Hugo, a final year Law student here at ARU answers a few questions about volunteering and his experiences as a student volunteer.

 

Hugo at a recent interview about his volunteering with Cam 105 radio station.
 

Q. What organisation are you volunteering with?

A. The Cabinet Office

Q. What is your role within the organisation and what are your main duties?

A. Regional Team Leader for East Anglia. I have a wide variety of duties. My primary focus is on finding amazing local volunteering initiatives and carrying out studies on their work, we will present our findings at Downing Street in the summer. Further to this, if it is feasible I will aim to help them further their initiatives in any way I can. My secondary role is more focused on leadership. I am responsible for keeping the CO up to date with all of our activities. Furthermore, I am responsible for co-ordinating the East Anglia team. This involves a high degree of correspondence and planning as in the absence of direction it is up to me to create a plan of action for the rest of the team to follow. My leadership role means I have to deal with all the administrative issues of the initiative as well such as setting meetings and deadlines and liaising with the CO about any issues we have such as problems with the emails.

Q. What do you enjoy most about your volunteering role?

A. This position has given me the ability to meet fantastic new people and really get to know just how amazing some people in the UK can be. Reading [the newspapers] can lead one to believe that there are a lot of bad things happening but being part of this initiative has helped me offset that negativity by being able to see just how selfless people can be!

Q. Which skills have you used and learnt during your volunteering role?

A. The main skills that have been tested and developed by this role are my leadership, administrative, presentation, coordination, organisation, awareness and team working skills.

Q. Who does this volunteering role help to benefit and how do you achieve this?

A. This would depend on how much we are able to help develop other volunteering initiatives. In the past, the work done by this initiative has helped develop schemes that have reached thousands from different demographics.

Q. What are your career aspirations and how will this volunteering role help you towards your ambition?

I hope to become a solicitor. The legal profession is renowned for doing pro-bono work and I hope to be able to provide my services to those who really need it in the future without having to charge them. It is perhaps selfish and a little cliché but there is an immense sense of self accomplishment to be gained from helping others.  If there is something that you can do for someone else, especially at such low cost to yourself, you should do it.

Q. How has the volunteering service helped you in your volunteering journey?

A. They put me in touch with the right people and have been supportive throughout! Couldn’t have asked for more.

Do you volunteer alongside your studies? Are you a course rep, trustee, committee member or community volunteer? Want to tell us a little bit about yourself? Email us and we can get your interview put online!

Photo Credit: In The Spotlight via photopin (license)