Sheikh Momin is currently in his first year of a Medicine degree at UCL. This year, he has volunteered with the UCLU Bangla Society’s Mentoring Scheme. They’ve been working with British-Bangladeshi students from Tower Hamlets in their first year of A-Levels, advising about prospective university applications.
How often do you volunteer?
The Bangla Society project started in the second term and has run for six weeks, with a week’s break for reading week. The sessions were only an afternoon a week. Being a medical student, I have a busy schedule, with long teaching times, but I think the key thing is time management – as I managed to fit in this project as well as other society events along with my work. Scheduling goes a long way!
What do you do as a volunteer?
My role in this project is as a mentor; we have a group of 8 mentors and 8 students, and all sessions are carried at out at the students’ school. A typical session would be split halfway between group discussion on a particular topic relevant to university of careers – such as the how to pick the right course and university, or solving the puzzle of the UCAS form – and the other half of the session would be one-to-one contact between each mentor and student. Students are paired with mentors who do the same, or similar subject to the one they wish to apply for – so I am paired with a girl who wants to apply to medicine. The one-to-one contact usually involves me asking about her general welfare, how her studies are going and then usually going on to talk about various facets of a university – and particularly – a medicine application. She, like all students, is full of questions and I try to answer them as fully as I can. I constantly tell her to keep working hard and stay focused on getting into medical school, which she seems to respond to.
What were your first impressions when you started volunteering?
I had already volunteered extensively before entering university, unlike some of the other mentors, so I felt reasonably relaxed before the first session began and gave advice to some of the other mentors. At the beginning of the first session, the students were alert and engaged with everything the mentors were saying. Thus we were able to built trust and rapport with them almost immediately.
How do you feel about it now?
I feel satisfied and rewarded because the students’ initial enthusiasm has carried on to all of the sessions. They have always seemed to be aware of how beneficial the project could be for them in the future and so attached importance to the sessions, which makes the effort that we give seem worthwhile.
What’s the best thing about volunteering?
People often avoid volunteering because it does not pay, especially in a place like London. But the scope of opportunities available in volunteering is incredible, and these projects offer a unique way to bring you into contact with different people from all backgrounds, and it is truly incredible to see their perspectives on life in comparison to yours, as well as extremely rewarding to know that your effort has made a difference – even if it is to one person.
And what’s the most challenging thing?
Sometimes it can seem harder to motivate yourself to go to all of the mentoring sessions, for example, if you know that it is ‘only’ volunteering, but I have never regretted going to a session at all. Aside from that, the challenges lie with the volunteering project itself – it can be hard to motivate my student if they seem uninterested, for example – but you quickly develop methods to engage their interest and overcome other such obstacles.
How has volunteering changed you?
It has definitely made me a more rounded and understanding person, and has massively improved my confidence and communication skills. It has taught me not to treat others with pre- (and usually mis-) conceptions and the various challenges that I have been faced with during my volunteering has made me a good problem solver and improved my tactfulness. The presence of other students has also been great as I have made good friends and have been able to seek their advice and opinion when required.
Would you recommend the project to anyone else?
Although this project was initiated by the UCLU Bangla Society and is working with British-Bangladeshi students, this does not exclude UCL students from other backgrounds from working in the project. The experience of the project has already been described, but the real benefits of participating in the project are really felt when working in the sessions and providing one-to-one advice to students. As the type of volunteering is mentoring, anyone who is looking to go into the education sector would definitely benefit from the project as a way of interacting with school students and the school environment.