Celebrating student volunteers

27th Feb 2010

How suc­cess­ful has the Guild’s vol­un­teer­ing week been? Stephanie Har­vey talks us through the successes

THE Stu­dent Vol­un­teer­ing week which ran from 22nd-29th of Feb­ru­ary is nearly over and it’s time to assess the value of vol­un­teer­ing within the com­mu­nity: how it pos­i­tively con­tributes to the expe­ri­ence of being a stu­dent, whilst enhanc­ing career oppor­tu­ni­ties, net­work­ing and research prospects in a range of poten­tially lim­it­less areas. The Uni­ver­sity of Birm­ing­ham has a fan­tas­tic and long-established net­work of exter­nal vol­un­teer­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and a wide vari­ety of student-led projects run by the Guild of Stu­dents. In Semes­ter one 2,020 stu­dents were reg­is­tered as vol­un­teers, who gave 12,562 hours of vol­un­teer­ing for dif­fer­ent projects. With over 30,000 stu­dents, the Uni­ver­sity  has no short­age of poten­tial vol­un­teers, and with over 300 dif­fer­ent vol­un­teer­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties avail­able for stu­dents, there is some­thing suit­able for any field of inter­est. Med­ical research even reveals the exis­tence of health ben­e­fits to vol­un­teer­ing, which include an improve­ment in the adverse symp­toms of insom­nia and a strength­ened immune sys­tem – mak­ing it worth­while for your gen­eral sense of well being too.

It’s now gen­er­ally accepted that employ­ers favour grad­u­ates with a wealth of skills devel­oped and demon­strated through their par­tic­i­pa­tion in var­i­ous uni­ver­sity extra-curricular activ­i­ties. From soci­etal to vol­un­teer work, the skills gained by these activ­i­ties, required by so many employ­ers, are both fun­da­men­tal yet eas­ily neglected abil­i­ties – for exam­ple good organ­i­sa­tional, inter­per­sonal and man­ag­ing skills. Among 200 of the UK’s lead­ing busi­nesses, 73 per cent of employ­ers would employ a can­di­date with vol­un­teer­ing expe­ri­ence over one with­out. The vol­un­teers them­selves are aware of the value it is giv­ing them as 94 per cent believe it can add to skills – and 94 per cent of vol­un­teers who had vol­un­teered to learn new skills had either ben­e­fit­ted by get­ting their first full-time job, improv­ing salary or being pro­moted within their exist­ing job. Vol­un­teer­ing is also an excel­lent net­work­ing oppor­tu­nity that could lead you into your ideal career.

An inter­est­ing report by Vol­un­teer­ing Eng­land revealed that stu­dents at higher rank­ing uni­ver­si­ties had higher rates of vol­un­teer­ing than those of lower rank­ing uni­ver­si­ties. Vol­un­teer­ing rates are high­est among those from minor­ity groups, in par­tic­u­lar eth­nic minor­ity groups, stu­dents with dis­abil­i­ties (22 per cent of stu­dents with a dis­abil­ity vol­un­teer) and those with car­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties. Also some­what sur­pris­ingly, degrees such as Med­i­cine and Den­tistry reported the high­est rates of vol­un­teer­ing with lin­guis­tics and cre­ative arts sub­jects below aver­age – this may reflect that those study­ing directly people-orientated sub­jects are more likely to want to work with peo­ple or may have more oppor­tu­nity to vol­un­teer through their stud­ies. Over­all the stu­dents that are most active in extra-curricular activ­i­ties are most likely to volunteer.

Posi­tions as a Stu­dent Rep, RA, Guild Coun­cil­lor, non Sab­bat­i­cal Offi­cer and work for a soci­ety can all qual­ify as vol­un­teer­ing hours. There are also student-led projects such as Help­ing Hands, who pro­vide teach­ers with invalu­able sup­port in some of the most under­funded class­rooms with chil­dren with severe intel­lec­tual dis­abil­i­ties. Department-based projects, such as Teddy bear hos­pi­tal for Med­ical stu­dents, offers the oppor­tu­nity for one-to-one con­sul­ta­tions with chil­dren in order to increase con­fi­dence for stu­dents, whilst reduc­ing child­hood anx­i­ety about hos­pi­tals and doctors.

Achieve­ments for vol­un­teer­ing are cel­e­brated by com­plet­ing vol­un­teer­ing timesheets, which are rewarded by cer­tifi­cates, prizes and attend­ing events such as the Guild Awards in March.

James Sheen, on the com­mit­tee for Kids Adven­ture, high­lighted the dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tion many projects face, say­ing: ‘in order to func­tion as a project, we need to raise £20,000 this year’. As a small group with added pres­sures of stud­ies, such a respon­si­bil­ity could eas­ily become over­whelm­ing. How­ever, through ded­i­ca­tion and grow­ing num­bers of vol­un­teers, it is pos­si­ble to ensure that these projects can con­tinue doing what they do. But what is vol­un­teer­ing ulti­mately for? An arti­cle pub­lished in Vol­un­teer­ing Eng­land Mag­a­zine quotes Rose Mar­tin, a stu­dent at the Uni­ver­sity of Birm­ing­ham who vol­un­teers with Kids Adven­ture: ‘In my vol­un­teer­ing expe­ri­ence I have met many chil­dren who come from des­per­ately cor­ro­sive back­grounds, some of whom have behaved very abu­sively towards oth­ers, and all of whom have taught me a great deal about love and care. Know­ing them has cemented my sense that pos­i­tively nur­tur­ing chil­dren changes lives, ours as well as theirs.’

Although vol­un­teer­ing is about, to an extent, invest­ing in our­selves whilst also help­ing oth­ers, the true impact of vol­un­teer­ing goes far deeper, and it is about cre­at­ing a bet­ter world for our chil­dren. VPSAD Emma Pack­ham added, ‘Vol­un­teer­ing is fast becom­ing an essen­tial part of the stu­dent expe­ri­ence; not only is it fun, but it allows stu­dents to give some­thing back to the com­mu­nity. It also allows them to develop their skills and really stand out from the crowd.’

To get involved in vol­un­teer­ing through a sup­port­ive and prac­ti­cal envi­ron­ment head to the Stu­dent Devel­op­ment counter in the base­ment of the Guild where the vol­un­teer­ing assis­tants will be happy to answer your ques­tions and find you a suit­able opportunity.

To read inter­views with Stu­dent Vol­un­teers click here:

http://www.redbrickonline.co.uk/features/interviews-with-volunteers/