Celebrating our volunteers
Last week, Victoria University of Wellington celebrated the student volunteers who make change in our community as part of this year’s Student Volunteer Week—a national campaign run in conjunction with Volunteering New Zealand to recognise the contributions of volunteers and to encourage students to give volunteering a go.
Our student volunteers give generously to our services and to the wider Wellington community. To celebrate their work, and to showcase the range of opportunities to get involved, staff and students hosted events across the week and shared stories of our volunteers who are making a difference and sparking passions that can shape their career path.
The inaugural Science Volunteer Network Evening was hosted to thank volunteers who support research in the Faculty of Science. Associate Professor Gina Grimshaw from the School of Psychology spoke of how her first taste of volunteering as a high school student in Canada sparked a life-long passion for scientific research and mentoring young researchers. Professor Grimshaw was followed by her first volunteer in New Zealand, Dr Hazel Godfrey, who went on to complete her PhD and is now a lab manager at the University, and Lucy Goulden, one of Dr Godfrey’s current volunteers, bringing together three generations of volunteers who are now passionate researchers and mentors.
Students also got stuck into volunteering across the week, with students from the University’s halls of residence participating in over 11 volunteering opportunities organised by Volunteer Wellington. Students gave their time to support a number of Wellington organisations, including keeping residents company at the Huntleigh Rest Home, stacking shelves at Wellington City Mission, repurposing textile waste at Vinnies Re Sew, and cooking up a storm in the Compassion Soup Kitchen.
Students had the opportunity to share their volunteer journeys on the University’s student blog, myView. Ben Linstone and Nina Hogg, who established a grass-roots environmental club in their first-year hall, and volunteers from Vic Plastic Diet, a club dedicated to reducing plastic waste on campus, shared how their volunteering is contributing to kaitiakitanga (environmental guardianship)—the theme of this year’s Student Volunteer Week. Students also shared their volunteer experiences in science research labs, as outreach mentors, international English teachers, and at the University’s Disability Services.
To recognise the important work of the University’s Māori and Pasifika students’ associations, students from the Pasifika Students’ Council and Ngā Taura Umanga, the Māori students’ commerce association, took over the University’s Instagram account for a day, celebrating the student executive members and mentors who volunteer their time to support the success of Māori and Pasifika students.
Thank you to everyone who helped recognise and celebrate our student volunteers. Here’s to an even bigger celebration in 2020.