My name is Faith, and I worked at IPUR as a Communications and Design Intern from June 2024 to June 2025. I come from a background in social media content creation, and have experience in the social service sector. I decided to work at IPUR to learn from its expertise in interdisciplinary risk communication research, which I found both exciting and meaningful.

When I first joined IPUR, I had both professional and personal goals in mind. I wanted to deepen my understanding of risk information, communication, and perception; improve my written communication skills and create content that raised awareness and enhanced understanding of various risk issues. I’m glad to say that, with IPUR’s guidance, I was able to achieve all these goals during my internship.

I had the opportunity to be involved in ideating, designing, writing, and creating a variety of materials—including posters, LinkedIn posts, articles about current projects and events, as well as and pre- and post-production photography and filming.

A significant part of my role was to distill, summarise, and repackage key findings and actionable insights from reports and studies published by IPUR’s researchers. By adapting  the language and selecting appropriate visuals, I helped ensure the content was both accessible and engaging for the public.

For example, I contributed to two insight reports: “Diabetes Perception: Insight Report” and “Getting to Net Zero: Insight Report”. I also wrote articles such as “How the Getting To Net Zero Guide Has Helped Me to Reduce My Carbon Footprint”, and created carousel LinkedIn posts like “How Food Consumption Affects Our Carbon Footprint”.

I had many opportunities to be involved in various projects in IPUR; however the project I’m particularly proud of is the “Mind Over Diabetes” initiative, a collaboration between IPUR and Diabetes Singapore. For this project, I developed several deliverables, including a LinkedIn carousel post: “How Growth Mindsets Support Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes”. The post explains how adopting a growth mindset can help individuals with diabetes or pre-diabetes lower or maintain their blood sugar (HbA1c) levels, and offers practical suggestions for embracing this perspective. This content of the post was was based on findings from this study.

This project also led to an event aimed at raising awareness about diabetes and sharing the Diabetes Perception Report with the public. For the event, I designed three exhibition posters that highlighted key findings from the report, symptoms and complications of diabetes, simple recommended exercises, and ways to adopt a growth mindset for better blood glucose management.

Lastly, I wrote the article “Diabetes Risk: Embracing Facts to Pioneer New Approaches”, which summarises the event highlights and key takeaways from the Diabetes Perception Report. I also filmed and edited a couple of videos which were screened at the event.

Contributing to this project truly deepened my appreciation for how intentional communication can empower individuals to better understand and manage their health.

Before my internship at IPUR, I viewed risk communication simply as sharing information about potential dangers. However, my experience here has shown me that it’s much more complex. Effective risk communication involves understanding how people perceive risks differently and tailoring messages to connect with diverse audiences. It’s not just about presenting the facts, but also about building trust and encouraging informed decisions. My time at IPUR has given me a deeper appreciation of the challenges and the importance of communicating risk clearly and thoughtfully.

Looking back, what I’ll miss most about my time at IPUR isn’t just the work, but the people. My colleagues were genuinely kind, intelligent, and broad-minded, and I always enjoyed our conversations—whether we were discussing risk communication or something completely unrelated. For anyone considering an internship at IPUR, I wholeheartedly recommend it. You’ll learn a lot and also find yourself in a supportive and inspiring team.