Four students at the University of Cambridge have received Gold Awards from Student Volunteering England for their dedication, achievement and leadership in voluntary activity. The presentation of the awards takes place as part of National Volunteers’ Week 1-7 June.

Sachi Findlater was given her award for her dedication in organising numerous Cambridge-based and national training programmes for Engineers without Borders UK.

This student-led charity focuses on removing barriers to development using engineering. Their programmes provide opportunities for young engineers in the UK to learn about technology’s role in development and to go on practical placements in developing countries.

Sachi is a fourth year Engineering student at Downing College, and is now National Training Co-ordinator for Engineers without Borders UK.

Rachel Gottschalk, a clinical medical student at Emmanuel College, was recognised for her dedication to the Contact student visiting service.

Her nominator reported that during nearly 3 years as a volunteer with Contact, Rachel energetically pursued every task offered, was dedicated to visiting the older lady she was matched up with and never missed helping with the termly parties for older people. She was also a key member of the management committee of Contact for the last year.

Cecily Morrison received her award for leadership in setting up a new project, Women @ CL Outreach, to encourage more young women to study computer science, and to pursue careers in this area.

Cecily is a PhD student at Darwin College, and after taking part in the University’s Rising Stars public communication training scheme, she decided to continue her outreach work by arranging communications and outreach training for other female PhD computer science students, and organising schools’ visits both to and from the Computer Laboratory.

Ellie Nalson, a fourth-year student at Jesus College, received her award for achievement in transforming the Bounce! project run by Student Community Action this year.

Volunteers on the Bounce! project work with disadvantaged children to give them experiences that they would not normally have access to such as climbing, archery, volleyball, football and swimming.

Some of the children involved have learning, behavioural or physical disabilities and so need a bit more help to get involved. Ellie made contact with a number of disabled children’s charities to identify new clients with great success.

Dr Kate Pretty, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, made the awards on behalf of the University and said, ‘It is inspiring to learn of the achievements of these volunteers, who have dedicated significant time to volunteering at the same time as studying. We congratulate them on the community benefits brought about through their voluntary activity.’

The local judging panel at the University of Cambridge for the awards were Dr Pretty, Dr Rob Wallach (Committee on Community Activities), Ian Steed (Humanitarian Centre), Susan Smith (Student Community Action), Nicola Buckley and Emma Wenborn (Community Affairs).

Staff have also had the opportunity to find out more about volunteering this week with a workshop held in partnership with Cambridge Volunteer Centre and the Council for Voluntary Service.

The workshop explored the wealth of opportunities available and how to use skills learnt inside and outside the workplace to help benefit or direct a voluntary organisation.

If you would like to search for volunteering opportunities, please visit the links on the sidebar.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.