Go Abroad blog

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Working in the Vulvarium Studio (Austria)

Ella Clancy, BA Design student, received funding towards her work placement at the Vulvarium.

How did you source your placement?  

I followed Vulvarium on Instagram. I was super interested in their work and kept sliding into their DMs asking questions about their work as well as for internship opportunities. Viki, behind the account, replied to my questions and we had a good back and forth however it was always a ‘no’ to any internship enquiries. However, after gaining the grant from Santander, I managed to convince the Vulvarium Studio it was a great idea to take me on. Which of course it was. 

What were the highlights of your experience abroad?  

There were so many highlights to my experience abroad, the first one that springs to mind was what a pleasure it was making new friends. They each wanted to show me their favourite spots and homes, they took me on gorgeous hikes in the mountains and shared their rock-climbing kit with me as well as crazy queer raves that only the locals would know. These girls are now my friends for life, we talk on a weekly basis and they have already visited me in London for my birthday. I hope to meet them again next summer, and the summer after that… Another massive highlight was that I was able to learn skills I otherwise wouldn’t have had the chance or the time for. As well as learn about subject areas I wouldn’t have touched upon at university. I learned so much about each woman I worked with predominantly about her relationship with her vulva and body. These kinds of conversations are something I am sure I would have never ever had without this internship and now it is like as second nature to me.

Internship in New York

Emily Bianconi, a BA Curating student, completed an internship in New York during the summer of her second year.

A young woman with sunglasses up on her head smiling at the camera with a view of a sunset and blue sky with the sun reflecting on the ocean in the backdrop

On the ferry to the Statue of Liberty

On the 1^st of July 2022 I left for New York, for an experience that would change my life. I was there for just over a month, working in the education department of the Queens Museum. The opportunity came earlier in the year when I had the idea to do an internship abroad. By speaking to my tutor about it, she told me about an opportunity that was intended for 3^rd year students but hadn’t had much attention from them. When she told me about it, I immediately knew it was perfect for me. I was a little tight with the application deadlines as I love a lastminute idea but fortunately I managed to send all the documents on time. The study abroad team at Goldsmiths are very helpful and quick to respond so it makes it a lot easier and less stressful to apply and have everything you need prepared for your departure.

When we got there, the staff at the Queens Museum had an induction day prepared for all the summer interns. They showed us around the museum, introduced us to all the people working there and guided us through their policies and projects for the future. I was placed in the education department where I had a desk and a supervisor. They were all very friendly and open to hearing our ideas and points of view. Me and the other girl working in the same sector ended up taking over a project and having our own space to completely organise an event aimed at starting conversations between teenagers around topics that are important to them. We also got the chance to help with all the events going on in the museum during the month. This was valuable as we got to test out other positions within the institution.

a room with tables and chairs set up along the sides and people working on them in groups

An event I helped organise

Pisa Summer School

Read the blog post of Lydia Hiraide, a BSc Politics and International Relations student who attended a summer school at the University of Pisa. Lydia received funding by Santander Universities.

I am very keen on travelling as a way to enrich my research, so I often spend a lot of time looking online for opportunities abroad. I was thrilled when I found the Politics Ontologies Ecologies summer school at the University of Pisa whilst searching on Google for summer schools relating to my field. I thought this would be a fantastic chance to discover a new city whilst engaging in some of the most urgent conversations and discussions ongoing in the field of my research.

My experience abroad in Pisa will be one that I always remember. It was my first time ever visiting Pisa and my first time attending a summer school in person – I was very pleasantly surprised with the great balance between attending really challenging but interesting classes and being able to discover this magical city.

Lydia, a young woman, sitting on a short brick wall with the leaning tower of Pisa in the backdrop. Everyday, classes started bright and early. Every morning I prepared myself a hearty breakfast before walking down the beautiful riverside to the University of Pisa. Once I arrived, I always found a few minutes to chat to others and settle in before the first session. Each session consisted of a presentation from some of the top academics in my field before some discussion. Then, with plenty of time for lunch, I tried a new spot to discover the local cuisine everyday. The food in Pisa was delicious – so different from the food back home. And there were so many different dishes to try!

One morning during the summer school, each of the student participants shared our own research project which we discussed collaboratively. This was a great chance to practice communicating research whilst getting to learn about other peoples’ ongoing projects. It was very exciting.

Some of the highlights of my experience in Pisa included discovering the town and its culinary delights in my spare time. The Leaning Tower is magnificent – a sight that photos simply can’t do justice! I also really enjoyed the opportunity to be in a room full of students and scholars working on similar topics to me. The discussions were extremely stimulating and I felt very lucky to actually meet some of the scholars whose work has been very important for my own research. It’s a special experience to be able to put a face to a name you’ve been reading for months.

