Mya is a first-year student studying Human Sciences at UCL. She took part in UCL's first ever Charity Consultancy Challenge, which ran over the course of one-week back in June. She told us about the skills she gained from it and how she and her team managed to create a period pad from water hyacinth in such a short time!
Tell us a little about your volunteering
I was part of the Green Shoots Foundation project in collaboration with Stop the Shame. The central focus of our project was making a sustainable sanitary pad for use in Cambodia, where the charity is based.
In Cambodia they have an abundance of a plant called water hyacinth. Even though this plant is a pest, we were trying use it as the main material of a biodegradable period pad. The idea behind this was that there is plenty of access to water hyacinth and it’s affordable to the locals in Cambodia. As a result, we used the water hyacinth along with beeswax, activated charcoal, and other locally available natural resources to make the sanitary pads.
We made a few prototypes that weren't successful before coming up with the final product. Some of our initial attempts resulted in products which were inflexible and would therefore not be ideal for use. We then had to rethink how to increase flexibility and went through several prototypes changing different elements until we created our final proposition.
How did you find out about the role?
I was looking on the UCL website for anything consulting-related as I am interested in pursuing a career in this field. I was also a member of the UCL Consulting Society, and I made a few friends from that who also made me aware of the opportunity.
Why did you want to become a volunteer?
As I said, I want to pursue a career in consulting, but I haven't had any consulting experience. Consulting work experience is not widely available for first-year students so I thought the challenge would allow me to gain some insight into the world of consulting and enable me to see whether it is the correct career path for me.
What difference do you feel you've made by volunteering?
Throughout the week, we successfully managed to develop a prototype of the period pad, which the charity hadn't been able to do before. We made quite a significant impact because having a product means that the charity can now apply for funding for the product from different organisations. This brings them a step closer to distributing the products in Cambodia.
What impact has volunteering had on you?
It gave me good insight into the area of consulting and made me realise that it is a field I want to work in in the future. Additionally, through doing charity work, I felt it was a worthwhile way to spend my time whilst also enhancing my consulting skills. Hearing about the potential impact that our volunteering will make on locals in Cambodia was also highly rewarding.
Throughout the experience of commuting to Brixton in order to go to the workshops where we were developing the prototypes, our group got a taste of what it would be like to work as a consultant in the real world. It felt as though we had stopped being students for a week!
The volunteering has also well-equipped me for a professional working environment through enabling the development of keys skills including communication, presentation and team-work. Members of our team also exhibited leadership roles according to our individual strengths, for example, I took charge of assembling the final presentation.
What's the best thing about volunteering?
Arguably the best thing during the challenge was getting to work with people from so many different cultural and academic backgrounds. The process of coming together to solve problems helped us to play to our strengths in order to successfully develop a prototype despite the limited timeframe we were given.
And the most challenging? How did you overcome the challenges?
As well as the variety of people being one of the highlights of the week, it also poses certain challenges. This was because everyone in the group had their own individual ideas and suggestions, and everyone was trying to lead. We overcame this challenge by splitting our team into three subgroups according to our strengths.
The first group was conducting a life-cycle assessment. This detailed the science behind the materials we were using as well as addressing any issues or safety concerns that may have arisen. The second group focused on the culture in Cambodia and the final group were physically creating the pads. All subgroups worked in close correspondence to ensure that groups were aware of what other groups were working on.
Tell us about something memorable that's happened to you whilst volunteering
I think all of our group would agree that the most memorable moment was when we finally successfully developed the final prototype of the pad. This was truly a rewarding moment as it felt as though the whole week and all of our effort had cumulated into a single product. Being able to see it come to life felt as though we were actually creating an impact within the charity.
Would you recommend volunteering? If so, why?
I would recommend the Consultancy challenge. It was an excellent opportunity to get out of my comfort zone in order to present to an audience. We also gained valuable problem-solving skills from working with different people and listening to different perspectives. In addition, we also learnt the importance of maintaining a relationship with clients and ensuring we delivered what they wanted.