Saltire Scholar
Gregor McCreadie has won a digital strategy internship in Boston, 11 June-19 August 2016
The BSc Computer Science student is working for the New England Historic Genealogical Society, thanks to Entrepreneurial Scotland’s Saltire Scholar Programme – which provides the opportunity – and the University of Edinburgh, which supports its participating students with £2,000 funding each.
Gregor says:
“I am mainly working on the American Ancestors' website. My main roles are: learning in-house software and process to make database corrections, executing quality assurance tests on web-based projects, assisting developers with issue analysis and actively participating in test case design and script maintenance.”
Saltire Scholar Programme
Entrepreneurial Scotland’s Saltire Scholar Programme provides life-changing opportunities for penultimate year undergraduate students at Scottish universities. Gregor is one of 14 University of Edinburgh students and 144 students from Scottish universities as a whole, who are on summer placements with 59 host companies.
Host companies range from entrepreneurial start-ups to global corporates, from Glasgow to San Francisco and Singapore.
New experience
As Gregor will be a 4th year when he returns to Informatics in September, he has been thinking about his future.
“I felt that my CV was lacking something different,” he explains, “so what better than an internship abroad? It's an all-new experience and one that has lived up to and surpassed my expectation so far.
“I'm surrounded by great people both from Edinburgh University and other universities within Scotland and I have made some really great friends.”
He appreciates both the chance he has been given and the help he has received along the way.
“I would really love to thank my parents – they've supported me throughout this whole process – and of course, the University and the Saltire Foundation for allowing me such a great opportunity in the first place.”
It's an all-new experience and one that has lived up to and surpassed my expectation.