Get out there and volunteer!
Andy Yu tells you to get out there and help. Now.
Welcome to Imperial: a place to get educated, entertained and inspired, a place to make new friends, discover new hobbies and build your skills for the future. One way of being inspired and discovering life outside of the College campus is to volunteer with IntoUniversity.
We met with Alex Ho who is a 4th Year Medical student and volunteered with IntoUniversity last year.
IntoUniversity is an organisation which supports children from disadvantaged backgrounds to discover their full potential. It offers innovative programmes to help pupils improve their academic performance, and to give them opportunities to make educated choices about their future. These activities are co-ordinated in partnership with the College Outreach Office.
Alex told us that she ended up volunteering as a mentor for over a year, though initially she was just looking to work with young people as this was something she had not done previously.
“Volunteering at IntoUniversity allowed me to meet people I would never have crossed paths with otherwise and I really hope that my mentee and I stay in touch for a long time to come. I learnt that as a mentor you have to be a teacher, a role model and an advisor but most importantly a friend. This is because to be an effective mentor, it’s really important that your mentee feels comfortable and enjoys working with you.”
Volunteering with IntoUniversity did, however, present challenges to Alex who said that “the hardest part of the job was maintaining the right balance between being a friend and a mentor, with a young person who may be looking for you to support them in their school work, social life and future plans. It’s important to gain their trust whilst also sometimes maintaining a respectful distance.”
Although volunteering is a commitment and requires a lot of juggling between one’s studies and other life priorities, it is something Alex would definitely recommend to other students. “The need to set aside time to volunteer actually helps you to organise your schedule – IntoUniversity are also a really supportive charity who are doing some great work, so get involved while you can!”
She continued “working with my mentee was a great experience and made a pleasant change to my week. You forget how many unknowns there are at that age, sometimes with no one to ask, so hopefully with the support from IntoUniversity our mentees will feel in a better position to make the right decisions for themselves and their futures. Working at IntoUniversity also made me think about my own future... perhaps in paediatrics!”
IntoUniversity provides training to help volunteers to participate in an appropriate programme. The dates of those events can be found on Union’s calendar as well as on the Imperial College Volunteering Website http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/volunteering/howtovolunteer/intouniversity.
