Shining a light on graduate volunteers - Joel

Student Volunteer Week is a National UK wide celebration and promotion of student volunteering.  Today we’ll be sharing volunteer stories from Aberystwyth graduates and how volunteering benefited their next steps. The first graduate article is from Joel Adams.

What are you doing now after graduating?
When I first left university I joined a graduate training program in Finance and worked as a Software Developer for Bank of America for a few months. I soon realised that it wasn’t the right sector for me so I found another job down in Southampton working for a small tech company called Filament AI. 

How did you volunteer your time as student?
When I first went to uni I didn’t expect to be volunteering much of my time at all. I didn’t actually realise I was doing it until I’d gone to a few events! It came naturally because I enjoyed doing photography during my free time and wanted to develop my skills further. I started volunteering during my second year when I found out that the students union was looking for people to help at events so I got in touch with Wojciech, the student union president, and asked if they wanted some photographs of the events. Next thing I knew I’d photographed several events including the Women’s Superteams event!

I was student representative for the Department of Computer Science for every year that I was at Uni, helping improve the department where I could and resolve any issues that students  might have with their course.

As covid began to come into play at the end of my second year I realised that my third year would probably be online and would mean that I wouldn’t be seeing many people in person anymore. At the time a few of us student representatives had a Discord server which we used as a chat room to discuss issues within the department. I realised that we could repurpose this server as one that could also be a home to students to chat and relax during their free time. The server slowly grew in popularity until we had over 2/3 of the current student population. I then thought that it might be a good idea to let the lecturers in so that the server could provide a good place to create dialogue or discuss any issues students might have with their courses. After about 4 months we had the entire department on there with over 800 users! We also realised it might be a good idea to expose the server to alumni so that they could potentially reconnect with their friends and give advice to new students. After I’d been moderating and helping to grow the server for over a year I was awarded the Academic Community Champion Award by the Student’s Union. 

How did volunteering benefit you during your time at Aberystwyth? 
Volunteering at university was probably one of the best decisions I made. It helped me in a myriad of ways both during my time at uni and afterwards. At uni it helped me become one of the go to photographers for events which resulted in a part-time job at Pier Pressure as one of their nightclub photographers. It helped me secure many paid gigs such as society dinners and dance balls. 

After uni it helped me boost my CV greatly and stand out among other candidates. It showed confidence, perseverance, willingness and a strong motivation to help others.  It has definitely played a big factor in securing my job. It also greatly boosted my confidence when it came to photography and working with people I had never met before. 

What is your best feel good moment as a volunteer?
I really enjoyed all the events I managed to capture but my favourite has got to be when I photographed the Women’s Superteams event. What made it stand out was the fact that there were so many different events going on at once such as water polo, long distance, running, etc. What it really gave me was the opportunity to photograph moments when groups of friends were all working together and having a fun time messing about. Just so many smiling faces and great reactions from people. 

What advice would you give to those who are looking to volunteer?
My best advice would be to volunteer your time for things that you find interesting, whether that is photography, supporting others in your community, helping the elderly, or anything else it’s important that you find your niche. You’ll always enjoy the time that you spend volunteering and you’ll meet other people who feel the same about it too! Also remember that everyone that’s volunteering is probably in the same boat as you so use it as an opportunity to make friends.