UWS Student Volunteer Briefing Session Report

On Tuesday, 19 July 2011 The Centre for Volunteering helped organise a Student Volunteer Briefing Session at the University of Western Sydney (UWS). It is hosted for the benefit of UWS students who are either members of the Aspire Future Leaders program, enrolled in the Advanced Business Leadership degree or recipients of a university-funded academic scholarship.

At UWS, they believe that student volunteers can make a significant contribution to the community by giving their time and sharing their skills and expertise with others. All students in these programs are from Western Sydney communities and have opted to participate in a volunteer project to continue to give back in some way to their community through community service and volunteering.

During the briefing session the students attended inspiring and informative talks by representatives from a variety of not-for-profit organisations including:

• Anglican Retirement Village
• Bicycle NSW
• Best Buddies NSW
• Midnight Basketball
• Chasing Rainbows
• The Centre for Volunteering.

The Centre wishes to extend a big thank you to all the presenters for their invaluable contribution to this event.

Thank you also to Kristy Scott, Scholarships Marketing and Program Coordinator at UWS for her continued efforts in promoting and supporting student volunteering at UWS.

The feedback received from the Student Briefing was phenomenal and reinforced its value:

"Thank you to the Centre for Volunteering for facilitating an enlightening session on volunteering for our students at the University of Western Sydney. We heard from representatives from a range of organisations with volunteer opportunities to help our students really make a difference to the western Sydney community. This is a great opportunity for the students to use the skills they have learnt in their courses - as diverse as computing, health, marketing, education and law – to help groups within the community that can really benefit from their time and effort". Kristy Scott

"I'm 19 years old now and from as young as I can remember I have always felt my best and most fulfilled when I was helping others and giving back to the community." Law student

"David [Fisher-Dobbin, Development Manager, The Centre for Volunteering] I just wanted to sincerely thank you so much for attending the University of Western Sydney and speaking to us yesterday. I was one of the students there yesterday and on behalf of everyone who attended yesterday it was such a pleasure to of had the opportunity to meet somebody of your calibre and someone with a heart as big as yours. The fact that you have spent 33 years helping others and volunteering is absolutely admirable and you are nothing short of a hero to us all." Law student