Clare Ambassadors
Who We Are
The Clare Ambassadors is a group of current Clare students who represent the student body at events for alumni and well-wishers, act as a channel of communication between the student body and the College's development programme, and support students who wish to take unpaid work experience through awards from the Clare Ambassadors' Fund.
The Ambassadors' committee is made up of 13 current students but we encourage all students to get involved with the Ambassadors, and as such the group extends beyond the central committee. Throughout the year members attend alumni occasions and other College-run events such as lectures and dinners as part of their role as student representatives and have representation on the Alumni Council.
The 2008-9 Ambassadors Committee
The Ambassadors' Fund
How to apply for funding
Please complete the Ambassadors' Fund application form and return to the Development Office by 6 March 2009
How to get involved
If you are interested in getting involved with Clare Ambassadors, either to be on the central committee or as part of the wider group, email the current Chair, Caoimhe McKearney on cmm62@cam.ac.uk
If you would like to make a donation to the fund, please contact the College Development Office at alumni@clare.cam.ac.uk
Events
View past events
Ambassador Award Recipients share their experiences:
2009
Emma Garnett: second year natural scientist
I will be volunteering at Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre in Wales for three weeks in September. The work will be on Land and Boat! Land based work includes conducting land based mammal surveys, running the visitors centre and updating the website with sightings and other information. Weather permitting, regular boat trips run from the bay and I will be educating passengers about the marine wildlife as well as collecting data and photographing the local bottlenose dolphin population. I am interested in taking a PhD, having a career in scientific research and possibly becoming a biology teacher afterwards; this placement will give me valuable experience in conservation and researching and communicating science. I am very grateful to Clare Ambassadors for their generosity which has helped to make this placement possible.
Caroline Hough: third year historian
I intend to travel to India in summer 2010 in order to carry out a ten week long placement with Seva Mandir, an NGO working in the areas of natural resource development, watershed development, education, health, women’s empowerment and village institution building in the rural areas of Udaipur District situated in the southern part of Rajasthan. Its long-term strategy focuses on creating the social, institutional and livelihood base that is required for a democratic and participatory approach which will benefit and empower the poorest sections in the society.
The placement is specifically research-based and seeks to collect and analyse micro level evidence and data on common property resources in both the region of Rajasthan and on a national level. My role will be to collect information from a range of local agencies, collect primary data at village and district levels with the help of translators, and analyse the secondary data.
After completing a certificate in international development last year and spending summer 2009 conducting fieldwork research in Malawi into changing intergenerational relations, with a particular focus on the impact of the recent introduction of children’s rights, I am keen to gain further research-oriented experience at a grassroots level in the competitive field of international development, as well as making a contribution towards the understanding and overcoming of social injustice in this region.
2008
Rachel Schon: third-year theologian
"Last summer I spent a month assisting trainee psychologists doing research for their doctorate as part of the University Collge London clinical psychology course. In particular we were looking into the effects of writing and talking about experiences on the health of cancer patients. I was also able to spend a day shadowing a psychologist on the Camden mental health team and another day at an NHS centre for the rehabilitation of those with brain injuries. The placement was very useful for me as it allowed me to gain an insight into what I would be doing were I to pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology and also gain an appreciation of the varied work of an NHS psychologist. Doctorates in clinical psychology are extremely competitive and having not done psychology as an undergraduate degree it was invaluable for to gain this practical experience in order to make an informed decision regarding jobs.
"2007
Hannah Granroth: third-year zoologist
“This summer, between graduating from zoology and starting a master's course at Imperial, I will be volunteering with the John Muir Trust (www.jmt.org). They are an Edinburgh-based conservation organisation founded and run in the ethos of John Muir, the founder of the modern conservation movement. The JMT aims to "preserve wild places for wildlife and people". Their approach to conservation is a holistic one, managing thousands of hectares of Trust-owned land in Scotland and working in close partnership with local communities on many thousands more. The educational branch of the Trust is the John Muir Award, where I will be working. The award is open to all people, regardless of age or experience, and often involves expeditions to wild places. It aims to foster an appreciation and love of the wild, especially in young people, to encourage a conservational mindset.
I will spend most of the summer in the Edinburgh office, doing administrative work in the lead-up to the expeditions. This will involve liaising with leaders and participants, checking kit, managing health and safety issues and so forth. The rest of my time will be spent leading expeditions; organising participants and activities; and keeping the accommodation running smoothly. These trips are for younger people, one to north Wales and the other to north-west Scotland.
These two months will give me invaluable experience in the day-to-day workings of a conservation charity, where my career aspirations lie. This is, perhaps surprisingly, an extremely competitive field where experience is the only way in and gaining an initial foothold is very difficult. Taking into account the cost of my course next year, I would have been reluctant to seize this extraordinary opportunity without the Clare Ambassadors' Fund award.”
Zofia Trafas: second-year art historian
“Being more than half way through my time here at Clare, I have decided that I want to pursue my Art interests at a post-graduate level. However, as opposed to doing an MA in History of Art, I am interested in pursuing a more ‘applied’ form of my subject – a subject such as Art Curating or Art Business – leading me eventually to work in the ‘Art World’ – in a museum, art gallery or an auction house. I am very keen to get some experience in the realm of art sales, and for this reason applied for a placement in one of the leading global auction houses: Christie’s.
My four week placement, based in the main London headquarters will prove to be an exciting opportunity to get a glimpse of the workings, tactics and ethics behind what is often perceived as quite a controversial organisation.
I will be working as an assistant (undertaking administrative and cataloguing tasks) to junior and senior members of the Impressionist and Modern Art, Nineteenth/ Twentieth Decorative Arts and Photography departments. All of these overlap with my specialist subjects and preferred areas of study that I am currently pursuing as part of my degree.”