Red Cross Blogs

A Call to Arms

By Anna Carter
October 8, 2009 at 3:04 pm

I am currently involved in mobilising the masses in the name of HIV awareness. The specific masses that I am seeking to mobilise are students. It is that time of year when thousands of bright eyed young people across the land begin their academic journey. The path toward academic greatness is strewn with fast food packaging, interrupted by early morning lectures and late night bar crawls, questionable eating habits are picked up along the way, as well as a comprehensive knowledge of daytime television scheduling and an over reliance on caffeine. No stereotypes to be found here-oh no. Amidst this crazy journey to enlightenment it is also possible to squeeze in some valuable volunteering. That’s my story at least-and I intend to stick to it.

 

My student days provided me with some amazing experiences; I lived in a beautiful city, studied a subject that I loved, met other people who were as excited by Chaucer’s prose as I am (no really-they were), received outstanding academic support and made friendships that have survived long after the stress of finals had subsided. It was my time as a volunteer that really broadened my experience as a student and provided me with a perspective that can not be gained solely from keeping your nose buried in a book (or twelve).

 

Volunteering was a habit that I had before I went to university and, like most habits, it has stuck. It was an important one to pick up as I believe it enhances my ability to do the job I have now and allowed me to gain new skills. So, if you are going to pick up any habits those of you out there in student land a volunteering habit, I would argue, is one of the better ones to pick up.

 

I am reacquainting myself with student life in an attempt to recruit student as school speakers. Students are ideal for this role as they often have a flexible time schedule and can use the experience to practically demonstrate some of the theory that they are learning through their studies. Building a network of student speakers across the area will increase our capacity to deliver informative and innovative sessions to school pupils in our area. Volunteering as a student provides the opportunity to meet new people, develop skills outside of the lecture hall and build up your CV for when you start to look beyond the university walls and into the world beyond.

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Tags: HIV, school speaker, student, university, Volunteering

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Health and social care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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