Alumni Quentin Patrouillard shares Collaborative Dissertation experience in virtual event
Alumnus Quentin joined Ashley Gray, Learning Partnerships Manager who leads the Collaborate programme, for a virtual catch up to give an insight into his experience undertaking the Collaborative Dissertation.
Quentin graduated two years ago from our MSc Sports Business and Innovation programme. As part of the Dissertation module, Quentin chose to take part in the Collaborative Dissertation pathway, as he wanted to utilise and apply the different areas covered as part of his master’s degree.
The Collaborative Dissertation is completed over a three month period during your studies and Quentin had a clear and strategic approach of what he wanted to focus on within this dissertation. He narrowed down his plan to three top companies he aspired to collaborate with; Decathalon, Redbull and Adidas. Quentin funnelled this interest through the Future Space team, knowing how imperative the team would be in the process of supporting with skills and insights to navigate networks and building relationships with industry contacts and indeed following previous collaboration with Decathlon, were able to guide him towards successfully proposing his dissertation idea.
In this event, Quentin mentions that each student develops their own strategy of of how to move forward with their dissertation, however his personal approach was to absorb as much information as possible throughout the process, whilst keeping a primary focus on the internship opportunity. His dissertation explored the concept of sport platforms using corporate social responsibility.
Quentin also highlights that he experienced his own personal development through the Collaborative Dissertation and that he found success in physically writing down your goals, developing an action plan and executing.
Quentin wrapped up the virtual event by emphasising the importance of networking within organisations and shared a final piece of advice to our student community:
"Always follow up. Follow up leads, follow those you want as mentors, follow companies and their journeys – every social media platform has a follow button; utilise it. These follow ups can really open doors. For me, it was about narrowing down all of those doors but knowing there are a million other doors out there and I just need to keep knocking them down one by one until I find the perfect door for me."
Our Future Space team are renowned for their networking, connections, and industry partners. The team are dedicated to supporting our student community gain the skills and experience they need to excel in their chosen career paths. As the UK’s best university for connecting students to employers (QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2020), our team presents students with numerous opportunities to utilise our diverse network of connections around the UK and globally.
To read more about the Collaborative Project, please visit this web page.