK who are one of the largest charity organisations in the UK. As a sales assistant, I served customers and made the shop look neat and tidy. I also ensured that I provided excellent customer service, a skill which I learned from People 1st WorldHost Customer Service Training course back in College. My enthusiastic and energetic attitude resulted in high levels of customer satisfaction which attracted repeat buyers. The flexibility of the job allowed me to also work as a visual merchandiser, where I creatively displayed the shop items.  Overall, volunteering for Cancer Research UK helped build up my people and multi-tasking skills.

Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) London provides superior educational support and career access to young people from under-represented and under-served backgrounds to help maximise their opportunities for university and career success.

I attended a workshop about how to communicate effectively especially when working in the corporate environment. I was really impressed with meeting undergraduates from other universities who were also highly ambitious like me.

Despite being able to speak English and two native languages, I intended to learn another well-known foreign language. I chose French because after studying A1 French at Alliance Francoise in Gambia, my love for the language escalated. This will also benefit my future career as I plan to work for an international company and to travel a lot. Therefore having a second language will give me an edge in the international business world.

To inject a bit of fun to my university experience, I joined the Africa Society which made me feel closer to home. They organised socials, field trips and other events such as barbeques and fashion shows. It felt great being part of the vibrant family of international students from the different regions of Africa including students from Nigeria, Ghana and Zambia.

Being a member of the society gave me the chance to attend a memorable event which was University of Kent's first African fashion show. It was here I gained exposure to African performers and the models who showed off exquisite African prints and clothing designs. I also took part in debates, discussions, forums and presentations about Political, Economic, Social and Environmental issues occurring in some African countries.

I attended a skills development session in Marketing that covers different types of social media including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. I learned how to market myself through LinkedIn when finding graduate jobs and the benefit of building my professional profile through the use of social media.

The Hub for Innovation and Enterprise is the University of Kent's dedicated support for student enterprise and start-up guidance; providing support to students, staff and graduates wishing to start a business.

I attended skills workshops to further enhance my business skills. This included workshops such as developing marketing research and planning cash flow. The sessions were also helpful when I competed with other Young Entrepreneurs on my business ideas.

I attended the careers fair at University of Kent which gave me a chance to visit two halls of exhibitors offering graduate and undergraduate opportunities. These ranged from Insight Days, Summer Internships, Year in Industry placements to Graduate Schemes. Not only did I benefit from gaining a larger network base, I also attained a greater understanding in my field in Business. Moreover, l learned about other new job opportunities such as tourism and consultancy which I will be pursuing in my Masters Degree.

Sleeping Giant Media is a search and social marketing agency, based in Kent. It focuses on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Pay Per Click and Social Media Marketing. I spent 2 weeks working with the business were I did a job rotation in Marketing, Finance and Communication. Within Marketing, I assisted with generating their online newsletters using MailChimp software. With the Finance team, I was given a task to create a payroll spreadsheet for employees. I also got the chance to work closely with the  Communications department, were I did some research on how the firm can improve on its marketing strategies including its SEO.

Kent and Student Certificate Volunteering (KSCV) is an award scheme whereby students, through the E&V Toolkit, can log volunteering hours to achieve various levels of certification.

I was able to achieve the Bronze and Silver Award after collecting points from volunteering activities including Books to Africa and Cancer Research UK.