The long and winding road! Keith's final blog.

Well here we are counting down the hours before the end of our internship. Well it has been and enjoyable and worthwhile experience. I would recommend it to anyone. Think carefully about which position would best suit what you enjoy and would like to do in the future and then go for it.

I’ve done loads and loads of things, met great people and had a laugh.

Now thats all left for me to say is:

"Regrets, Ive had a few;But then again, too few to mention.I did what I had to doAnd saw it through without exemption.I planned each charted course;Each careful step along the byway,But more, much more than this,I did it my way........................................"

Amazing mega-happy hour!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yo! (especially Deborah who wanted a special mention)

This is team PRU talking from the backend of a ford escort. This is the final day of the summer internships...and we will be all going our seperate ways. To remind you of team PRU, we have Zoe (the vegan - who contributed nothing to this blog), Ross (the Boris) and Ben (the tramp).

Zoe will be returning to University, because despite a degree and work experience, she remains unemployable and will be doing a Masters in Public Policy and Governance. Ross will be a slacker and lazy by going to do a ski season, travelling and then using his experience at PRU to use the benefit system to its full potential. Ben, like Zoe, having a degree and work expeirence still means he is unemployable and will be going to Parliament to do another internship for an MP.

Over the last few months with have had a super-dupa awesome fun time (see previous blog for reference to this) and throughout have remained amazingly mega-happy all day. We would like to thank all of PRU for their support and especially thank our line-managers - Zoe, Kim and Alison.

Though we will all be leaving Barnardo's, we shall remain belivers (beat chest twice and throw arm up) and are all attending the End Child Poverty Rally on October 4th!

This quote, we feel, sums-up our experience: "spinning around, ooooooooo, i'm spinning around, move out of my way, i no you feel it, I know you're feelin' me 'cause you like it like this"

Ben, Zoe (who didn't contribute anything to this blog) and Ross (who come to think about it, didn't contribute either)

Last Words

It's over and it was brilliant.

For prospective interns who care about this cause, then apply and be successful. Nothing expresses priority greater than action.

To all current interns and staff, goodbye and good luck.

Haneef Khan.

Ashley's last blog...

So today is the last day of the internship. Most of us are in the Borough office today, ready for a presentation of certificates later. Also looking forward to painting the town red - or should that be green? - afterwards in one of the bars across the road.

I should probably give you a summary of what's been happening in the past couple of weeks, as I haven't written for that long! Fun'raising Week went well, raising almost £3,000 through everything from rounders matches to cake sales. We've also seen Connect, the staff magazine go to print - seeing the finished PDFs in all their lovely design glory was rather exciting!

I also got to go to Glasgow for the day, to interview an ex-service user at the Youth Involvement Project. It felt rather indulgent to fly twice in the same day! I was then given the task of writing an entire four-page article for the next edition of Barnardo's Today, which goes out to Barnardo's supporters and volunteers. This was an amazing opportunity to write something longer and more involved - and hopefully I'll get to see it in print very soon!

This Internship has really been a fantastic experience, and I've learnt so much from the whole team. They really couldn't have been more willing to share their expertise - and they even bought Holly and I flowers as a goodbye present!

So - anyone out there who might be considering applying - go for it!

So long... farewell...auf wiedersehen (is this a song?)

Goodbye! x

And its goodbye from me...

In the eternal words of the Spice Girls, 'goodbye my friend, its not the end, so glad we made it, time will never change it, no no no'. Alas today is the end. After 11 weeks my time in internship land is over.

Its been a whirl; one day I acted as the entire publishing department helping to carry out and make all the changes to a report by the policy and research unit to present at the upcoming party conferences. Another saw me going to Oldham to do research for a feature on one of the projects, and getting an amazingly indepth insight into the wide variety of work that they do, and getting stuck in Manchester Piccadilly train station due to our train driver going MIA... I acted as features editor for the staff magazine Connect, helping with the layout, the editing and sourcing photographs. My fellow intern, Ashley, and I organised and deployed Fun'raising Week, an event which pushed our events panning skills, and our stress levels, to the limits! The event was rolled out across the whole organisation and we managed to raise £3000, our homemade cake sale and krispy kreme doughnut sale increasing our total and the waistlines of everyone at Head Office!

I've learnt a lot too; a crash course in Indesign (quarks more advanced and on the whole nicer sibling), how to use Livelink, how to copy edit properly, better phone and email etiquette and that the Cafe 104 jacket potatoes are the best eats in Barkingside.

Its definately been a worthwhile experience, I've gained a real insight into the workings of the business and what it's like to work for such a large organisation and got a lot more confidence in my own writing abilities. I've made some really good friends here too, it's going to be so sad to leave my fellow interns behind... thank god for facebook!

So, that's it from me, cheerio, toodle pip and slaterz!

Holli
(communications and publishing intern girl)
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

My final blog!

"Thheeeeee sun will come out .... tomorrow" ......

No it won't, BECAUSE TOMORROW IS THE FINAL DAY OF THE INTERNSHIP ... *BOO

*CRIES

*WAILS LIKE A BABY

*BANGS FISTS ON THE TABLE SCREAMING "WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!"

Ok, I am not usually that dramatic, I promise *cough ;-)

I am just saddened by the fact that tomorrow is the last day of the internship, and it feels like I only just started yesterday! Went out with my supervisors for dinner last night, which was a lot of fun. Enjoyed Indian cuisine, complete with vanilla ice cream served in a plastic toy bird (meant for lil'ans but I really couldn't resist!).

My weeks have been filled to the brim with an interesting variety of work, and I now know 100% that charity law is for me. Tomorrow is our day of presentations and fun (we get certificates you know! I'm framing mine and placing it lovingly above my mantlepiece back home).

It's been such a fantastic experience, and I want to say thank you to my fellow interns for making it so memorable!

BYEEEE!


FORREEEEVVVVVVEEERRRR!!!!

*Fades away like a distant memory

*Sob

Lauren
(Company Secretarial/Legal Intern)

Penultimayhem!

Last week was awesome as I came up with some slogans and my fellow intern Haneef (Hank) came up with some designs which it has been suggested will actually become Barnardo's t-shirts.

Into the penultimate week and I am still doing new things. On Monday I tried out some good old fashioned bucket shaking (minus the shaking as it is deemed illegal) at old street tube station. This was a good laugh and I managed to get a few donations with my fantastic dancing. Also met a guy who had recently been looking up his family history and found that his grandmother had been a Barnardo's girl which was interesting.

Tuesday found me making more of my interesting face, by utilizing it for the photo shoot for the Record Breakers campaign. Highlights included: my grin, eating smarties with chopsticks, getting as many people into a car as possible and some space hopper action.

The remainder of the week was more down to earth, editing the Barnardo's website, making sure the facebook site was up to date and trying to come up with a decent advertising slogan (no luck this time).

Hopefully the last week will have some of the most fun elements, and will try and get a hairy lunch in chequers for old time sake.