"It's really fun all around!"

Would you be able to introduce yourself and the volunteering that you've been doing?

I'm Sarah. I'm a first year BA Education Studies student and I'm originally from Singapore. Back in Singapore, I volunteered weekly as well in a sports organisation. I wanted to continue something similar, and also wanted to have something to do in London that would let me meet new people as well! 

Right now I'm volunteering for ReachOut which is an organisation that helps to mentor youths in primary and secondary school. I'm attached to a primary school in East London, working with Year 5s. 

What is an average volunteering session like for you?

One afternoon a week, I head over to the primary school with some other volunteers and then we spend 2 hours there with the kids. The first hour is spent working on academic stuff, like helping them with their writing, maths, and science. The second hour is character hour, which is a lot more fun for them! It's all about building character strengths and we’ll do activities like a fashion show using recycled materials. 

We have a project leader from ReachOut who is in charge of planning the sessions and organising all of the activities. As mentors, we just work with one or two students. We help them through the activities on the day as well providing a bit more guidance if our mentee needs it. 

How did you first hear about the opportunity?

I think I saw an email from the Education faculty asking if anyone wanted to sign up. I thought that since I had a lot of time on my hands, I should try and volunteer!

What has your volunteering experience been like?

I’m having so much fun! Not just meeting the kids that I work with, but meeting other volunteers too. There’s quite a strong community of volunteers from UCL – about 5 of us in total. I get to meet students from other London universities too. We get to chat about university, and it's really fun all around!

Have there been any like challenges that you've come across throughout your volunteering?

I think there have been some challenges because I'm an international student. For example, the way the curriculum is run in UK is a little bit different compared to Singapore. Sometimes I will try and teach maths or science the way I was taught and the kids won’t understand at all. It was difficult at first, but I was able to ask the other mentors for help in those cases. 

Would you recommend volunteering to others?

Of course! I would highly suggest volunteering.

I do understand that for some students it can be a little bit difficult, especially for something like ReachOut where they expect a minimum 80% attendance. It can be hard if you're juggling societies and university as well. But even if you’re not able to volunteer weekly, the UCL Volunteering website always has one-off opportunities, which I have volunteered at before as well. They are always really fun and interesting too!

There are so much good opportunities to just meet new friends, try something new, get active and just get out there! I feel like that's really the best part of volunteering.

Thank you to Sarah for sharing her experience with us! If you are interested in also volunteering with ReachOut, you can sign up as a Volunteering Mentor.