Hi, my name is Milena, I am going into my third year studying English Literature and I am a Digital Student Intern at Edge Hill University. I am based in the Language Centre, which includes the Foreign Language side and also the English Language side. In this blog, I am going to show you what I get up to in a week, as a Digital Student Intern. This week I am also setting myself a goal to do something good for my physical and mental wellbeing every day, even if it is only something small.

Monday:

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I worked with James in the English Language side of the Language Centre department, 8:45 until 17:00, with an hour lunch break (which we can pick to have at any time). The first thing I did in the morning was open up Microsoft Teams on my laptop and make sure my status says available, so everyone knew that I could be contacted and that I am at work, and then the rest of the apps that I needed for the day. This included opening up Excel, where I log what I do throughout the day and also an changes that I make to the level of accessibility on the module that I work on in the day. This morning, James had uploaded some voiced-over PowerPoints, and I was in charge of making sure the captions all made sense, in terms of correct spelling and punctuation. This is one of my favourite things to do, despite being quite time consuming, as it is satisfying to see it all done at the end. I had five different videos to edit captions for, all between fifteen and twenty minutes, and therefore it took me the majority of the day! After my lunch break, I worked on making different documents (mostly PDFs) as accessible as possible through Adobe Acrobat DC, on a specific module.

My wellbeing task of the day – I started my week off by having a really healthy and filling breakfast of porridge with banana, blueberries and chia seeds, and did not forget my vitamins!

Black and red cherries on white bowl

Tuesday:

On Tuesday morning, I carried on making the module accessible. A lot of documents started at under 50% and ended up being 100% accessible!

It is important to take breaks and therefore my wellbeing task of the way was to spend as much time as I could outside, as well as doing my work. I made a set up outside in the 30 degree sunshine, although in the shade, got Weeks 5-10 completely accessible by the end of the day. In the evening, just before finishing work, I also filled in my daily timetable, where I write down the hours I worked.

Silhouette of mountains during sunset

Wednesday:

This morning, it was my last day working in the English Language sector with James, and so I wanted to finish making the module as accessible as possible (aiming for all of the documents to be 100% accessible by the end of the day). I spent the morning working on accessibility through Adobe Acrobat DC and then uploading them onto our University’s VLE system.

I completed all of the weeks, and the still had an hour to spare, so I thought I would get on with a LinkedIn Learning course on proofreading and editing, as I thought it would benefit my work now, and also in the future as I am planning to pursue a career in that sector once graduating and taking on a Masters in Publishing. That course took me to the end of the day, where I logged the hours I worked and signed out.

My wellbeing task for the day was to go for a walk, and because it was cooler than most days in the evening, I took my dog on a sunset walk in the park, and it was so lovely to get some fresh air, other than the garden – and movement is also so important for you mental and physical wellbeing.

People walking on green grass field near green trees under blue sky during daytime

Thursday:

On Thursday I worked with Lucy in the Foreign Language sector. I was making documents accessible, which included editing Italian PowerPoints, Word documents and PDFs.

I continued making documents accessible throughout the day, completed a LinkedIn Learning course and also wrote more of my blog when I had time. Then, as my wellbeing task, I read a book in the evening and made sure I got a really long, good night’s sleep – as that is what your brain needs the most after sunshine and working all day!

Person holding book sitting on brown surface

Friday:

Today, on the last day of the week, I worked with Lucy to make an additional module accessible, including a series of documents focused on the Mandarin language, which was exciting! I did that for majority of the day, and then had a meeting at 15:30 with the Language Centre to let them know what I have been working on all week and for them to let me know what I will be doing next week. I wrote up my weekly reflection and then finished off my blog, before going to enjoy the sunshine. My wellbeing task of the day was to get some sunshine, before it rains next week, and to socialise with a friend – which I did!

Trees during golden hour

By Milena Bittmar (Student Intern)