Hazel's experience as an Intern at CCF in 2016

Hazel Lim has just completed an internship with CCF.  Whilst she has been in the office Hazel has made a real contribution to our work and has helped with a wide range of projects.  We wish her well as she leaves us to go onto the next stage of her career and we appreciate the blog below she wrote on her final day.

"While studying for my undergraduate degree, I have taken on various odd jobs such as being a hostess/waitress, sales assistant, cleaner and even a security assistant, with no specific career path in mind. Many of my friends were in similar situations, whereby if you asked them what they wanted to do after graduation, very few of them will have answers. I realised the jobs I’ve applied to, required me to be in the frontlines, immediate interaction with customers/clients. I had no idea what I wanted to do but I just wanted to try something different and put my skills to use and at the same time, learn new ones. That’s when CCF came along.

Upon finishing my final semester in ARU as a student and the business school ambassador, I had the opportunity to be offered the intern position with a mentor (Marion) for guidance at CCF. On my first day, my mentor gave me objectives that I had to complete during my time and the first task was to email contacts of funded projects for expenditure monitoring.

I was grateful that the organisation would put so much trust in me to interact with its clients, and it felt like I was already part of the team and not an outsider.

My other tasks include writing newsletters and reports for various donors. This is where I gained knowledge on the process that CCF has utilised to efficiently and appropriately allocate grants and funds towards applications throughout Cambridgeshire. It opened my eyes to how much work has to be done to create “miracles” and help those in need. This was what I wanted to learn/see when I signed up for the position.

Near the end of my internship, I have done expenditure monitoring, written multiple newsletters and reports, did some minor research and even assisted in creating an annual impact report for one of the funding programmes.

Throughout my time at CCF, my mentor has been extremely helpful, as well as the other members of the team. There were a couple of days where the work would get to me, but with such a calm and flexible work environment, I had to chance to perform effectively, both individually and with assistance.

Even though I’m still not quite sure which career path I want to head towards, CCF has definitely helped me in realising my skills, achieve confidence and put my qualifications into good use. I wanted to try something different from what I’ve been doing and I did. The highly appreciated experience gained while at CCF will assist me in narrowing down options for my future prospects."