If you think students spend all their spare time avoiding studying, going out with their mates and having a good time then you'd be right. Well our student bloggers do anyway. While they assure us they don't slack on the study, they've got a lot to answer for when it comes to enjoying themselves while volunteering.

All | Emma | Oli | Daniel | Carrie | Olivia | Fiona | Sammy | Ashley | Rochelle | Natalie | Tom | TomG | Harry

Monday Oct 06, 2008

Eye-opening experiences so far

Hello I'm Harry, (Stev, Stev-o or Steve to my mates, or 'curly' if you are that drunk at the bar last week) and I'm studying Law at Sheffield University, just starting my second year. I hail from the delightful seaside town of Scarborough, where I've spent the majority of my life: living with my parents and taking the time to avoid over-exerting myself in my studies. Now though I live in Sheffield, and I'd like to try a bit harder with my work, so we'll see how that one goes.

I started volunteering a couple of years ago after watching a BBC documentary on Homelessness (I think it was called 'Evicted.' ) and finding myself with lots of spare time and little to do. At the end of the film they advertised the site www.do-it.org.uk and ever since then whenever I've had lots of spare time and little to do, I come to this site and see what I could be doing, which is part of the reason why I am writing this blog right now.

I began by delivering newspapers round my local hospital for the WRVS which got me over my fear of lifts and hospitals at the same time, and then I began training as an advisor for the CAB. Both experiences were eye-opening in different ways – offering the Scarborough Evening News to mothers holding their (literally) new-born babies was a particularly comical experience – especially when they bought one. I'm still training to become an advisor now (largely due to laziness) and I'll be coming face to face with my first clients this Christmas. I hope.

What I love about volunteering is getting to do things that I wouldn't really think of doing, or wouldn't be encouraged to do as part of a 'real' job. I have also met some brilliant people through volunteering and so for me it is definitely a two way street - I enjoy helping others a lot, but I also get a lot out of volunteering myself - so I'm never going to pretend that I'm some Mother Teresa figure of self-sacrifice.

Anyway, I'm back in Sheffield for the next academic year (having spent most of the summer in Scarborough) and I have begun volunteering for a local radio station – Sheffield live 93.2 FM – and I'm also looking for another opportunity, perhaps volunteering in a local scheme similar to TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), but I guess I'll be writing about that later on anyway.

That's the boring bit about me out of the way; hopefully I'll be able to write at least some things of interest in the future.

Harry. 

Posted by Harry ( 4:23 PM )
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