Summer Internships (4 ECTS credits). In Summer between years 1 and 2 MESPOM students have mandatory internships typically hosted by MESPOM Associated Partners and other organizations identified by students and through the Alumni network. MESPOM also offers an opportunity to do research internships mentored by research-oriented Associated Partners or by MESPOM faculty, and thus preliminary explore their potential thesis topics.
July 12-Aug 31 in 2021
By Su-Mae Chua
Hello, Su-Mae here.
I am a Malaysian-born Human Geographer, yoga enthusiast, and an advocate of Environmental and Social Justice. I grew up in Shanghai, London, Kuala Lumpur, and Hong Kong, where I spent more than half of my childhood on a tennis court. I joined the MESPOM programme after completing my BA Geography degree at University College London, to address a personal knowledge gap and to gain exposure in different European university institutions.
Our MESPOM Alumni Association put together a list of skills and possible interview questions in the environmental jobs field to help you make the first steps towards your dream career.
Make good use of it!
On the 5th of February 2021, took place the pilot MESPOM Networking and Career Fair. The event was created with the objective of bringing to light internship or job opportunities, and to create a space for discussion and emergences of ideas for projects and collaborations.
The speakers who participated in the event were Adrian Mill, Ben Black and Dorottya Olah. These are all MESPOM Alumni and a sister program alumna,who offered and outlined specific internships and jobs for the students and recent graduates participating.
Rupal from MESPOM Student batch 15 told us about her summer internship at The German Development Institute
I am Rupal Verma, currently a second year MESPOM student and a material science engineer by background. My interest in Environmental studies only grew when I was working for the India National Platform on Private Sustainability Standards, with the Government of India.
Recent Batch-15 (2020) graduate, Benjamin Black from the UK, reflects on his MESPOM internship experience in Cambodia, in the summer of 2019 when the world was a slightly different place. He was very inspired by his internship experiences, and ended up doing his Master’s thesis research focused on avoided deforestation generated by protected areas in Cambodia.
MESPOM students have to do a mandatory summer internship component between the 1st and 2nd years, which is aimed at enhancing their professional development. Current 2nd year student Tabby Njung’e from Kenya reflects on her MESPOM internship experience
Current Manchester-track student Joel Gordon reflects on his MESPOM journey over the past 1.5 years as Batch-14 settles into their thesis semester.
Nacanieli Bolo (Batch-12) talks about his Fijian journey after MESPOM.
After completing MESPOM in 2018, I returned to Fiji and worked as a consultant for UNDP in the field of risk (climate and disaster) and development nexus and then later joined the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office as a policy analyst supporting UK’s climate and ocean governance work in the Pacific.
"My advice to future students? Use the time of the internship between the two academic years to focus on your field of interest, experience something you have not done before (for me, it was working in a think tank), and choose something, which will be useful when the time to decide what you will do after your studies."