Internships at Spartans Communty Foundation
Zak taking part in STEM club
Our Education Team deliver STEM, numeracy and literacy, sustainability and mental health and wellbeing programmes in local schools. They also support and mentor senior students from Craigroyston Community High School. We asked Zak, one of our interns about his experiences with us. We wish Zak the best of luck at university and we hope that he stays in touch to inspire more young people at Spartans.
"I got first involved with Spartans through the Career Ready program which I began at the start of S5 in September 2022. The program gave me a mentor which was David and we started meeting each other every 3 weeks at Spartans until the internship began and from there he showed me where everything was and the staff working at Spartans. I started an internship at Spartans last summer where I was a football coach for half of the internship and the other I was helping with the clubs happening during summer that are offered for kids, where we played games and went on trips. And when my internship was over, school time came back and I currently go to STEM club with David, Lewis K and Lewis G, who are great colleagues and friends that I met over the internship. Every Monday we create games with robots and do science experiments. I enjoy at STEM club how engaged the kids are at doing the activities, they never give up. I also like how me and kids treat each other like friends and how excited they are to see me at STEM.”
”I have currently applied for Uni to study Accountancy at Napier, Herriot-Watt, Glasgow Caledonian and Stirling University and I have applied potentially to do Mathematics at Herriot-Watt. I believe going to Uni is a new chapter of my life as by the time I go to Uni I will be 18 and I will have to begin to work independently with less support with my parents. I am very curious on how different school is to Uni.
When I did my internship at Spartans it helped me apply to Uni by giving me confidence that I can work and manage tasks on my own. It has also made me more comfortable to communicate with my colleagues and ask more questions as before I was quite shy. I have managed to learn the skill of cooking at Spartans as they always offer food for the kids and I had to bake a cake and make pizzas with them. This skill will be important for me as I am very likely to be in accommodation at Uni where I will have to make the food myself!"