Back to the Bubble

This weekend I’m off to Warwick University for the first Team v residential.  Enthusiasm has been building since the warm-up day which gave us an opportunity to meet the 100-strong crew of Team v leaders, but I have particular reason to be excited about where it is being held.  I graduated from Warwick Uni just over two years ago, having spent four years of my life as an undergraduate there.  I loved my time there and haven’t been back to the university campus (or the ‘bubble’, as it is affectionately named due to the detachment from reality you feel when you’re there for more than a few days) since graduation so it will be brilliant – if a little surreal – to return as a... ahem, mature, non-student.   

In my third year of uni I was lucky enough to be on the youth advisory board for vinspired, then called v20.  Being on v20 undoubtedly changed my life.  I met some incredible young people who were unbelievably inspiring and I came to realise that my passions lay in helping others.  Having volunteered since the age of eleven on various projects both in and out of school, I suppose I always knew this, but suddenly it dawned on me that you can make a career out of it without being a teacher or a doctor.  The voluntary sector doors had finally swung open and I could see the range of opportunities out there as an employee, not just a volunteer.  Now I’ll admit I haven’t managed to get a foot on the ladder yet, but by throwing my efforts into volunteering for numerous different organisations and gaining experience in various areas, I’m acquiring the skills, experience and contacts to stand me in good stead (hopefully) for a brighter future. 

I had to work hard for my degree.  I’m not the type of person who can skip lectures, roll into an exam after a late night, leave the exam an hour early and go home with top marks (not that I’m bitter) but during my time as a student I managed to dedicate time I wasn’t in lectures/writing essays/stressing out to a few projects, inspired by my involvement with v20.  This ranged from assisting the Volunteer Co-ordinator at a Community Venture on a weekly basis to teaching English and Maths for one month in Rajasthan, India.  In 2009 I received a Warwick Advantage Award for my work with v20, recognition of the time I had committed to volunteering whilst at university.  So for a little of my time I got a lot in return. 

 

I hope my experience shows that whether you’re in college, uni, or a full-time job, if you spare a little time to help others, you’ll soon realise you’re also helping yourself.  Volunteering with Team v is a fantastic opportunity to develop your skills, meet new people, and you might even discover a career path you had never considered before.  Not bad for a few hours of your time, hey? 

Email Lucy.Dean@vinspired.com if you’d like to find out more about Team v Derby City.       

The power of volunteering

This summer I was very lucky to get a job working on one of the most exciting events in the East Midlands as part of the London 2012 cultural olympiad.  Joining the stage management crew, I was involved in the three outdoor shows which took place in Loughborough, Northampton and Derby.  The show itself remained the same at each location but the volunteer participants were from the areas we performed in respectively, meaning there was a real sense of community amongst the cast.    

Games Time was a colourful choreographed battle with incredible costumes, performed by people of all ages (from individuals to dance schools and community groups), with giant video projections, pyrotechnics, and the best fireworks displays I have ever seen. 

The main reason I was offered the position was because of my experience volunteering.  When I was in my final year of secondary school I did a week’s work experience at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod – an annual festival of international music and dance in North Wales.  After a shaky start (running around the field in the pouring rain, wearing uncomfortable shoes and lugging a silly amount of chairs here, there and everywhere) things picked up and I enjoyed the week.  So much that I went back.  For the next seven years.  Committing one week per year to being a stage manager of a small outdoor stage gave me a fantastic understanding of working on outdoor performance, communication and people skills, organisation, problem solving and smiling in the face of adversity (mostly weather-related!).  Without this experience I would never have been considered for the role on Games Time and I would have missed out on an incredible opportunity. 

Volunteering can be whatever you want it to be.  Do something you love – I’ve always been interested in the arts so that’s what I put my time and effort into.  And eventually it paid off.  It certainly doesn’t guarantee a job, but there’s no doubt that the skills I gained, the people I met and the experiences I had combined to give me a good chance of being taken seriously as a candidate for this type of work.  

I’ll never forget the goosebumps I felt watching the final Games Time fireworks in front of over 16,000 people as I thought about the hard work everyone – the volunteer participants, the professional artistic team and crew – had put in.  Seeing people from all walks of life come together, giving their time to weeks of rehearsals to create an exciting free event for the people of their community was truly magical.  

For me, that’s the power of volunteering.  And if Team v Derby City can achieve anything like a small scale version of this sense of community cohesion then I will be a very happy volunteer. 

 (Photo credits – my Dad)