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To be, or not to be… Vegan?
Living a meat-less, animal product free life certainly is not something which appeals to everyone, but it is a choice I made just over a year ago and have committed to ever since. My name is Eleanor, I am a student at Edge Hill University, and I am vegan! My experience has been an adventure and I have learned a lot on the way, so I thought it might be nice to share some of the things I have discovered with you…
Firstly, veganism is not about eating grass and lettuce! Huge shoutout to all the fast-food companies who have given us a vegan burger on their menu, supermarkets for their lovely meat-free aisles and Insta-inspiration for boosting my brain with recipe ideas too. Not only this, but also the ‘accidentally vegan snacks’ that I have stumbled across, I would be lying if I said these weren’t a lifesaver. I said I would share my findings with you so here are one or two animal-free snacks you can enjoy:
- Oreos!
- Jammy Dodgers
- Party Rings
- Prawn Cocktail Skips
- Most Ready Salted Crisps
- Popcorn
Sweet treats and salty snacks are always enticing, but fruit and veggies are also perfect to reach for if you’re after something tasty, nutritious, and naturally plant based. Frozen grapes are a brilliant sweet snack, carrots/cucumber to dip into a pot of hummus are perfect for sharing and an apple is a great go-to for on the go fuel!
‘What about protein?’ I hear you ask… Well, loads of veggies and pulses are packed with the protein our bodies need to thrive; beans, chickpeas, lentils, and nuts are just a few examples. Also, other nutrients can be sourced from animal-free foods too- such as potassium from bananas, vitamins A, B and K in spinach, and iron in tofu!
So, there is a couple of perks of a vegan diet for you, but what about the wider impact? According to research, if everyone in the UK were to swap out one meaty meal to meatless each week, our nation’s Greenhouse Emissions would reduce by 8%… that is the same as removing 16 million cars off the road. Seems silly not to, eh!? I am not writing this post to try and convince everyone to be a strict vegan, more so to try a meat-less filling in their sandwiches or switching their bangers and mash to veggie sausages every once in a while! Speaking of sausages, here is some scrumptious vegan BBQ suggestions to enjoy this summer…
- Beyond Meat™ burger
- Cauliflower steak
- Morrison’s ‘Hot ‘n’ Spicy No-Prawns’
- Marinated tofu… (yes, tofu can be so good!)
- Vegetable kebabs
Also, if you don’t fancy your BBQ to be entirely plant based, why not pop some halloumi on your kebabs, or have a Linda McCartney mozzarella ¼ pounder in place of a beanburger!
For now I feel that’s enough of the animal-free replacements and suggestions, so let me tell you a little more about my experience as a vegan and where I am with it at the moment… Firstly, I am not perfect by any stretch! Accidentally eating something not wholly vegan is part of the trial and error of discovering a plant-based diet, milk powder and a bit of egg in the small print can be deceitful. At first, I worried, but then I soon came to realise that feeling guilty about trying your best helps no one, be kind to yourself and just give it your best shot. Also, veganism has boosted my confidence in trying new foods, being more adventurous with recipes and learning what I like! Not only this but getting a little more confident in the kitchen has refined my knowledge of what feels good going into my body and what foods will give me the nutrients I can feel that my body craves.
Most importantly for me, veganism has energised me. In the physical sense undoubtedly, but also in the way that I navigate through life with a consciousness of how my actions may impact others. Just knowing that small changes I have made can make such a big impact are comforting and invigorate my passion to care for this world, and the organisms which live upon it. And with that I urge you, make a small change and give a plant-based swap a go… you never know, you might like it!
Now that we have come to the end of this chatty exploration of veganism, I thought some of you may be keen on a deeper insight into the plant-based world. On the Box of Broadcasts platform through Edge Hill University, there are countless short programmes and documentaries about veganism and making small changes to your diet for the greater good! Simply type in ‘Edge Hill University Box of Broadcasts’ into your browser and log in with your institution details, my personal favourites are:
- Jermaine Jenas: Football Going Vegan
- Hayley goes… Vegan
- Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast, with Ellie Goulding
So, sit down, tuck into a Jammie Dodger or two and enjoy!
By Eleanor Rowell (Student Intern)
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Week 5 – A Week in the Life of a Student Intern
Week five had come faster than I originally anticipated it would. It was bittersweet – I was happy because I’ve been working in a job I adore for the last five weeks but then again it would end in seven weeks.
