Why did you choose to volunteer?
I decided to volunteer with CodeYourFuture because I loved their mission: providing free tech training to people from disadvantaged backgrounds (such as refugees, single parents on low income etc.). When I attended one of their volunteer welcome events, I was positively surprised by the variety of volunteering roles available as a CYF ambassador, from NGO outreach and student recruitment to working on their social media content.I immediately thought this was not only a good way to give back to my local community, but also to learn various new skills!
What have you enjoyed most during your time as a volunteer?
I definitely enjoyed meeting new people and feeling part of the CYF community. While my entire volunteering experience has been online so far, I have been working collaboratively on tasks with other volunteers since I first joined the CYF Glasgow team in September last year. It’s been such a great way for me to boost my motivation levels during the lockdown periods, as I had frequent interactions with my team members and felt like my contribution was useful.
How much of an impact do you feel your volunteering has made?
The great thing about being a volunteer at CYF is that, even if you’ve just started out volunteering with them, you can participate in so many discussions and put your ideas forward. I’ve always felt like my impact was not just limited to executing tasks (which is of course important), but that I could also suggest new ways to do things, whether it was suggesting new organisations to contact, or offering to write a blog post as a way to reach out to new potential partners.
What would you tell a student who is thinking about volunteering?
I would say to start volunteering even if you have very limited time available, because a lot of volunteering opportunities (including CodeYourFuture) allow great flexibility in terms of weekly time commitment. Also, don’t feel like you don’t have enough skills to be of any help: there is a lot of training provided and there are also loads of volunteering roles which just require you to be friendly and show a positive attitude.
If you could sum up your volunteering experience in one word, what would it be?
Rewarding!