Our Journey Through Discovery, From Volunteer to Employee.
Vimbai
Hi, I’m Vimbai, Discovery’s finance officer and an undergraduate Accounting and Finance student. I help with maintaining the financial administration and reporting needs of Discovery. I also assist with start here interviews, project delivery and fundraising.
I heard about Discovery from a project coordinator during Fresher Fayre, and I started joining the Bay Campus beach clean-ups with my flat mates. I admire the positive impact Discovery has on own community here in Swansea, and with our wide range of projects there is something for everyone. Volunteering with us is a great opportunity to meet new people, help the community and disadvantaged groups, and develop new skills.
My role allows me to help make a difference, gain work experience, enhance my teamwork skills, and I am enjoying learning about charity funding and finance. Which is why I applied for my current role. Carrying out my role whilst being a student has also improved my time management and communication skills.
Megan
Hi! My name is Megan and I’m the newest project worker at Discovery SVS. My role includes supporting our projects, our Project Coordinators, and volunteers to ensure the smooth running of our projects. Alongside coordinating our One-Off Volunteering opportunities as a taster introduction to volunteering.
I first started volunteering with Discovery during my second year of University. I remember the day I entered the office for the first time to be greeted by a flurry of people, keen to share their experiences of volunteering and encouraging words. It was on this day that I started as the Project Coordinator for the RASCALS project. This experience led me to go onto coordinate another project in my third year, alongside becoming the Vice President Student Trustee.
I never truly grasped the impact that volunteering with Discovery had on my employability and well-being until it came closer to the end of my time at University. I had developed incredibly important transferable skills, had plenty of experiences to talk about at interviews and had a wealth of training to support my CV. It was when I was due to graduate that I realised that the worst part about leaving University would be leaving Discovery – it was a horrible thought that I would be no longer part of this warm, inclusive community.
I feel incredibly lucky that the opportunity to join the staff team came along at the perfect time! I’m now able to work for Discovery, whilst developing my skills and knowledge, and learning so much more about the charity sector, the people we support, and the impact that the charity sector has on the wider community. Discovery is such a great organisation to work for as the entire team is incredibly supportive, are keen to see you develop and you get to see the real positive impact that your work has. I hope that within my role, I can provide to others the experience that I had volunteering with Discovery.
Chambers
Discovery throughout my University journey has been the closest representation of home for me, by that I mean Discovery has opened a welcoming community that has made me feel at home. My volunteering journey first started in Zimbabwe, visiting an orphanage where I got to learn more about the children, celebrating birthdays, playing games such as tag or hide and seek.
Though not clear then, as the years have passed, I have now learned to appreciate that my time can be used to make positive differences in the lives of people around me and armed with that knowledge I’ve spent part of my University career dedicating time to volunteer work through Discovery.
Volunteering with Discovery has come in a variety of different forms for me, from community gardens, helping children improve their literacy, to raising awareness about Period Poverty, promoting free sustainable and reusable period care products across schools, Universities, workplaces and more, to fund raising for food banks and reducing homelessness in the UK.
My journey has now led me to being a part of the Discovery team as a Volunteer Recruitment and Communications Support Intern, where I’m now recruiting students and telling them of the positive effects volunteering has had not only for me but for the people and community we support. The role has been a diverse one with plenty of opportunity for learning and training which has allowed me to continually grow in the role.
To become who I’d like to be in life means making choices and though not all the choices I will make will be the right one I am thankful for choosing Discovery all those years ago. With each day at Discovery, I am provided with the right tools needed to motivate, encourage, and lead not only myself but others around me to make changes, positive changes in themselves, positive changes in their communities and ultimately to be the positive change we all would like to see in our world.