This week, my focus was on one my many tasks from a key contact within the Faculty of Education this task was to organize a schedule for a ‘Reading for Pleasure’ Twitter takeover as well as create a logo and banner for them to use during this event, and as an avid reader – I couldn’t wait.
Monday:
I think after the weekend, I am always a little groggy Monday morning, but my daily meeting with my team got me out of this rut, they really are a Monday morning cheer up. This week, it was my turn to lead the daily meetings and at first, I found the task a little daunting but I realised that they have had to do the same, so they’ll understand if I make any slip ups… I didn’t! Alas I think my team would agree that when I am leading a meeting it’s short and snappy so, we can get on with our tasks for the day.
For me that meant research, I had no idea what or how to create a brand image, after a few websites and a pep talk from a fellow intern who studies marketing I felt a bit more comfortable. When I create content for social media, I usually use Canva as it has a range of different templates to play with.
My first logo included a golden yellow background and a boy reading a book however, after receiving some feedback that it wasn’t as inclusive as it could be, I got back to work and am currently waiting on feedback for my new design. After completing the usual admin for the day it was 5’O clock and I was logging off.
Tuesday:
Tuesday’s meeting went a lot better than Monday’s, this time I discovered my flow and had everyone’s goals for the day clear and sorted. I quite like leading meetings – I think anyone who has can agree that the small sense of power behind it can be fun.
Today I was back onto my ‘Reading for Pleasure’ task and today’s goal was to create a schedule of content to release. I spent a while trying to find a template of a monthly planner from Canva but decided to go back to a reliable spreadsheet instead (which back in my first week of the Internship, I would have been less willing to use).
I think one of my favourite things about this task is it required research. What kind of things do readers want to engage with on Twitter? How can I convince somebody to pick up a book? I like to thing I have an advantage with this task because not only do I read avidly but in the future, I would like to be a published Author so these little tricks of the trade I was learning will really help me in my future.
So I created a schedule of events and content to post over the month of September. I sent it over to my key contact and they loved my ideas so much that they would like to run the content over the next academic year instead of it all into one month!
I was beyond happy!
Wednesday:
And just like that half the week had gone! I did my usual morning routine and settled down at my desk, with my huge new water bottle (because I keep forgetting to drink at work, so this really helps!) My task for today was to get to grips with Google Sites. In Education they use Google Sites for a heap of different things, so if we were to help the Education staff, we had to be as comfortable with it as they are.
Sarah gave us a little free reign with this task and we could create any kind of website as long as we became comfortable with the tool and that our site was accessible. I created my site to act as a portfolio to showcase my creative pieces as well as to show off my photography.
Thursday:
I think Thursday’s always go in a blink of an eye, unlike Fridays. My Thursday felt like I hardly did anything but when I look back on it, I did actually did a lot! So once my meeting was out of the way I settled down and started on a new task; copywriting for the CPD website to make it more enticing for professionals.
The rest of the day I alternated between various tasks which were almost completed and finally sent them off to be checked. I really enjoy that feeling of bliss when you send a project off to be finished, the feeling of pride and accomplishment.
The final thing we did was publish our 60 seconds with an Student Intern videos on Twitter. Once shared on Twitter they had reached an audience over 200 people per intern. This was fun to do, and it was really interesting to see what my colleagues dream jobs where when they were 10… keep your eye out though because I have heard a whisper more are on the way!
Friday:
Friday! At last, everyone who works a 9 till 5 job everyday has to admit that when the clock hits 5pm on a Friday all the stress from the last week floats away.
An excitable task I started today was to create a digital escape room for teachers to use in September as a creative online ice breaker. Initially I had no idea how to even approach the task, so began researching. I also moved into my Monday pile and finished up some content for the Education building notice boards until lunch. Which when it rolled around, I think I needed a midday pick me up, so I ordered myself a Frappuccino and cracked on with familiarizing myself with online teaching tools such as Vevox. I finished my Friday with creating a Panopto video on how to use Vevox. I logged off quite happy and looking forward to Week 6, the halfway point in the internship!
Keep an eye out for Simon’s blog which will have all the details.
By Sharnie Bowen (Student Intern)
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A Week in the Life of a Student Intern …
Monday:
Here we go! Another week as a full-time worker. I am absolutely loving my experience so far and I feel SO fancy when people ask me what I do for work and I reply, “I am a Digital Student Intern at Edge Hill University”.
