My leadership in action project over the summer was working at the Literacy Pirates as a project intern. My internship came at a time when they were transferring from the academic year into the summer term, thus I was able to experience a range of different tasks. My first two weeks consisted of working with the young students of Hackney and working with them to improve their literacy and helping the organization prepare and carry out their flagship event; three graduation ceremonies for the students at a cinema where a film that they made was premiered. This was my first experience with event planning. While the enormity of the event and strict timeline was initially difficult for me, over time and with support I was able to improve, and by the last event I had progressed to managing a whole floor of attendees and a group of volunteers on my own. This was not something I could have imagined having the confidence and aptitude for before my internship but was something I achieved in the second week. I thoroughly enjoined working with a wide group of people, from students to parents, to cinema staff and volunteers, and this experience dramatically improved my interpersonal skills. 

The next week consisted of a teams week. This allowed me to learn what it's like to work with others beyond an academic setting and into a professional one, and by communicating with a wide range of employees I learned more about different careers and my own preferences. Furthermore, workshops detailing challenges faced by young people in inner London and the impact of budget cuts on schools gave me a broader understanding of the work that I was helping Literacy Pirates carry out. This has had a major impact on me and has influenced my decision to become a volunteering ambassador at the LSE in my second year. 

After this, the organization began its summer term which consisted of reviewing the previous academic year and preparing for the next one. I worked with various parts of the organization, including volunteering, fundraising, data collection, and outreach. This was hugely beneficial for me as it allowed me to experience the inner workings of charities on multiple levels and helped me figure out what I enjoyed, and I especially valued the opportunity to do tasks that I would not have done outside of my internship. For example, I am not a very creative person but was asked to digitally create posts for the Literacy Pirate’s social media. While I was initially apprehensive, I learned that I surprisingly enjoyed marketing and social media management. After handling a range of responsibilities I spoke to my manager and decided to focus more on fundraising and outreach elements, thus delved deeper into tasks pertaining to them. I was also given the job of collecting data from feedback from students, teachers, and parents for the annual impact report. This was the biggest task I was given, spanning several weeks, and was daunting as it was the first time I had worked with data. It was also a large level of responsibility as I was aware of how important the impact report was. It initially took me a lot of trial and error to figure out my system to collect, analyze, and report the data, but I took initiative and was able to complete the task by the end of my internship.

Overall, my time at the Literacy Pirates aided in both my career and personal development in a number of key ways, and has helped shaped me into a better leader, and I am looking forward to taking the skills I have learned with me into the future.