Volunteering Awards

It might be easier to list the things Teo hasn’t been involved in, rather than try and list the various volunteering projects she has supported in the year 2021/22, but some of the things most deserving of a mention are her dedication as a Project Leader for the Film & Photography project, the hours put in as Session Leader for Animal Protection, and her involvement with Rebel. She has also logged an impressive 145 hours through her involvement with societies. Teo is someone who spreads her energy and passion across many different projects, dedicating seemingly all of her spare time to a diverse portfolio of voluntary roles. VTeam is happy to call her our Volunteer of the Year 2021-22, and we wish her many success in her future projects!

Holly’s creativity and grace has inspired the Wellbeing Ambassadors and wider campus community. She has enthusiastically supported VTeam’s volunteer recruitment events, and has been known to lead an excellent stall or two in Square 3. She was incredibly dedicated to Wellbeing Ambassador volunteers. Holly always made sure everyone was represented, and she was supportive and kind to all, no matter their differences. She was always ready to jump into VTeam Instagram stories to promote volunteering and support our projects and events, and our team is so glad that her efforts were rewarded with this amazing award!

Sanskar has managed the exceedingly popular and demanding Animal Protection Project with great success, all with fantastic humour and patience. Sanskar has had the opposite problem to most other Communications Officers, in that he had to constantly find ways of letting people down gently when sessions were oversubscribed. He had to put up with many problems and late night emails, but he always made sure each volunteer has the opportunity to express their love for animals! His emails are now stuff of legend - the team in the Activities office particularly enjoyed the custom memes he’d do every week! See it for yourself:

Emily is a truly inspirational leader, and her dedication to the Wellbeing Ambassadors Project has empowered volunteers to achieve new heights. Student nurses are famously some of the busiest students on campus, but Emily chose to dedicate whatever free time she has had to lead one of the most impactful student groups, purely out of fondness for the project and love for her volunteers. It has been a real pleasure to work with Emily in the academic year 2021-22, and her efforts made Wellbeing Ambassadors work with the Sabbs, Women’s Network and many successful societies on spreading the messages about self-love and mental health importance.

The Lend a Hand Project visited the First Stop Centre in Braintree every weekend, helping elderly and vulnerable adults learn basic literacy, numeracy, and IT skills. They have won awards from Braintree council for their work, and the staff from the First Stop Centre have told us that many of their clients are now confident enough using tablets that they are able to keep in touch with their grandchildren - all thanks to the Lend a Hand volunteers. Dakshita and Matt were amazing assets to this project and have ensured that all sessions are of highest quality. The impact they left on the learners is admirable and VTeam is incredibly lucky to have been able to work with these amazing individuals

The CARA Clothes Sale recruited tons of volunteers from various societies and groups to collect donations of pre-loved clothes, and to run a day-long clothes sale to raise funds for CARA - the Centre for Action on Rape and Abuse. As well as raising hundreds of pounds for a vital local charity, the project made us all think about the ethical implications of fast disposable fashion.

This award recognises the positive impact of a single volunteering project that has had immeasurably benefited the wider Colchester community. The Refugee Teaching Programme has been dedicated to supporting Essex Integration to teach English to the refugees and asylum seekers of Colchester, providing an essential service to some of the most vulnerable members of the community. With four online and face-to-face sessions per week, the project has been accessible to all and has provided ample work experience opportunities for the volunteers themselves. None of this would be possible without the cohesive and devoted Project Leader, Gonzalo, Communications Officer, Katherine, and Session Leaders, Carolina, Yijia, Mruda, Isabella and Sofija and this award recognises the work they've all put into making RTP the most community-focused project of the year 2021-22.

Tanyel is one of the most hard working people our Team has ever met. The sheer number of extracurricular projects she threw herself into, alongside her studies and her role in the Student Activities office, was frankly astonishing. In 2021-22, she had an executive role for Futsal Club, volunteered for Nightline and the Wellbeing Ambassadors, and spent an entire day interviewing students in the squares about language and culture -which resulted in the new Cultural Welcome Volunteering Project. She loves to play catch, is never short of a stockpot, and is truly one of a kind!

Stella and Seihee joined the Coding Club project when it was being neglected by the sitting committee members. We had arranged a partnership with a local school, but Activities team staff were having to do the work of the committee on a weekly basis. We put a call out for regular coding volunteers, and one week, these two wonderful people agreed to attend a session. They both quickly threw themselves into making session plans, tailoring content to the abilities of the school pupils, and communicating with us in great detail. They started doing the work of a committee without even being asked, and we are happy to say that they had both became official Coding Club Committee members in the year 2021-22. We feel very fortunate to have been working with them in post.

Angela is someone who has done plenty of volunteering, but is also integral to the day-to-day functioning of VTeam through her role in the student activities office. She is gregarious, passionate, professional and incredibly driven - and we would genuinely be lost without her. Trying to scroll down her Grad Intelligence page to check all the activities that she’s logged hours for seems to take about five days. The only bad thing anyone could possibly find to say about this individual is that it’s very hard to convince her to come out and drink, because she would rather be curled up at home under her blanket watching The Office. She is a true ambassador for volunteering, and a truly awful teller of jokes.

Eden has racked up well over 100 hours in her Communications Officer role in the year 2021-22 alone. We loved seeing her in the Activities office, especially when she'd bring cake (other Comms Officers, please take note ). Eden has received more nominations than anyone else for the Communications Officer of the Year 2021-22 award, but we felt that this person consistently went above and beyond the limitations and definitions of their role in service to volunteering. Her fellow volunteers have described her as showing nothing less than pure dedication, and an incredibly supportive individual. She was always signposting students who needed help to the right services, and generally took her role to another level.