The benefits of Summer Experience

Hi, my name is Kimberley (Kim for short). I am a second-year student at Bradford studying BSc (Hons) Archaeology, a three-year course without a placement. 

Over the past year, I have had the chance to get to know my fellow coursemates and the lovely lecturers at Bradford, as well as other students through my work as a student ambassador.

What is Summer Experience?

There are many opportunities to develop your skills for your course and make wonderful friendships with everyone you meet through your journey at university. One of these opportunities is called Summer Experience, an opportunity to work with local businesses and organisations in between academic years at Bradford.

My time away

My Summer Experience, part of my Archaeology course, gave me the chance to improve my excavation skills and knowledge. This helped me as I am more of a visual learner, and it allowed me to grow in confidence with my abilities in the field. It was also a chance to explore a new place in the UK as I had never been to Somerset. Our accommodation was a short walk away from the dig site and a short drive to the local town.

We had some volunteers join us. Some were new to archaeology or students, but there were also more experienced volunteers who gave us lots of interesting facts about where we were.

We worked Tuesdays to Sundays, 9am to 5pm, doing as much as we could in the three weeks we spent there as it was the last chance to excavate the area. We had some warm, sunny days alongside the usual British rain which sometimes cut our days short, but we made up that time over the following days.

Enhancing friendships

Living together for three weeks was a great way to get to know everyone better, both coursemates and lecturers. We also had a cooking schedule which was nice as it meant we could share our cooking skills or develop them and feel more confident. Most of us cooked twice over the three weeks, working in twos, with the help of a volunteer who helped run the accommodation whilst we were there.

Mondays were typically our free days where we could catch up with our fieldwork notebooks or go out for the day and experience the surrounding villages. Some of us went to Glastonbury one day to do our laundry and see all the beautiful shops. I was happy to see so many spiritual shops and didn't want to leave - it's a hobby of mine.

One evening, some of my friends went to Cheddar Gorge, the Sweet Track and the Glastonbury Tor. On our last few days, a group of us went to see the brilliant Stonehenge for the first time. It was a wonderful experience.

Find out more about these six-week internships on the Summer Experience page.