Time flies really fast. I could still feel how nervous I was when composing the very first blog for Lorna & the student blog team’s selection. I have done many great things over this year and volunteering with Imperial Plus is definitely one of the highlights of my life. It started off when I attended the volunteering fair some time after the beginning of the year. I have done many different kinds of volunteering jobs ever since high school. When I first started to volunteer, it was purely to lighten up my CV to be honest. However, the more engagement I gave to that cause, the more satisfied I feel from the outcome. Therefore I went to that fair because I know I want to do more volunteering works to make my life more colorful. Link to Imperial plus
Teaching someone has always been my passion and an interest. Thus I’ve chosen to work as a Pimlico Tutor (With Pimlico Connections), a Imperial hub Tutor, and an educational mentor (With Salusbury World). As you can see, I’ve clearly taken too much for my own good. Eventually I stayed with Pimlico Connections till the very end (around April).
Pimlico connections has been working at Imperial with local London schools since 1975. A long history almost guarantees the rich experience condensed over a long time. Indeed, this service provided by the Imperial College Union is quite reputable and the sixth form faculties have been very cooperating and friendly to us. My job as a Pimlico tutor was to tutor Biology to a group of A-level students who have been ‘short-listed’. It was rather an unique experience as they were quite unlike the Chinese students I’ve known back home. They were less focused on the class itself but more about chatting with their friends all the time. It indeed posts a great obstacle to my teaching. After discussion with my fellow tutors (Joe and Iro), we’ve decided to change the way of tutoring and discussed this with the school faculties. This results in more students show-up in the sessions. We would give them questions sheets and go through them afterwards along with some relevant information being mentioned. Teaching them A-level Biology was also a great way of revising the stuff we’ve learnt several months ago. It also helped us with our current University course to some extent. It was a great experience after all despite some hick-ups with the student and staff about the student turnout rate. I would suggest you to give it a try. If you don’t enjoy it, just drop it. Remember you need to feel fulfilled and happy after the tutoring. If it can’t do that to you, then it would be meaningless to work at that place. It takes place every Wednesday afternoon for about 1 hour. Link to Pimlico Connections
Salusbury World provides you with the opportunity to tutor a student 1-to-1. This organisation endeavors to help students from the disadvantaged backgrounds. You might be tutoring a refugee child, or a recent migrant. I was paired up with a students at his AS level. The sessions were quite relaxing. We’d chat about University life and some tips about University application. He would give me some questions (e.g. maths) that he couldn’t solve and I will work through that question with him. You generally don’t need to prepare as much as you do for Pimlico connections. And the lady in charge of this program, Violeta, was very friendly and enthusiastic about the works that She does. I would suggest give it a try and reach out to her at the volunteering fair. I’m sure you won’t regret it. The only issue is the travelling bit as that school is a bit far away from the South Kensington campus. Make sure you planned your time wisely. Link to Salusbury World
Imperial plus does a good job at investing in the volunteers. By attending workshops, top-up volunteering hours and workshop summary write-up, you would receive a volunteering certificate of the hours you set. And this certificate is recognized by ASDAN as your personal ability training (Such as Personal effectiveness and organisation skills).
That would be all from me. Again, leave your questions in the comment box and I will reply ASAP. Summer ball tonight! 😀
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