It has now been nearly one year since I completed my Internship at The Bishop’s Palace. I have stayed in touch with the team since and I occasionally volunteer every now and then when I’m home for the holidays. Seeing this blog continue to grow and develop has been fantastic, and I was delighted when Siobhan asked me to write a new post about my personal journey since finishing my Internship.
During this academic year I have served as Volunteering and Community Officer at Winchester Student Union, a part-time role in addition to my studies as a second year History student. The role has given me a variety of opportunities to enhance some of the skills I developed during my Internship, as I have been responsible for putting together various volunteering teams for a number of projects. One example includes setting up an initiative called the Faculty Community Ambassadors Scheme. At the University of Winchester, students and academics are divided into four main Faculties; Arts, Education, Humanities and Business. For this project, I recruited undergraduate volunteers to form a team of ‘Ambassadors’ for each Faculty. Each team was responsible was planning an event to raise money for a charity of their choice, with the event (hopefully) taking place at the end of the academic year if all the necessary logistics could be prepared in time. During the process, the Ambassadors and I learned a great deal about planning, budgeting and resource management. As the coordinator of the scheme, I also developed my skills in team leadership, as I had to consistently monitor the progress of each Faculty Team, and make sure the volunteers were comfortable with the planning requirements of their event.
Separately, I organised a number of other initiatives to raise awareness of the value of volunteering and community action to students. This included; helping to coordinate the 2019 Student Volunteering Week campaign, setting up a donations appeal to support Trinity Winchester, a local homeless centre, as well as coordinating the Volunteering and Community Champions Awards, a pilot event between the University, the Student Union with support from some external organisations.
As I was only elected to serve a one-year term of office, I will be leaving my role at the Student Union in July. However, the experience of being a Volunteering Officer, combined with my time shadowing Siobhan at The Bishop’s Palace, has made me convinced that becoming a Volunteer Coordinator is something I want to pursue for a career post-graduation. During my third year, I will be taking on a new position as coordinator of LinkAges, a project led by Winchester Hub. My role will be to help with the recruitment, training and dispatching of student volunteers to a variety of intergenerational activities that are designed to tackle elderly isolation. You can find out more about the LinkAges project by clicking here: www.winchesterhub.org/activities/linkages