What's on
From family support, fitness classes and learning to art exhibitions, festivals and talks, our activities are wide and far reaching.
Helena Inwood, our Communications Coordinator was thrilled to catch up with Amza Beharry-Ruddock recently, who did her work experience with our Communications Team in 2015. Read on to hear about everything she's been up to since her time at Coin Street and where she is now!
Amza's story with Coin Street actually began much earlier than her time in 2015.
Helena: Can you tell me a little about your experience with Coin Street?
Amza: “I used to assist my mum (Hommie, our Family Services Manager) on Saturdays when I was 8 years old. I used to go to Saturday Stay and Play and a lot of little trips like Camber Sands. In between, I used to attend events like Christmas and Barbecues. I sort of grew up at Coin Street."
"I did my work experience with Coin Street in the Communications department when I was 15. That was really fun – I didn't know I wanted to be in Communications at that point, and it may be one of the reasons I got into PR! But I was always interested in Social Media and things like that.
I was also really into dance at school and worked in the learning and participation team at Rambert in my second week of work experience.”
Helena: What sort of things did you do in your work experience?
Amza: “I wrote a blog about the rabbit in the Nursery called Lola – 'Meet Lola'. I sat in meetings about things like google analytics which was funny because I studied that when I went to uni!
I thought it was so fun and it taught me so much about professional life – all of my experience at Coin Street, even when I was with my mum in sessions, I always wanted to come along with her and help them plan and see how they worked in sessions.
I worked after on events at Bargehouse in my first year of uni when I was about 19 – meeting / hosting people at large events and things like that, which is similar to what I do now. I feel like because I was doing that from such a young age with Coin Street, that's really helped me with my PR job now when it comes down to meeting influencers or journalists.”
Helena: What have you been up to since your time at Coin Street?
Amza: “I went to a fashion retail academy when I left 6th form; I studied fashion business and marketing. Within that I did work experience - I worked managing influencers at an agency and found interest in influencer relations, which has really helped in my job now.
I went to UAL (London College of Communication) and studied Public Relations. I graduated last year (2022)."
"In my last year of uni, I did an internship at a Beauty PR agency who create events and run media relations for cult beauty brands, and a 2-month internship assisting a publicist who worked with different Netflix stars.
I now work for M&C Saatchi Talk, I do consumer PR for brands (Footlocker, Currys and Candy Crush). It's a really insightful and fun role but you need to be on top of it working for different clients."
It's brilliant to hear how far Amza has come since her time at Coin Street. Thank you, Amza for taking the time to share your story – we look forward to seeing where you go from here!