We catch up with Courtney Gill on her amazing summer with Rolls-Royce!

When we last heard from Courtney, she'd just finished her first two weeks with Rolls-Royce (read more about that here). Since then she's travelled the world with the company, we caught up with her to find out more...

The summer with Rolls-Royce has truly been unbelievable. I just returned home from my business trip in Jakarta, Indonesia where I was able to see an entirely new culture. I attended a dinner with the British Ambassador at the new embassy celebrating a British-Indonesian aviation partnership, experienced Jakarta traffic at its peak, met some incredibly lovely Indonesians and enjoyed the various locals of the country.  I have one week left with Rolls-Royce when I return to London and am very much looking forward to getting back to the office.

Rolls-Royce CSR day at special needs school – what a wonderful place! 

Explaining all of the wonderful opportunities I have received this summer would take far too long, but what I can say is how impressed I am with the quality of the internship provided by Rolls-Royce. They went over and above to welcome me to the team and to offer learning opportunities at every turn. Whether it was hosting a group from Parliament at the Farnborough Air Show or spending the day with the Indonesian Ambassador to London, it is safe to say that I never had a boring week at work. Some of the summer highlights also included meeting the Rolls-Royce CEO, getting a private tour of Parliament, going to a business meeting in Brussels, giving a presentation in Warwick, going on team runs through St. James Park and meeting various individuals from the FCO.

Day in Derby with Indonesian Ambassador to London, Transport Attaché and Minister Counsellor 

This experience has opened up my mind to the vast world of opportunities that await when I finish Cambridge and I am incredibly excited to embark on my post-graduation journey. Rolls-Royce has begun my life adventure that encapsulates perfectly one of my favourite quotes from Mark Twain: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

So thank you to Rolls-Royce and to the Undergraduate of the Year Programme for everything!

At the British Embassy in Jakarta with acting Ambassador Rebecca Razavi

Fancy following in Courtney's footsteps? The Undergraduate of the Year Awards are open now! 

Ella Jakubowska won the Female Undergraduate of the Year Award in 2013! Read her final blog one year on...

After a whirlwind study abroad year at McGill University, followed by my incredible three month Rolls-Royce internship in Derby and Beijing, September 2013 finally rolled around, ushering me into my fourth and final year of undergraduate study at Leeds University. It was the most academically intense year of my life, and I developed a genuine passion for the dissertation I was writing. It focussed on representations of non-conventional masculinity in twentieth-century war literature, a somewhat niche but (genuinely!) fascinating area of study.

The academic year flew by; in October, I was surprised but very pleased to be awarded an Athena Swan ‘Woman of Achievement’ commendation from Leeds uni, which entailed a lovely ceremony and photo-shoot, so that was very exciting! Then at Christmas, I continued with my yearly family tradition of helping to run a Christmas homeless shelter as a key volunteer for Crisis, a charity that is still really close to my heart.

With the new year came new challenges at university, and so my next few months were mostly spent in a blur of visits to the library. After immersing myself in the challenging world of contemporary and millennial fiction for my Finals, I decided that I’d like to make the most of my last university summer by jumping onto a plane to Malaysia to visit my brother. I then spent six weeks backpacking through Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, with a similar outlook to the one I’d had in Beijing: one that meant doing, trying and eating everything, even if it was out of my comfort zone. Thanks to some local guides, I got to experience local cultures and livelihoods in a really privileged, intimate way, although of course my trip also featured the obligatory backpacker hostels and parties!

On the final day of my travels, I received the news that I would, as hoped, be graduating from Leeds with First Class Honours after attaining a strong First for my dissertation, and an even stronger First for another extended essay. It was really rewarding to know that my hard work was paying off, awarding me among the strongest marks of my entire university career. Graduation was a surprisingly relaxing and enjoyable day; the ceremony itself was lovely, and it felt like such an achievement to have made my family so proud. It was not until I was saying goodbye to friends and getting ready to head back to London, however, that it really hit me that my time as an undergraduate, with all the amazing experiences it has given me, has really finished.

As for the future, I’m very glad I have the Customer Management graduate programme at Rolls-Royce to look forward to. My first placement, starting this September, will be in the Defence sector in Bristol, and my current house-hunting gives me something to keep me occupied! After how well my internship went, I think that I have quite a lot to live up to as I return to Rolls, but I couldn’t be more excited for the challenges to come, and for the opportunities to improve as a (business) person. Wish me luck!

Ella Jakubowska, English Language and Literature, University of Leeds

2013 Winner of the Female Undergraduate of the Year Award 2013 sponsored by Rolls-Royce