My Summer Internship, Rachel (2020)

Jesus College has an innovative Careers and Mentoring Programme, Rachel, one of several internship bursary recipients, tells us her internship story: 

Tell us about your internship with Calima Solutions?

I gratefully received the Ting-Hway Wong fund to assist my activities last summer. At the end of my second year of engineering, I secured a software engineering internship in Gran Canaria for the summer of 2022. This was a fantastic opportunity for me to learn the highly sought skill of web development, develop my Spanish which I had been learning for a number of years, and develop personally by living abroad. The internship was 11 weeks unpaid, and so the grant contribution was invaluable for me to be able to experience this.

What was your placement like?

Calima Solutions is a dynamic startup software company. I worked in a team of 3 with other Cambridge students under close supervision on our very own project. The project aimed to create an app to allow electric bike owners to park and charge their cycles securely at charging stations dotted round Gran Canaria. These stations would be lockers with charging cables, and the user could pay for the service within the app.

What skills did you develop working on this project and how will this help you in the future? 

I had the opportunity to define the project, design the UI, implement the software (front and back end), create a prototype, undertake market and business analysis, and present all of this to senior management biweekly, providing me with a huge range of skills that I would not have received doing a traditional large company internship. Having tangible experience in full stack web development is helping me to secure lots of opportunities, from internships to fellowships to other positions. My recent appointments as Prospero Fellow and UKSEDs Careers Team Lead would not have been possible without this experience.

I am hugely grateful for the support I received for this  endeavour. As a  student who came to Jesus from a state school background during the height of the pandemic in 2020, this summer was invaluable for me both professionally and personally.

With the generous support of the Ting-Hway Wong Internship Fund, the College is delighted to be able to offer financial support to current students to undertake internships during their studies. The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to Rachel (2020).