I currently work as a Student Success Tutor at Teesside University and support students by providing bespoke, 1:1 mentoring in areas such as time management, confidence building and academic and writing skills.

This role requires not only the academic qualifications and pastoral skills needed to support students during their studies, but also the empathy and understanding to really want to make a difference.   

Ten years ago, while studying for my BA History at Teesside University (from 2011-2014), I applied to volunteer with two charities through volun-tees, Maire Curie Cancer Care and the Alzheimer’s Society. I decided to volunteer because both charities were close to my heart and I also wanted to gain experience in public relations and fundraising at the time.

Volunteering gave me the confidence to apply for other placements and opportunities. After volunteering with the two charities, I conducted a 6-week placement in an archive organised by the careers team at Student Futures and then went onto gain a placement at BBC London, most likely because I already had lots of experience in research, office administration and communication.

I truly believe that volunteering also gave me the edge when applying for postgraduate funding opportunities too, as it showed that I was pro-active and willing to get involved with projects that were beyond the focus of my studies.

I would say that there was no typical day in either of my volunteering roles and I was lucky enough gain a range of experiences and training. My volunteering tasks included fundraising at local events, writing press releases, taking promotional photos, planning and attending charity walks and talking to members of the public about the aims of the charities. As part of my work with the Alzheimer’s Society, I got the chance to work at their local office and enjoyed meeting other staff and volunteers and gained experience of working in an office environment.

While I did not pursue working in the charity sector or public relations and fundraising, working with two charities most certainly awakened an interest in helping people and having a career with a greater purpose.

The best part of volunteering was meeting new people and feeling like I could make some kind of difference by spreading the word about the work of the two organisations.

I think students in SSSHL in particular can gain so much from volunteering as they can apply their skills in writing, critical analysis and communication to so many different environments. Volunteering also gives you the skills and confidence to try new things, meet new people and perhaps even make a difference to the lives of others.

I used other services within the wider Student Futures team, including the Careers Service and discussed career plans and postgraduate study opportunities with the team.