Students were able to connect with more than 25 organisations who were present to represent the voluntary, public and commercial sectors, including the University’s Employability and Entrepreneurship Service and Roehampton Students’ Union (RSU).
The University of Roehampton, in association with the Volunteering Wandsworth Groundwork London, this week welcomed students and exhibitors to the Volunteering Fair 2012. More than 25 organisations were present to represent the voluntary, public and commercial sectors, including the University’s Employability and Entrepreneurship Service and Roehampton Students’ Union (RSU).
The RSU are currently promoting ‘RU Inspired?’ which aims to inspire students to get involved with the many exciting volunteering opportunities available at The University of Roehampton. As part of the initiative students have taken part in ‘Make a Difference’ (M.A.D.) one-day volunteering projects. These projects aim to make volunteering more accessible to those trying to juggle their studies, part-time work or family commitments but also to make volunteering more fun and rewarding.
Donna Jarvis, RSU Volunteering Intern, said that the response thus far from students about the projects has been incredible.
“Most of the students that are getting involved have never volunteered before. Our goal is to get them inspired by these types of one-day events in hopes that they continue to go on and do more volunteering with local organisations”, she said.
Katie Staddon, second-year Education student at Roehampton, has participated in all of the M.A.D. projects and remarked how exciting it was to see a wide range of students attend the volunteering fair and begin to get involved in charitable work. “At the end of the day, if you’ve got some free time, there’s no bigger gift than giving it to someone in need. The best feeling in the world is to see a smile on someone’s face and know that you’ve had an impact in their life.”
Students who attended the fair were able to speak with a wide range of exhibitors and also seek out information to support their progression to employment following graduation.
“With the volunteering fair and the one-day M.A.D. projects, it was really important for us to work with local organisations so that we could begin to really build a relationship with them and hopefully get students involved on a regular basis as they see the rewards of volunteering”, Donna said.
For more information on participating organisations or how you can get involved volunteering please contact Donna Jarvis.
In addition, the Employability and Entrepreneurship Service also provides support and services to Roehampton students and can help with improving your CV and volunteering requirements. For more information, contact them at Employability@roehampton.ac.uk.