Summer School in Korea

Hannan Nassir-Deen, a BSc Psychology student was awarded funding by Santander Universities to study at the Yonsei University summer school in Korea. You can read about her experience below.

I found this opportunity online. I think I just searched up summer schools in Korea, something along those lines. I had already heard about the university (Yonsei) beforehand, so I was comfortable pursuing studies there.

I explored the area around the university.

After daily lectures, I would explore the campus, finding places to study and admiring the buildings. The campus had so many areas to study and relax. They even had dedicated napping areas!

Data Science Summer School in Wrocław, Poland

Sam, a Media and Communications student, attended a two-week data science summer school in Wrocław, Poland. He was awarded funding from Santander Universities to help cover the costs of his placement.

I decided I wanted to take advantage of the Go Abroad programme but came to the idea quite late. Looking around on the internet, I came across the Data Science summer school in Wrocław. I’d always wanted to try and work on my computer programming skills after several aborted attempts at self-education throughout my adulthood, and I’d never been to Poland but I knew that it has a fascinating history, so I took the plunge.

Learning French in Toulouse

Katherine Karr, a MA Cultural Policy, Relations and Diplomacy student, completed a French language course in Toulouse. She was awarded a £300 Santander Universities Go Abroad bursary to help fund her experience.

As a Canadian student, when I was younger, I took my elementary school years of education in French. From a young age to about 13 years old, I was completely fluent in both English and French. However, when it came to go to High School, I decided to go to an English school where I didn’t have any opportunity to uphold my second language. This led to me, sadly, losing my ability to speak in French. Although I took a few classes, I knew if I truly wanted to regain my bilingualism I needed to go back into an immersive experience. It is for this reason that I sought out an immersion class in France while studying at Goldsmiths. After looking online, I discovered that Toulouse has an intensive 2-week program that was meant for intermediate learners – it sounded perfect!

For two weeks I lived with a French couple in the outskirts of the beautiful Toulouse. I went to class every morning where I engaged with other international students or recently immigrated individuals who were trying to either learn French from scratch or improving their abilities like me. I learned rather quickly that the group was quite diverse (and that I may have underestimated my abilities by being in a lower level class) and eager to learn just like me. However, getting to live with a French family who spoke little English pushed me to speak in French all the time when I was out of class and really made me feel immersed in the language. Although the classes were useful, the immersion was truly what worked for me.

One of the highlights of my every day schedule was going to the little bakery on the corner – picking up a baguette for breakfast or just chatting with the shop owner after a long day of class and work. The pace was very different to London and was a good reminder that sometimes it’s a good idea to just slow down.

My biggest challenge while abroad was that I sprained my ankle badly. Although in the UK I knew what I would have to do, being in France – and on a religious holiday weekend – I realized I had no clue what the process was or how to find a GP. Thankfully, my host family was very gracious and offered to help me get medicine and even book a doctor’s appointment. Although I’ll be healing from the injury for several months, I am very grateful to have had the support of locals. If I had one tip – other than making sure you have travel insurance of course – it would be to ensure you have at least one local friend while you’re abroad. You might feel inclined to hang out with other expats or internationals, but in times of crisis it’s nice to have someone who knows the area.

Overall, my experience going abroad with the Alliance Toulouse and Go Abroad was amazing. Not only did I get to have a structured class to practice French, getting to live in an amazing city like Toulouse where not many people spoke English was a huge plus. I really got to feel immersed in the culture and would not exchange my experience for anything.

The funding for this opportunity was provided by Santander Universities.

Volunteering with refugees in Greece

Lauren Haley, a BA Anthropology student, spent a month working with migrants and refugees in Athens with the help of Santander Universities Go Abroad funding.

Following a successful application for Go Abroad funding, I spent 4 weeks in Athens volunteering with refugees/migrants. Despite extensive attempts, the informality of organisations supporting refugees/migrants due to lack of central funding meant it was quite difficult to plan ahead. However, the flexibility of the Santander Go International Bursary meant I could still receive this financial support by providing evidence part way through my placement. When arriving in Athens, through the initial outreach I made prior to flying, I was put in contact with an autonomous organisation who provide teaching by volunteers in squats, as they cannot access state-facilitated education.

Interning in New York

P Johnson, a BA History of Art student, completed an internship at a museum in New York over the summer. They were awarded a £1,000 Santander Universities Go Abroad bursary to help fund their experience.

