KUSU Volunteer blogs about London Student Volunteering Fortnight 2012!

KUSU Volunteer Amanda

“Hi my name is Amanda and I’m a 3rd year Biomedical Science student at Kingston University. I recently took part in a One-Off Volunteering opportunity - a Rhododendron Clearance at Kingston Hill campus during ‘London Student Volunteering Fortnight’. One-Off Volunteering is great because even if you have a really busy schedule you can still find the odd opportunity to volunteer.

Rhododendron bushes are an invasive species which outcompete native plants, reducing the biodiversity of the area. The aim of the event was to clear them away and improve the campus woodland environment. I absolutely loved the prospect of getting my hands a little dirty and it was enormously amusing to hear everyone shout “timber” every time a rhododendron bush was chopped down. I must say I was fully pumped for a good day of tree pruning but guess my surprise when a few worms popped up where we were working for a visit - I’m not very fond of worms!

Volunteering is great fun. It’s a wonderful chance to meet new people, use your free time to get involved, gain new experiences and make a contribution to your community. KUSU Volunteering reimburse your volunteer travel and lunch expenses, plus volunteering always looks good on your CV. It doesn’t get any better!”

Blog by Amanda Dandagama Mudiyanselage

As well as the Rhododendron Clearance, students took part in several other volunteer taster events as part of London Student Volunteering Fortnight (LSVF). Students learnt how to knit hats for babies in neonatal units in hospital, as well as helping build and paint a labyrinth for the community to use! Check out the pictures on the KUSU Volunteering Facebook page.

Kingston students and London students also took part in six other volunteering projects across the capital, making friends, helping others and boosting their CVs. More details on these projects can be found on the LSVF website.

Missed out on LSVF? Don’t worry, KUSU Volunteering can help your enjoy volunteering opportunities all year round - have a look at the KUSU Volunteering website. We’ve also got National Student Volunteering Week coming up at the beginning of February, so keep your eyes open for that too!

Best wishes,

Jemma Houghton and Alex Britton

KUSU Volunteer Coordinators

LSVF2012 is coming....

“So, what’s a Labyrinth?”

“Isn’t that a book by Kate Mosse?”

“I thought Kate Mosse was a supermodel...?”

The rest of the KUSU staff look confused, as well they might. We’ve just been explaining what our plans are for LSVF 2012, and this year they include something quite unusual.

LSVF stands for London Student Volunteering Fortnight. It’s a special event just for students in London, and the idea is that lots of different universities put on “taster sessions” of volunteering, and anyone from any of those universities can go to any of the sessions- so a student from Kingston can go to a session put on by UCL, and one from City University can come to Kingston.... it’s a great way to try volunteering and meet students from other universities, get to see different parts of London and try something new. It’s been running for a couple of year now, and has been a great success (check out the photos of what happened last year).

The famous Labyrinth of Chatres... come and make ours look as beautiful!

So where does the Labyrinth fit in? Well, we know you guys are busy people, so we’re also planning sessions on Campus. One of these is going to be a Labyrinth-building session. Labyrinths have been used for thousands of years by people from all over the world from Ireland to China, Scandinavia to India, crossing cultural and religious boundaries. The idea that walking a path round it gives you time to think and reflect, make decisions, and exercise the puzzle-solving parts of our brain. Because it’s circular and unending, and it’s something everyone can do, it’s also come to represent inclusivity and community- which is why it’s perfect for volunteering. As part of London Student Volunteering Fortnight, we’re going to be holding a Labyrinth building workshop- everyone can volunteer to paint a stone to help build a beautiful thing for the community to use, and we’ll be inviting local residents and youth groups to come and try it out too.

If you’d like to get involved, you can just show up- it’ll be taking place in the Quiet Room (next to the Prayer Room on Penrhyn Road campus) from 6^th -8^th November.  Bring your friends, classmates, lecturers, housemates.... if you live locally you can bring your neighbours and family!

If you want to exercise your creativity, we’ll also be knitting hats for babies in neonatal intensive care units in hospitals the day before the Labyrinth building (5^th November 12 noon-2pm in the KUSU Offices), or if you prefer outdoors work, we’ve also got a day of conservation work clearing invasive Rhododendrons at Kingston Hill campus on Saturday 10^th November.