I started off the week in a meeting with my departmental heads and my colleague -it’s always so refreshing to catch up with them as it makes me feel so much more connected. Working from home has the potential to be really isolating but my colleagues have been here for me throughout and it really has been a connected experience thus far.
I then spent the next few hours completing one of my modules and making sure it was at the highest accessibility possible. This module included quite a few PDFs, this was a challenge but also became a massive learning curve and helped me become a lot more confident working with PDFs and Adobe Acrobat. Finally finishing a whole module felt really rewarding and I was so pleased with the progress I have made so far – looking forward to completing many more!
To finish off my day I decided to go to LinkedIn Learning and complete some more courses surrounding PDFs to really ensure that I was understanding of how to make them accessible and confident going forward within the internship. Then, I of course wrote this blog entry… Monday… completed.
Tuesday:
Tuesday is always my most difficult wake up, I think it’s because the weekend is finally catching up with me. Aware of this, I woke up slightly earlier to give myself time to have a shower and really refresh myself ready for a new day I began by finishing off the LinkedIn Learning courses that I started the day before.
Later, I attended my weekly catchup meeting with other colleagues working for the Faculty of Arts and Science and the managers of the internship. I really enjoy these meetings as it gives me an insight into what people from other departments are getting up to and it allows us to express any concerns and get common questions and queries answered. It’s also just lovely to see familiar faces and be reassured that I do have a wide network of people to assist me if anything doesn’t go as planned.
After this I received a notification saying that one of the modules had content in for me to work on, so I started on that. I decided to make a start on PowerPoints and Word Documents first as it was already the afternoon and I knew I would accomplish more in the day if I focused on these to begin with. It feels SO good getting a lot done in a day and watching the accessibility score gradually rise as you go on.
I did encounter a few problems as the day went on which was slightly frustrating, however, I reported the problems to the correct people and the issues were quickly resolved and/or being investigated. I finished the day off writing this blog and feeling very accomplished with the amount of progress I have made today. Nothing feels better than a productive day!
Wednesday:
The middle of the week is here already! This internship is going so fast I can’t believe it, I’ll be back at University before I know it.
I started the day off in a meeting with my departmental heads and colleague, we worked together to resolve the problems that we had the day before and discuss the right methods moving forward.
I then began working on the reading list for my module, ensuring that all scanned documents were deleted and replaced with a digital copy and added to the reading list. This made the accessibility score go much higher on my module as it involved a lot of scanned pdfs.
After this I continued working on PDFs, this took a while as a lot of the PDFs had several pages and I had to tag each document from scratch. It is so rewarding at the end of the day when I look back over my accessibility spreadsheet and see how much I have completed and how much the module has improved.
Thursday:
ONE MORE DAY TILL FRIDAY!
Today has been a very long day, I have been working on a 111-page PDF all day in attempts to make it 100% accessible. Alongside this my sister went into labour so my Mum and I have been attempting to work and look after my 7-year-old niece and 2-year-old nephew at the same time. (I can’t begin to tell you how much I can sympathise with all parents who have had to work at home with their children over the pandemic.) For the most part they were wonderful, and I still managed to have a productive day, but it was not without its challenges!
Whilst working on some more challenging PDFs I decided it was best to have a call with my colleague to talk things over and work out a better solution. It was great to talk to each other about it and assist each other with the process. It really makes the internship so much easier knowing I have a team I can rely on and that we will always be there for each other.
Friday:
T.G.I.F! We have made it another week working full time with only a small amount of complications!
Not going to lie to you, today was a very stressful day for me, my final degree classification was being released at 11am and I was on edge for most of the morning. I took the executive decision to start the day with a Linkedin Learning course and then complete my weekly refection and look over this week’s blog entries. When my result finally came out, I was so pleased and proud of myself, but I also felt incredibly overwhelmed that the undergraduate chapter of my life is actually over – time to grow up!
After taking in my results I continued working on making my module accessible. I focused a lot on PowerPoints and Word Documents today which took a while but was relatively straight forward to do. I then wrote my blog entry for today and checked over my calendar for next week. Going through this internship I have realised that it is important to check what meetings I have the following week to ensure before I log off on a Friday evening, I am completely ready and prepared.
It has been an absolutely fantastic week, I have completed another module, been continuously connected with my team, completed several LinkedIn Learning courses, welcomed a new nephew into the world and truly grown as a person – each week I become more and more grateful for this opportunity. Now… let’s do it all again!
LinkedIn Learning Courses:
Microsoft Word Essential Training
By Rachel Roche (Student Intern)
