COOP Student Blog: Alison Barry

14/10/2021

Hi everyone,

Alison here. I am a third year Journalism and New Media student in the University of Limerick currently on my Coop placement with the Community Liaison Office (CLO) in UL. I began my placement early July, and so far, I’ve been working remotely. The CLO is under the Student Affairs Division and deals with creating links between the University and the community and delivering the President’s Volunteer Award.

So far, a lot of my work has involved maintaining a presence on the PVA social media accounts. The PVA office uses Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to advertise various volunteering opportunities and promote different faculties within UL. Our goal was to increase engagement for the PVA social media accounts, which we worked towards by ensuring there was a good balance of content being posted, such as a combination of opportunity listings and resharing posts from other accounts.

The highlight of my placement was being asked to host the 11^th Annual President’s Volunteer Award Ceremony with my colleague Caleb. We filmed our segments in the President’s House on the UL campus, which was a great experience. I enjoyed working with professional video equipment, which I have a big interest in. It was great to see the video go live on YouTube, where friends and family could watch.

Through my work at the CLO, I have gained invaluable experience in various different fields, such as social media management, administration, and communication skills. I look forward to further developing these skills and working with the many interesting organisations the CLO has links with. It’s been great to acquire skills that I can put on my CV, and strengthen my LinkedIn profile, which I have been trying to develop in recent weeks. I feel like my placement has helped me gain skills which will benefit me greatly in the future.

Alison