Friday 21 April 2017

SATRO Work Placements 2015 & 2016 - Bursary Student Progression



These students were all on 4 week bursary placements over the summer of 2015/2016 whilst they were in Year 12.  We are pleased to share with you their A level results and what they are doing now. We provide bursaries to disadvantaged students to provide them with the opportunity to participate in a highly competitive scheme run by SATRO with targets under-represented groups.The programme provides a meaningful pathway for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths students to gain an insight into the working world to encourage them to continue their studies at university. 

2015 


"I'm now studying BSc Biochemistry with a placement year at the University of Bath which I'm loving so far. The placement I did with SATRO played a huge part in my decision to study biochemistry. It also made up quite a lot of my UCAS personal statement and I received offers from 5/5 of the universities I applied to. The placement got me very interested in lab work and offered me a taster into Genetics which I'm now studying lots of. I also learnt a lot about scientific report writing which has helped me in writing my lab reports. It was an amazing experience and please pass on my thanks to my funder; I could not have done this placement without financial support." - Siham Abdullahi



"I'm currently studying medicine at St George's, University of London. I got 3 As in chemistry, maths and biology A-level and an A* in EPQ. The placement I feel helped massively during my medical school interviews and application! My SATRO placement was a key placement I would always bring up and be questioned on during interviews and the topic I did is very relevant to my current studies! I did research on cardiology during my placement and that has actually given me a solid understanding of the cardiovascular system which I am currently studying in a deeper degree at university. Overall, I am very grateful for the placement as it did help a lot with my university application!" - Ameera Cajucom


2016 




"I currently study Chemistry, Biology, Maths and Physics with the hope to study Biomedical Science when I go to university. For a career, I would love to be involved in research especially either for drugs or genetics. I decided to apply for a placement with SATRO as it was not only a research focused assignment, it also gave me to opportunity to complete a CREST award with their support.  I was excited to find out that I had been selected and was told that my placement would be with the University of Surrey working with their Nutritional Sciences department. In the first week I was set preliminary research to familiarise myself with my project: the effect of weight on Vitamin D levels. As well as the research I was also helping my mentor with her work too which showed me how my research was relevant and how it was progressing in a real life context. My mentor gave me a data set that some student had collected so I picked out the variables I wanted and then produced graphs to analyse.
I was a great opportunity and something that I will definitely mention when applying to university. During the placement I had access to many resources such as their library, scientific journals and talking to scientists and PhD students. The experience benefitted me as I had real life application of the work that I do in school which will prepare me for the future." - Jaimee Kerven