New Experiences – Reflections from Starcatchers Intern, Yola Sornsakrin

Yola Sornsakrin, a social work student from Berlin, Germany, spent six months working with Starcatchers across our community engagement and professional development projects. 

During my six months internship with Starcatchers I had the chance to observe and support many projects, including the Community Engagement projects Creative Kin and Expecting Something and their professional development programmes Creative Skills and Playspace. I travelled throughout the country to visit, observe and support sessions and therefore not only had the opportunity to get a good overview of the wide delivery range of Starcatchers but also saw a lot of places in Scotland which I probably wouldn’t have visited without this internship. The practical bits of our delivery was especially interesting as I was able to bond with families, get to know participants, learn about their lives, and about living in Scotland in general.

Supporting several projects allowed me to link the theories and concepts of the various programmes and observe different ways of delivery. As a result, I was able to compare and speak about my observations as well as mentioning ideas and suggestions to the programmes’ coordinators and artists, which I hoped had a positive outcome for the company.

I was very flexible and confident in speaking out about what projects I wanted to get more involved in and was supported when I decided to write my university papers about one of the programmes, which included interviews with participants.

My internship has been full of new experiences, new places, new people and a new language. I always felt welcome and am glad that I had the opportunity to live and work in Edinburgh.