 If you fancy something off-campus then there are lots of other events happening across London- painting schools, gardening for older people, marshalling a half-marathon: check out the events listing on the  LSVF blog for more details and to book.

Right, time to go and order a very large dust sheet and an awful lot of knitting wool.... 
Alex Britton and Jemma Houghton
KUSU Volunteer Coordinators 

Bloomsbury Festival 2011

As part of London Student Volunteering Fortnight KUSU Volunteers again headed into London to volunteer at the wonderful Bloomsbury Festival. Our Vice President Communications Lucy was there on Saturday to capture a video of events and Catarina who volunteered on the sunny Sunday reports on the second day of the festival. 

Rajan, Catarina, Christina, Emma and Maria at Bloomsbury!

 

Bloomsbury is located in central London, an artistic and cultural place where you can relax and enjoy a nice cup of coffee while reading a book or listening to some music. The Bloomsbury Festival started in 2006 and has been happening every year since then. The volunteers are essential to making this event work. Important tasks were given to KU students during the festival, such as helping with walking tours, giving directions and information to visitors, distributing flyers and filling out feedback sheets. Among this, KU students also helped to clean up Russell Square after the festival was over.

The volunteering for the event was divided into two shifts. The Sunday shift was occupied by five KU students. Emma Lindner, a third year Law student from England was part of the team of volunteers last year. She described the festival as a ‘mixture of music and art’ where ‘the atmosphere is really amazing.’ 

The team of KU volunteers included students from Nepal, Portugal, USA and Greece. Christina Hutchinson, an undergraduate student from New Jersey said, ‘We don’t have this kind of festival in America, where everyone is so friendly.’ She fell in love with the music around her and confessed, ‘Would be great to have an event like this in Kingston!’

‘As a volunteer, I really enjoyed helping others explore the treasures of arts and culture in this beautiful area of London’, Maria, a second year student from Greece said. Like Maria, many other volunteers felt the same way. The Bloomsbury festival will be back in 2012 for all of those who appreciate art, culture and music.

London Student Volunteering Fortnight 2011

Its all over for another year!  October 22^nd to November 4^th saw KUSU Volunteering taking part in London Student Volunteering Fortnight.  This is where London Universities get together to organise a range of volunteering sessions open to any student at any of those uni's.

You can find out what other universities got up to by checking out the LSVF 2011 blog to see photographs and write-ups on some of their events.  

Big Woodland Workday

Kingston contributed to the fortnight by working with the BritishTrust for Conservation Volunteers and Kingston University Bio-diversity Action Group to organise a Big Woodland Workday at Kingston Hill Campus. Our hard working volunteers got their hands dirty digging out rhododendrons, bashing brambles, creating wood piles for insects to thrive in and even donned waders and got in the pond to sort out the reed problem! They made a huge impact in making the woodland a better place for wildlife in just a few hours! 

During the fortnight volunteers also made their way back to the Bloomsbury Festival in central London for a great two days spent making the experience of visitors to this lovely festival even more awesome. We were joined by students on both Knights Park and Penrhyn Road campuses to make Kite’s for Women’s Rights on behalf of Amnesty International and just like during Student Volunteering Week the staff from the International Youth Art’s Festival joined us at Knight’s Park to explain why getting involved with the festival is a great thing to do. Video to follow soon for those that missed it!

Finally there was the Olympic Torch on campus on the final Thursday.  Photos from all our events can be found on Facebook. Big thanks to all those that got involved in activities both in Kingston and across London!

 

Future Flames Tour Comes to Kingston!

Coinciding nicely with London Student Volunteering Fortnight the Future Flames Tour came to Kingston University Students’ Union today. This meant an opportunity to have your photograph taken with the actual Olympic Torch! Several regular KUSU Volunteers came down to take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity.

Students queue for a picture with the torch!

The torch was here because of Future Flames, a dedicated search to find inspirational students to carry the Olympic Flame during the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay. The last day of the tour is tomorrow at Kings College London but nominations will be open until December 20^th. A great opportunity for all the hard working student’s who volunteer.  To find out more about the Future Flames campaign check out the NUS website.