How helping others can help you

To mark Student Volunteering Week Georgia Paton, a former student at the University of York, shares her experience of volunteering for Action Medical Research and how it helped her gain vital skills for her new role as a community fundraiser for a leading national charity…

During my time at York, from getting involved in societies I discovered a love of publicity and events and somehow ended up as RAG Officer for 2014-15. I absolutely loved being RAG Officer, putting on awesome events and working with University of York Students' Union staff and some dedicated committee members. I was lucky enough to attend the 2014 RAG Conference, where I first encountered the amazing Action Medical Research!

Action impressed us so much with all of their domestic challenges and telling us all about the then-soon-to-be-released Paddington movie, in addition to all the incredible work they have done over the years into childhood illnesses and treatments. When I got an email about the work experience opportunity with them I jumped at the chance and encouraged my committee to do the same. After all the fun I’d had with RAG I knew I wanted to go into the charity sector and this opportunity allowed me to gain more experience, boost my CV and work with a really worthwhile and established organisation.

As a volunteer with Action Medical Research I had the chance to work with a great variety of the amazing team that make up Action and was involved with several different events all over the country. I helped out with both the Trossachs PLOD and the Trossachs Ton ride in Scotland, two intense outdoor challenges; I also helped out with Gig in the Garden down in Suffolk, the York 100 ride, a cycle challenge that is held from the University Sports Centre, and the 2015 RAG Conference. I helped with setting up and clearing down, registration, stewarding, sometimes social media, and being part of the welcoming team for participants after the challenges. Each event held their own challenges and rewards and thus I gained very different experiences from each one.

The rewards from volunteering for Action have been so numerous and valuable. Helping with such a range of events, experiencing the challenges and the thanks from participants reinforced my determination to follow a career in the charity sector and provided me with a massive amount of experience I can fall back on and draw lessons from. Everyone I worked with was so supportive and hardworking; it has been very eye-opening.  Hopefully I was of use to Action in return for all I gained from this opportunity.

I would most certainly recommend this experience to anyone wanting a future in events or the charity sector. It is such a great way to get a range of experience you may not be able to gain elsewhere. As I said before, everyone at Action was so supportive and wants to help you help yourself through working with them and their events.

If you’re interested in the volunteering opportunities we provide, you can find out more at action.org.uk/support-us/volunteering/university-fundraising