Now that it's almost the end of term (gasp), we thought we'd give you a run-down of everything the Volunteering Service has been getting up to the past few months to ensure you had the best volunteering experience possible. We've been busy behind-the-scenes to make it all happen, and we're excited to share this blog with you - along with some amazing pictures!
We started off Welcome with a bang as we held our four taster One-Off events, where our volunteers got stuck into some local community projects, which over 55 of you attended!
From cleaning up our local rivers…
to helping at a taster technology session…
from de-weeding a local garden…
to redecorating a community cabin…
Volunteers got a great insight into the variety of volunteering opportunities that we offer, got to explore London, and managed to achieve some amazing things in their local community – all in the space of a few hours!
One of our most monumental events during the welcome period were our Volunteering Fairs, where you got to talk to some of our wonderful partner charities and organisations face-to-face. We wanted to have something for everyone, so we not only held our Big Fairs but also our specialist fairs, ranging from our Health Fair...
...to our Sustainability Fair!
As always, the atmosphere at all the fairs were buzzing and we were blown away with the sheer enthusiasm and amazing turn-out of UCL students! Our New Year Fair is on the horizon, so stay tuned for further updates!
Speaking of updates, we also revamped our weekly newsletters into one, handy bulletin every week, giving you all the latest news and opportunities. If you’re not already subscribed to our newsletter, you’re definitely missing out! Make sure you sign up to stay in the loop.
As you may know, we’re always looking for new and innovative ways to get you inspired to volunteer, so we created the One-Off Ambassadors programme. This means that you can attend One-Off events with our own fabulous UCL student representatives – because we know it’s always better to go with a friend! If you spot their logo on any of our One-Off events then you'll know they’re attending. To get a feel of what it’s like attending a One-Off event, our Ambassadors wrote an amazing blog piece on their experience and it's a must-read!
With over a thousand UCL students already into the swing of volunteering at our One-Off events, Ongoing roles and Student-Led Projects, it is a testament to the hard work and dedication they've put in. A huge thank you to each and every one of our volunteers!
If you're still not convinced that volunteering is your thing, here’s some live-action shots of our volunteers getting stuck in:
Our Student-Led Project Spectrum doing a fundraising walk in the best way possible - you can read about this event here!
Students at our One-Off event Endometriosis Research Conference helping to make sure the event ran smoothly - you can read about this event here!
Our volunteer tutors at CoachBright, where our students are inspiring young minds - read about their achievements here!
And our amazing St. John Ambulance volunteers cheering on runners at a Half Marathon!
If these pictures have got you feeling some serious FOMO, don’t worry, we have plenty more volunteering opportunities in store for you next term – just in time for when you make your New Year resolutions!
Written by Yasmin Gulay - Volunteering Administrative Assistant.