The purpose of this blog and how to use it

As I was growing up, the BBC documentaries I watched had a very profound role in nurturing my interest in Science. Among those documentaries, the Walking with Dinosaurs series was probably the earliest and most influential exposure I had to the prehistoric world. But I never thought 15 years later I would be supervised by one of the palaeontologists that helped advise the makers of that documentary- Professor Mike Benton.

Yet this summer, after completing my second year of my undergraduate Zoology degree at UCL, I was fortunate enough to be offered an internship by Professor Benton as part of the Bristol Summer Diversity Internship program – aiming to increase BME representation in palaeontology.

As I went through my internship, I tried to blog my experiences and give some tips so that future applicants will have a better idea of what the internship entails.

I would recommend people to look at the categories section so they can quickly access the information they want. I’ve written a bit about my family and ethnicity which you can find under the background category. Under the ‘Project’ category are posts about the project I undertook and the ups and downs I felt along the way. If the reader is just looking for advice on applications and getting ready for the internship then look under the ‘Tips’ category. I’ve tried naming each post in such a way so that people don’t have to read all my posts to get what they want. E.g. if readers want to learn about my experiences outside of the project then they might be interested in posts titled ‘Benton Lunch Group’ or ‘Dinosaur memes’.

Either way, whatever you are looking for with this blog I hope you find it a useful and an informative resource. If you would like to ask specific questions about the internship which are not answered in the blog you can contact me at adj284@gmail.com.

Yours truly