Bournemouth University Public Relations student, Dina Omarova was announced the winner of the Media Communications placement award on 3 February 2016.  Dina has been awarded for her outstanding contribution to her thirteen month placement at the BMW MINI plant in Oxford, UK, where her role within the organisation was external communications intern.

Kazakhstan-born Dina, 21, started her degree at Bournemouth University in 2012, where she has flourished as a committed student. Dina has a passion for education and creativity, which has been carried through to her placement at MINI. Through these skills and winning the placement award, there is no doubt that Dina has a successful PR career ahead of her.

Dina’s responsibilities included collecting coverage for MINI and dealing with sponsorship requests; as well as press release writing and organising events. Her biggest achievement involved working on the BBC’s Building Cars Live Show in October 2015 with renowned Top Gear presenter, James May. Upon receiving the award, Dina said “I am so happy to have won this award! My placement was scary at first, because I was the main point of contact for stakeholders after my manager left and there only were a few of us in the office. However, I loved it and I would do it again!”

Debbie Hall, placement adviser and judge, said, “This year we’ve had the most entries to date, and Dina should feel proud of her outstanding contributions to MINI. This award will truly help to kick-start her PR career in the motor industry.” Dina was awarded with a certificate as well as £100 Amazon vouchers.

Read more placement stories from the Department of Corporate & Marketing Communications