Cover image shows Charmine in our CARES office.
I am ecstatic to complete a four-month long internship with CARES as a communications intern. The communications office sits within the corporate team and as such, I gleaned insights from the team and our Chief Operating Officer, Elizabeth MacRae, on the daily operating of an international research centre during bi-weekly team meetings.
My diploma studies in Law and Management from Temasek Polytechnic gave me a solid foundation in functional writing but I wanted to experience other facets of writing with impact. How can we foster keener relationships through internal and external communications? How can we curate stakeholder visits to gain alignment for scientific progress? How can effective communication galvanise stakeholders to navigate challenges together?
While I was on photography duty for our booth at Singapore Maritime Week 2025, I observed the researchers’ fluid delivery of their work to both scientifically trained person and laymen alike. Contextualising and relaying the importance of the information in accordance with the audience’s background is the key to creating a shared language.
Pictured above from left to right: Dr Yichen Zong, Prof Epaminondas Mastorakos, Dr Yongren Tan, Olivia Lee, Srishti Ganguly, Dr Mutian Ma and Dr B. Harikrishnan at Singapore Maritime Week 2025.
This takeaway proved useful when I faced difficulties drafting monthly internal bulletins, biannual public newsletters and website articles. Overtime, I developed adeptness in identifying the channels’ respective audiences through receiving regular feedback from my supervisor, Olivia Lee (Communications and External Affairs Manager), and reframing my words to suit the context. Additionally, I developed proficiency in navigating WordPress, Mailchimp, Photoshop and Canva.
I credit my newfound confidence in hosting external visits, when I successfully coordinated the visit to CARES lab and CLIC for French school students, to Olivia, who was invested in my growth and learning right from the start. Coupled with her professionalism and strong work ethics, I grew exponentially with every event, visit and talk organised.
Pictured above: Olivia and I enjoying lunch at La Nonna, Holland Village.
Other highlights include attending intra-CREATE seminars; participating in CARES’ internal bonding events like Coffee Mornings and CARES Mind Games Day; and showing our knowledge exchange visitor around Singapore.
Pictured left: Jacqueline Garget from Research Communications for the School of Biological Sciences, Cambridge University.
I allude the fruition of this internship to the patience and generosity of the staffers here as my time at CARES has been nothing short of laughter, gratitude and enjoyment.
Pictured above: Charmine with CARES researchers (Dr Lek Hong Lim, Dr Li Chin Law, Dr Pavlos Gkinis), corporate staff (Xiang Ning Leong, Katy Jones, Carmen Salcedo) and HD4 knowledge broker, Sharyl Chin.
Charmine is matriculating into Nanyang Technological University’s Degree in Applied Computing in Finance this fall.
