A Student Placement in a Pandemic
/Alice, our brilliant placement student, shares her experience of studying during the Covid-19 pandemic.
If someone had told me that for nearly half of my uni life I’d be living through a pandemic I probably would have answered, ‘What’s a pandemic?’. It’s not something I’d prepared for, but it is something that’s massively shaped my university experience.
That suggests that it’s been all bad – it definitely hasn’t! Being able to wear my pyjamas to lectures, not having to brush my hair, waking up 5 minutes before a seminar; there are definitely benefits to my degree moving online! However, when it came to my placement term - a term that many credit as one of the most valuable to the course as we have our first real insight into the industry outside of a classroom - I wasn’t too sure about how it would work online.
It’s safe to say, there was no need for any concerns and after my first week on placement with Starling Arts, I was absolutely buzzing for the rest of the term ahead of me.
So, what have I learned with Starling over the past 9 weeks (whilst also living through a global pandemic)?
#1 It’s okay to have a laugh!
Every Monday morning at 11am with a tea or water in hand, we’d have a meeting, planning for the week ahead. During these meetings, in addition to the planning, there was always time for a check-in, for a story or two, and for at least one reference to a Wipsa Gold! This separate time away from the ‘serious stuff’ is something I struggled with in my practice before this placement, I constantly felt pressured to have everything sorted ASAP. My time on placement has taught me that, now more than ever, what really is important is to be kind to myself, and if it can wait until tomorrow, do it tomorrow.
This time away from the ‘serious stuff’ follows through to the way Starling run their choir sessions. Every session includes ‘extras’ in addition to learning the songs, which of course is the focus of the session, but there is always time for some chat. This chat can (and has) led to anything! But this freedom aside from the structured session allows people to relax, have a laugh, and enjoy their time at choir, in person or on zoom.
The Starling Arts Choir community having fun during a Broadway themed session
In my own practice, sometimes I feel guilty for allowing people to talk for too long, feeling as though I have a job to do and people will be angry if I don’t complete that job. But what I’ve learned is that this ‘time out’ is part of the job; it’s about caring for your group, and the relationship that Anna and Emily have with their singers, and the relationships they’ve created between people in their community, is one I aim to replicate with any groups I work with in future. It is about caring and allowing people the freedom to laugh when they need to in the space you’ve created for them, as it might not be possible anywhere else.
#2 Love what you do and you’ll never do a day’s work in your life
Of course, with running a business there is lots of the ‘serious stuff’ and it’s not creative all of the time. This doesn’t mean the creative side of an arts business is not serious, but personally, especially before placement, I would determine the admin/numbers side of running an arts business to be less of ‘my thing’.
However, I was proved wrong once again as I found myself enjoying writing and researching and learning about budgets, all things I’d had no experience of before, which might have explained why I labelled it the ‘serious stuff’. What I’ve learned working with Starling is that if you love what you do, nothing is ‘boring’ or too ‘serious’. Every piece of admin I’ve worked on has led to making creative plans a reality, and that’s why I’ve enjoyed doing them: I’m making something happen!
I discovered the magic of admin during this placement!
#3 Have faith in myself!
A major thing I have learned during my placement, and something that I will keep with me, is that I need to have confidence in myself and my abilities. I am so used to being the person in the room with ‘less experience’ or the one who’s ‘learning’, that sometimes it can be easy to forget I have my own set of skills that I can bring to the room. Whether I’m teaching, discussing or learning, what I have to say has importance.
The reason my confidence has grown in this way is due to Starling’s faith in me. They allowed me to speak, write and run discussions as a face of their brand without any questions. The Starling team managed to gently lead me out of my comfort zone at my own pace and encouraged me to have confidence in myself, and gave me a platform to exercise that confidence in front of professionals and their singers, and for that I am eternally grateful.
I will take a new found confidence into my work as a facilitator
#4 Have passion!
Anna and Emily’s passion is one of the reasons, in my opinion, that Starling Arts is so successful and is so different to other arts companies. They both work entirely to bring singing and the arts to anyone they can; it’s their passion and this is why they’re so good at it!
Their passion bleeds out onto others, including me. As someone who had pretty much sworn off singing for the past three years, I’m suddenly really enjoying it again, taking part in their weekly sessions, hearing and seeing events being planned. Everything Starling do is planned with excitement and this translates into their practice; if they are excited, we are excited. This is something I hope to replicate in the future. I want to be passionate and excited by everything I do, as it seems to be a sure-fire way to create something that others are excited about, too.
#5 Graduation is possible!
I imagine my concern at completing this term online was probably a worry echoed by many in the arts about their income. Starling found a way to combat the limitations imposed during the pandemic and continued to create a supportive network for those that wanted it, that they would normally find within their choirs. Not only this, but Starling also managed to host a placement student, preparing them with so many skills to take on this industry, pandemic or no pandemic.
The way that Starling has kept going and thriving throughout this time has given me confidence that regardless of the state of the industry when I graduate in 2021, there are always options and we can continue to provide art for others (even if it’s over Zoom).
This term has taught me, more than anything, to look for the benefits in what seems like a limitation.
As you can probably tell, although the pandemic changed what this term might have been, it has not impacted my learning, and this placement has still prepared me with the skills, knowledge and confidence to graduate next year into whatever industry is there for me. The success of this term is all down to Anna and Emily and their support and help. I know I will take what they have taught me through into my career, and I can never thank them enough for providing me with the best term in what I thought was going to be the worst circumstances.