Thanks to funding provided by Go Abroad I was able to travel to New York City for an internship at the Queens Museum in August 2019. I found the internship through the help of my tutor at university which I am incredibly grateful for. As part of my course I needed to spend some time in a work placement to partake in a research project, and mentioned that I would really want to travel, especially to somewhere like New York, if possible. She put me in contact with the people at the Queens Museum, and after a series of emails and phone calls they were happy to host me. We agreed on me spending roughly 3 weeks at the gallery and I decided to extend my trip to an entire month in order to really get a good amount of time to explore the city. This trip was to be my first time in the US, and because I was going to be travelling along for a fairly long period of time I was initially incredibly nervous.

Tech in Berlin: conference and Hackathon

BSc Computer Science student, Jheng-Hao Lin, travelled to Berlin for a week to participate in a conference and a Hackathon. He received £500 of funding to support his experience.

Thanks to Santander’s Go International Bursary, I had the chance to travel to Berlin and attend two interesting tech events: ‘Berlin Buzzwords Conference’ and ‘Talk to me, Berlin’.

‘Berlin Buzzwords’ was a conference on storing, processing and searching large amounts of digital data. The attendants were either data scientists, data engineers or researchers who were experts in the domain. As a novice in the data science area, I worked as a volunteer to assist the event and tried to absorb some knowledge.

For the last three days, I attended a hackathon named ‘Talk to me, Berlin’. It was sponsored by the Amazon Alexa team, Google and other companies related voice interface technologies.

Remote South African NGO Internship

Malikah Ullah, an undergraduate Psychology student, is currently completing a remote internship with South African non-profit, Ikamva Labantwana. She was awarded funding from Santander Universities to help cover the costs of her placement. Malikah is blogging about her experience of interning virtually – read part one below. Part two and three are available on Malikah’s blog.

Since June, I have been an intern at South Africa’s Ikamva Labantwana which means ‘our children’s future’ in Xhosa. As a centre for at-risk children, I identify with the beliefs of Ikamva strongly; especially on the importance of education. By providing local young people who are out-of-school or need support after-school with informative and practical modules, they allow students to keep learning and not be held back by geography or circumstance. Not only is Ikamva a learning space, it is a safe haven for kids and a productive use of their time.

This internship was organised by VACorps who worked swiftly to secure me an internship that suited my personality. I was looking for something that would involve people and helping people, which Ikamva focus on. It was a perfect match! Not only was internship a quick and easy match, I was supported by #SantanderUniUK who provided funding making sure finance didn’t put me off.

I think the opportunity to do a remote internship has been one positive to come from COVID (maybe the only good thing!). Due to travel restrictions, internships in South Africa’s townships have been made possible which were otherwise too rural to reach. Not only has working at Ikamva been rewarding, but I’ve learnt a ton about how to conduct research and make raw data and information both engaging and teachable. As a psychology student, this internship has allowed me real-life experience conducting research on sensitive subjects, including sexual violence, in order to create a final informative yet understanding piece which could be communicated to young girls. This is not unlike producing lab reports or communicating research products to the public as we do in my course.

A part of this research was attending a Zoom talk about how COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affecting women in Africa. It was hosted by Africa.com and attended by the awesome politician and humanitarian Graca Machel and philanthropist Melinda Gates. Both women had great ideas about how having a seat at the table on all levels of the government and policy-making boards will benefit all women up as they become a part of the decision-making process. This was actually an opportunity that was put on my radar by my supervisor at Ikamva; it was excellent to see how far women supporting women can get you.

For one of my tasks, I had the challenge of creating a life skills module just for girls aged 10-17 years old on issues that they felt were neglected in school including bullying, consent and having tangible female role models. I took this responsibility extremely seriously and worked hard to find black women who had done great work and changed all of our lives in some way – to which there were many! I wanted to select a few who could inspire the girls and show them that there is no limit to what they could do and become. One problem that the girls fed back was feeling underappreciated and having achievement go unrewarded. At Ikamva, they created an annual showcase for the girls’ work in response to this. This aptly sums up how Ikamva is there to help and develop the youth.

By working with such an ethos, it follows suit that the staff are lovely and very accommodating. It’s been nice to have prompt communication and feedback especially now that my first year at university has concluded. Keeping busy is also important since I have been shielding at home since March! In this sense, remotely interning in a country with a different society and other languages than mine has been a great opportunity that I definitely didn’t want to pass up.

Meetings via Zoom have posed their own challenges with timing differences and issues with connectivity, but it always works out in the end. Technology is really the thing that made this internship possible. I feel privileged to intern at a place that keeps in contact, check in on me and that provides proper support.

Maybe next year I will be in South Africa in person but for now, I’m super happy to work around my own schedule and I am enjoying working from home.

For part two and three, please visit Malikah’s blog.