We spoke with Yasmine Kelkouli, a 1st year BSc Politics and International Relations student, about her volunteering experience as a volunteer with Speak Street!
Would you be able to introduce yourself and the volunteering that you've been doing?
My name is Yasmine Kelkouli and I'm a first year BSc Politics and International Relations student.
I had done some volunteering in high school and wanted to continue my volunteering journey. I went through the UCL Volunteering website and I found Speak Street, which is a volunteer organisation that conducts weekly English sessions for refugees to help them enhance their vocabulary, skills, and just overall help them with their English.
What is an average volunteering session like for you?
I help run the sessions on Zoom with other volunteers and teachers. Each week we have a different theme that relates to the topic. For example, we had Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. It’s just to help them gain knowledge on British culture.
In each session, first we have a mix and match activity where we match an image to its name. There’s a lot of practice and here the teachers are mainly holding conversation, asking students to talk, and just practicing speaking.
Then we're divided into groups. I’ll be put in a breakout room with 3-6 students, depending on the session. Here we watch a video about the topic and engage in discussions. During these discussions, we try keep it around the topic, but we sometimes go beyond and talk about personal experiences, anecdotes, and everything. I find this the most interesting thing about the experience because I really get to see their stories and see them as individuals!
These discussions are very meaningful to me because I also learn from them. Even though my role is to speak and to help them practice their English, during these sessions I find myself to be more of a listener than a speaker. Even though I'm the one who has to push them to speak and to make them learn new vocabulary, sometimes I just sit down and listen to them speak about their stories. I just love this aspect about the volunteering experience.
Then we’ll go back to the general room with the other volunteers and the teachers, and we just discuss what we talked about in the breakout rooms.
Did you find it easy to sign up for volunteering?
Yes, the support has been amazing. I found Speak Street on the UCL Volunteering website. To sign up, I just had to email them. I told them what I wanted to do, and they just asked me for a CV. Then we had a little 5-minute session about what the volunteering was going to be like.
Not even a week later, I got to be part of be a part of this! It was very easy and very helpful.
Has there been a particular highlight of your volunteering experience?
I love how at the end, when I ask if they have any questions or anything, they're all just so sweet and thankful. Just this feeling of gratitude – I can't stop smiling even thinking about it! The feeling of contributing and just having a little impact is amazing.
Even if I’ve had a bad day, every single time after these sessions I just come out happy and smiling. I feel like I benefit from it too.
It has also been interesting because one of my modules this year has been about refugees. I was learning about the reasons why refugees have to flee, their journey, and how the resettlement works. So I felt like I was really able to apply what I was learning to what I was experiencing through this volunteering.
Have there been any challenges at all that you've come across?
Just some minor challenges. For example, not everyone participates. Especially because everyone is on Zoom, not everyone has their cameras on. You just have to learn how to manage everyone speaking. Other than that, there are sometimes just Zoom difficulties, like sharing the screen. But to be honest, everything goes perfectly most of the time!
Is teaching something that you want to continue in the future?
It wasn't something I planned or was looking to do. But now that I’m doing it and experiencing it, it makes me think, why not?
The feeling I get after these sessions is just amazing. So if it's like that every single time, then of course I want to continue!
Would you recommend volunteering to others?
Oh yes, I would definitely recommend it. First of all, it's so convenient. As students, we don’t always have a lot of time. But because this volunteering is on Zoom, it’s just so easy. Even during the Christmas break when I’m not going to be in London, I can still volunteer because it's all on Zoom.
The connection to people and the social impact that you have is also just so valuable – not only for them, but for you also. The sense of accomplishment you get is almost indescribable. I know it sounds a bit cliche, but it's really what I feel. When I see them being happy, like writing on their notes when they learn a new word, it's just such an amazing feeling.
I'm so glad that I found this organisation because I feel like I have a purpose. I have little role in helping them in this new life.
I just don’t see any downsides to it – I recommend it to everyone!
Thank you to Yasmine for sharing her experience with us! If you are interested in also volunteering with Speak Street, you can sign up as an Online English Support Volunteer.