This year I had the amazing opportunity to finish not one but two internships after finishing my studies at Edinburgh University Law School. A little birdie had told me about an amazing new initiative called the Black Scot intern programme. This was during a time where I was inundated with research for my dissertation and countless graduate role applications. I thought it would be a good idea to try join this programme and so I did, and it ended up being one of the best things I have ever done for my career.

I applied for five internships got rejected by two but was offered three in total, I had to turn down the third one because I could not do it during the summer, but I was more than excited to start the other two. The first was at Tesco bank where I worked with Stephanie Nicoll and her amazing DEI team. Merry who was on the team decided to take me on as her mentee and for those six weeks and learnt so much about the importance of corporate social responsibility in business. Stephanie taught how important it is to be the conscience of a business and ensure the business is making all the right decisions.

My second internship was at the Scottish National investment Bank. A start up attached to the Scottish government set out to fund small to medium enterprises in Scotland. This opportunity taught me about impact investing, a type of investment predicated in ensuring the missions of the business led are futile over any profits or returns on investment. The bank was buzzing with all sorts of amazing ideas and people ready to invest in Scotland’s future. This was a great opportunity, and I will not forget the experience I had working with Caroline McCreath one of the People and Culture partners and the head of Equality. From the beginning to the end of this internship. I must thank Onyinye who supported right from the interview stage as well as while I was working to ensure everything was happening as it should have been. This has been a good programme and I can’t wait to see more people changed by the initiatives created by Black Professionals Scotland!